Skeleton Musician (Calavera Mariachi)

This life-size skeletal figure of a Mexican musician is an example of contemporary folk sculpture that grew out of traditional toy making practices. For some generations the Linares family in Mexico City created papier mâché toys for use in seasonal festivals such as Carnival, Holy Week, the Day of the Dead, and Christmas. In the mid-1950s Pedro Linares was introduced to the graphic work of the famous Mexican satirist, José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), who portrayed all aspects of Mexican society through a humorous guise of skeletons, or calaveras. Linares identified with Posada's ideas and began translating his images into three dimensional forms. With the help of his sons he started creating large calavera portraits of known political and social personalities to be blown up during Holy week or featured as sculptured decoration during the Day of the Dead festivities. The Linares family also started producing life-size multi-figured calavera groups portraying scenes from everyday life of Mexico in the late 20th century. One of their favorite subjects has been mariachi musicians, as seen in this example. Here Pedro's second son, Felipe, has raised the craft of papier mâché to the level of an ultimate art form with incredible detail in the shaping of the material as well as the decorative painting and added accessories.