The Paper Art of Mexico
Papermaking is an ancient craft in Mexico. In pre-Columbian times deerskin, tree bark, and agave or maguey fibers were fashioned into forms of paper used for painting codices, or pictorial manuscripts, for religious or historical purposes. The library has examples of these codices dating from the post-Conquest period.
Some of these papermaking skills have survived today and are to be seen in popular art as well as in healing rituals. Paper called amate from the bark of mulberry and fig trees is made in the area where the states of Puebla, Hidalgo, and Veracruz meet, most notably in the town of San Pablito, Puebla. The mulberry produces a whitish paper, while the paper from the fig is dark. Men of the village peel the bark from the trees, but the women actually make the paper. The bark is washed, boiled in a large pot for several hours with ashes or lime, then rinsed and laid in lines on a wooden board. The fibers are next beaten with a stone until they fuse together into paper and are left to dry in the sun. The high demand for amate paper has resulted in the over-stripping of trees and even the poaching of bark.
Much of the amate paper goes to villages in the state of Guerrero where artisans who once decorated pottery, now paint imaginative scenes of everyday life, fanciful birds, animals, and flowers on this special paper. Such paintings of varying quality are produced in abundance for the tourist trade. Some works are signed, and occasionally a gifted artist may gain considerable recognition for his work.
In San Pablito amate paper is used by shamans for making cutouts of spirit beings associated with the sky, the earth, the underworld, and water for curing and fertility ceremonies. The shaman will bring them to life by breathing unto their mouths, holding them in the smoke of incense, or sprinkling them with alcohol. A vast number of seed spirits of fruits and vegetables are used to encourage good crops. These cutout figures in dark and light shades of amate are sometimes mounted and sold to tourists and collectors or even made into accordion-type books that explain the mystical ceremonies. Besides amate paper, ordinary tissue paper-cutouts of the spirits are also employed in rituals and books and provide an accent of color.
Tissue paper is the basis for another art form, the papel picado, in which multilayered sheets of colored paper are cut out from a pattern to make banners. These popular banners are ordered for local festivals, birthdays, or home decorations, and may depict flowers, leaves, birds, angels, crosses, names, or anything specified. Increasingly the banners, such as those in this exhibit, are made to represent skeletons in an infinite variety of activities and are sold for the Day of the Dead on November 2. Originally the papel picados were laboriously cut out with scissors, but now the artisans use sharp chisels to cut through as many as 50 sheets of tissue paper from a basic pattern, with the flexibility of changing their designs from day to day.
Some of these papermaking skills have survived today and are to be seen in popular art as well as in healing rituals. Paper called amate from the bark of mulberry and fig trees is made in the area where the states of Puebla, Hidalgo, and Veracruz meet, most notably in the town of San Pablito, Puebla. The mulberry produces a whitish paper, while the paper from the fig is dark. Men of the village peel the bark from the trees, but the women actually make the paper. The bark is washed, boiled in a large pot for several hours with ashes or lime, then rinsed and laid in lines on a wooden board. The fibers are next beaten with a stone until they fuse together into paper and are left to dry in the sun. The high demand for amate paper has resulted in the over-stripping of trees and even the poaching of bark.
Much of the amate paper goes to villages in the state of Guerrero where artisans who once decorated pottery, now paint imaginative scenes of everyday life, fanciful birds, animals, and flowers on this special paper. Such paintings of varying quality are produced in abundance for the tourist trade. Some works are signed, and occasionally a gifted artist may gain considerable recognition for his work.
In San Pablito amate paper is used by shamans for making cutouts of spirit beings associated with the sky, the earth, the underworld, and water for curing and fertility ceremonies. The shaman will bring them to life by breathing unto their mouths, holding them in the smoke of incense, or sprinkling them with alcohol. A vast number of seed spirits of fruits and vegetables are used to encourage good crops. These cutout figures in dark and light shades of amate are sometimes mounted and sold to tourists and collectors or even made into accordion-type books that explain the mystical ceremonies. Besides amate paper, ordinary tissue paper-cutouts of the spirits are also employed in rituals and books and provide an accent of color.
Tissue paper is the basis for another art form, the papel picado, in which multilayered sheets of colored paper are cut out from a pattern to make banners. These popular banners are ordered for local festivals, birthdays, or home decorations, and may depict flowers, leaves, birds, angels, crosses, names, or anything specified. Increasingly the banners, such as those in this exhibit, are made to represent skeletons in an infinite variety of activities and are sold for the Day of the Dead on November 2. Originally the papel picados were laboriously cut out with scissors, but now the artisans use sharp chisels to cut through as many as 50 sheets of tissue paper from a basic pattern, with the flexibility of changing their designs from day to day.
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