Game of the Goose 1904

Curator: This is José Guadalupe Posada's "Game of the Goose," printed on a sheet, housed at Harvard Art Museums. I'm immediately drawn to the graphic quality of the print. What do you see? Editor: It looks like a board game with different illustrations on each space. It’s printed, so I imagine multiples were made. How does the mass production influence the artwork? Curator: Precisely. Posada was a printmaker providing affordable imagery for a broad audience. Consider the materials: inexpensive paper, a readily reproducible design. This wasn't high art, but a commercial product deeply embedded in popular culture. Editor: So, the art isn't just in the images themselves, but also in how they were made and distributed? Curator: Exactly! The printing process, the accessibility, the ephemeral nature of the sheet... all crucial to understanding its meaning. It challenges our traditional ideas about art's value. I see that it was registered; I wonder what that process entailed? Editor: I see. It’s about who had access to art and how it was consumed, not just admired.