Rick Bayless is chef of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, creator of Frontera gourmet foods, cookbook author and host of Mexico - One Plate at a Time.
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Art Collection: CartoneriaCartonería and the Linares Families  Cartonería refers to the type of popular art objects made especially for many Mexican festivals. Cartonería is very similar to papier-mâché, but utilizes cardboard and some paper (newsprint and brown butcher paper) pasted together and modeled with a hardening wheat-flour paste. The inner armature of a larger piece is made of a Mexican reed called carrizo. Once dried, the brown cardboard surface is primed with a layer of white paint or gesso, and then painted with colors.Decorative, lightweight and inexpensive cartonería objects and toys are prodsuced in multiples and usually only last through an approaching holiday. Judas figures are biblical or political effigies created to be blown up with fireworks during Holy Week. Piñatas are created with cartoneria techniques for a multitude of children’s celebrations. These ephemeral popular works of art are intentionally burned or broken, and then replaced with new ones in the following year’s celebration.  Many artists in Mexico today have used this simple and traditional medium to create one-of-a-kind works of art. The most recognized and collected of these artists is the Mexico City-based Linares family. Now in their fourth generation of working cartonería, they have created a unique fine art form copied by many artists and artisans alike in the fantastic creatures known as Alebrijes (a word coined by Don Pedro Linares that has no roots in either the Spanish or Indigenous languages). Alebrijes belong as much to the fine arts category as to the popular arts. Sometime in the 1950s, Don Pedro Linares (1906-1992), a second-generation cartonería toy artisan, became extremely ill and had an intense feverish nightmare. When his fever finally broke, he began to create some of the fantastic creatures he had seen in this “other world” experience. This was the origin of the now world renowned Linares Alebrije legacy.  Three works of art at Frontera Grill were made by the youngest of Don Pedro’s three sons, Miguel Linares (b.1946), who continues work in Mexico City with his family. His son Ricardo Linares (b.1966) also has a cartonería “skull-scene” on display at Frontera Grill. This fourth generation artist creates pieces with a slightly darker/ominous side than those of his father and grandfather. There is clearly more influence from Hollywood movies, heavy metal rock en español and modern-day life in a more aggressive Mexico City |
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