Gahona, Gabriel Vicente (1828–1899)

Gabriel Vicente Gahona (Picheta; b. 1828; d. 1899), Mexican engraver. Gahona's early artistic calling took him from his birthplace of Mérida, Yucatán, to Italy for study. In Italy, probably through magazines and newspapers, he came to know the lithographic work of Doré, Daumier, Gavarni, and Guy, whose work mirrored Gahona's inclinations and temperament and provided the inspiration for his next project.

Gahona returned to Mérida in 1847 and, under the pseudonym of "Picheta," he began publishing Don Bullebule, a comical periodical "published for a society of noisy people." Its themes of satire and social criticism were illustrated with eighty-six xylographs. Although it ceased publication later that year, Don Bullebule stands out as one of the first examples of journalistic social criticism in Mexico. It is preserved in two volumes, the first consisting of fifteen issues and the second of seventeen, at the National Library of Newspapers and Periodicals in Mexico City.

In 1851, Gahona opened a lithography studio. In 1880 he served as city council president of Mérida, where he died.

See alsoArt: The Nineteenth Century; Journalism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manuel Toussaint, La litografía en México en el siglo XIX (1934).

Raquel Tibol, Historia general del arte mexicano, vol. 3 (1964).

Additional Bibliography

Rodríguez Prampolini, Ida. La crítica de arte en México en el siglo XIX. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, 1997.

                                        Esther Acevedo