La Catrina as a Specter of Seduction in the Paintings of Elsa Quiñones

• Autor: Tillería Aqueveque, Leopoldo
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2025
• Institución: Universidad de Huánuco
• Repositorio: Revistas - Universidad de Huánuco
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs2.localhost:article/738
• Enlace del recurso: http://revistas.udh.edu.pe/index.php/udh/article/view/738
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: arte contemporáneo; cultura; México; muerte; pintura; contemporary art; culture; Mexico; death; painting

Written from the perspective of the philosophy of art, this essay seeks to confrm the thesis that the work of Mexican visual artist Elsa Quiñones—particularly her representations of the mythical figure La Catrina—can be interpreted through Jean Baudrillard’s concept of seduction. Through the selection of two of her skulls, adorned with vibrant colors, petals, birds, braids, and abundant ribbons, it becomes evident that ritual and death—fundamental dimensions of this seduction—are key elements in Quiñones’s aesthetic. Her Catrinas seduce us through death, mitigating the randomness of an accidental encounter with those who behold them; and through ritual, they reemerge into life through the artist’s hand, as the eternal return of a sacred and primordial ceremonial form.