Mexican muralism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Mexican muralism is a Mexican art movement that took place primarily in the 1930s. The movement stands out historically because of its political undertones, the majority of which are of a Marxist nature, or related to a social and political situation of post-revolutionary Mexico.
About the movement
The time between the two world wars was a period when many artists were looking to indigenous traditions and subject matter for inspiration. A number of like-minded artists in Mexico turned to their own history and artistic heritage, namely Mexico's pre-Columbian cultures and indigenous peoples, contributing to a renaissance of Mexican painting. The 1920s were the height of the muralist effort in Mexico, a movement which marked the high point of Mexican influence throughout Latin America and the United States.
Even though Mexican muralism is considered an artistic movement, it can also be considered a social and political movement. This style was thought of as a teaching method and it was expressed in public places where all people could have access to it regardless of race and social class. Muralists worked over a concrete surface or on the façade of a building. The themes involved events from the political climate of the time and as a reaction to the Mexican Revolution.
Beginning in the 1920s and continuing to mid century, artists were commissioned by the local government to cover the walls of official institutions such as Mexico’s schools, ministerial buildings, churches and museums. Murals from this movement can be found on the majority of the public buildings in Mexico City and throughout other cities in Mexico, such as Guadalajara, that played important roles in Mexico’s history.
The movement's influence subsequently spread throughout North America, acting as the primary inspiration for the Works Progress Administration's art movement of 1940s America, which sought to employ artists through government patronage. Leading artist Diego Rivera in fact was commissioned by private investors such as Ford Motor Company in Detroit and Rockefeller in New York City. During his stay in the US, several WPA muralists assisted and studied under him, learning the techniques needed for modern fresco painting.
Artists and artworks
The leading muralists were Diego Rivera, José Orozco and David Siqueiros, each of whom also worked in the United States at some point in their artistic careers. All three artists utilized the classical tradition of fresco painting as a means of utilizing their art as social protest with an obvious appeal to the left wing, a dominant force in American cultural life throughout the Depression decade. As their nickname would suggest – los tres grandes ("the three great ones") – these three are usually grouped together, when in fact their individual styles and temperaments were very different from each other and they worked throughout overlapping but various periods. Siqueiros for example worked well into the 1970s.
See also
- Diego Rivera. Some of his most important works include: Zapatist Landscape (Paisaje Zapatista) and The Mill (La Molendera)
- National Palace (Mexico)
- National Preparatory School (Mexico)
- Central offices of the Secretariat of Public Education, amongst which the following stand out: Market scene (Escena del mercado), The Water Deposit (El cenote), Pastor with wave (Pastor con honda), The Tehuantepec Bath (El baño de Tehuantepec) and Dry cleaners (Tintoreros). These are some examples of works in which he represented the poor's working and living conditions.
- Detroit Institute of Arts
- David Alfaro Siqueiros
- National Museum of History.
- Hotel Parque Lama (currently known as Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros).
- Escuela Preparatoria de Jalisco
- José Clemente Orozco
- Palace of Fine Arts
- Supreme Tribunal of Mexico
- University of Guadalajara
- Roberto Montenegro
- Alegoría del viento, 1928
- Roberto Montenegro & Federico Cantú
- Vida y Muerte de Arlequin, 1934 Bar Papillon
- Federico Cantú
- Federico Cantú Garza#External links)
- La ultima cena Capilla San Miguel Allende , 1942
- Informantes de Sahún Pinacoteca 1948
- Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis 1954
- Capilla de los misioneros de Guadalupe 1954
- Universidad de Nuevo León 1964
- Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin
- Government Palace of the state of Tlaxcala
- Seminary at Apizaco, Tlaxcala
- Mayolica Ceramic Building in front of the Cathedral of Puebla
- Pedro Nel Gómez
- Cid Theatre, The Cid (El Cid)
- The architect Juan O'Gorman also created murals, out of which the most prominent are the ones at the Independence house at the Castle of Chapultepec. By the main staircase is a mural that represents the most prominent stages of the History of Mexico which also includes over a hundred important historical figures such as: Cuauhtémoc, Moctezuma, Hernán Cortés, Miguel Hidalgo, José María Morelos y Pavón, Porfirio Díaz, Emiliano Zapata, and Francisco Villa amongst others.
- Pablo O'Higgins, murals at the Secretaria de Educación Pública and at the Escuela de Agricultura in Chapingo.