Mexican Muralist Movement and the contexts that surrounded its development

1. MEXICAN
MURALIST
MOVEMENT
MA Rosa M. Brito

2. • The Mexican Muralist movement is an art movement with an
indigenous character, post-revolutionary and with socialist
ideology.
• It is characterized by the production of pictorial works of
art of monumental proportions, with the Fresco style, usually
done over the walls of public buildings granted to the painters
by the government.
• It captures the Mexican reality of the period, the social
struggles and other aspects of the history of our country.
• Its main exponents are, and will be:
José Clemente Orozco
David Alfaro Siqueiros
Diego Rivera
MA Rosa M. Brito

3. MEXICAN MURALIST MOVEMENT
• The Bolshevik revolution • Impact of the socialist • José Vasconcelos, director of
(Russia) 1917. Fall of the and marxis ideas in the the Secretary of Public
Tsarist Empire post-revolutionary Education, promoted a cultural
movement to reinforce the
• Mexican Revolution of Mexican society knowledge and values from the
1910 revolutionary period in our
• The art within the reach
• Socialist and marxist country, giving to the muralists
of the people.
ideas in Latin America. the big spaces they could use
for their creations. These
spaces were public buildings
used as canvas to translate
scenes from the past, present
and future of the Mexican
nation.
MA Rosa M. Brito

4. José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949)
Activity:
• He was born in Zapotlán, now Visit the murals
Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco. of José
• Graduated from the Escuela Clemente Orozco
Nacional de Agricultura; later on, he in the Instituto
studied mathematics and Cultural Cabañas
architecture. to analyze and
• He painted murals for Pomona interpret his
work.
College, in California, Dartmouth
College and the New School for
Social Research of New York.
• He did numerous murals for
important Mexican buildings,
specially: Palacio de Bellas Artes,
Universidad de Guadalajara,
Tribunal Supremo de México, Capilla
Tolsá, and Instituto Cultural
Cabañas,
• He is buried in the Rotonda de los
Jalisciences Ilustres in
Guadalajara, Jalisco.
MA Rosa M. Brito

5. David alfaro siqueiros (1896-1974)
• Siqueiros was born in the city
of Chihuahua
• He joined the army in 1919, and
he is sent to Europe with the
rank of captain.
• In Spain, he is exposed to the
avant-garde art movement.
• In 1921, living in Barcelona, he
edited the last “Vida Americana”
magazine, where he writes a
manifesto, exalting the rights of
the people to have a monumental
art, compromised with the
indigenous values, influenced by
the avant-garde art movements
of the times.
MA Rosa M. Brito

6. •He became a member of the Mexican
Communist Party (Diego Rivera and
Frida Kahlo were members too).
• He was the most committed political
activist of the three muralists. His
work is fill with themes of the
Mexican Revolution to exalt Mexican
nationalism.
• In 1962, the Mexican government
sentenced him to eight years in prison
for organizing students revolts of
leftist ideologies. He was pardoned in
1964.
MA Rosa M. Brito

7. To the journalist Raquel Tibol,
“casi todos los murales –y en
toda su práctica- están
compuestos con base en asuntos
de franca tendencia humanista
que parten o llegan siempre a los
temas medulares de las luchas
de liberación de los pueblos
oprimidos; las luchas de los
desposeídos para conquistar una
efectiva justicia social, y el
repudio a la guerra para oprimir,
sojuzgar y envilecer a los
débiles” (Tibol, 1974b: 61).
Eco por un grito
1937
MOMA. New York
MA Rosa M. Brito

8. In 1936, Siqueiros creates the
Experimental Workshop in New York
City. “There, he experience what he
calls the accidental painting, which it
is the practice of improvisation with
different techniques as paint
dripping and sand textures. The
splash of paint over the canvas, than
later on would be characteristic of
the American Abstract
Expressionism (Jackson Pollock), was
a practice originated in
Siqueiros´workshop. Jackson Pollock
and other young artist, were part of
the first generation of American Jackson Pollock.
artists with their own aesthetic Landscape whith Steer, 1936-37
language”. 35 Aniversario de la Litograph with airbrush.
Colección The Museum of Art Modern,
muerte de David Alfaro Siqueiros.
New York, gift of Lee Krasner Pollock.
Autor/Redactor: Beatriz Bezares
García
MA Rosa M. Brito

9. His paintings represent a very particular synthesis of the futurist,
expressionist and abstract styles, with a strong application of color
Retrato de la clase media (detalle)
Sindicato Mexicano de
Electricistas (1939-1940, Ciudad
de México)
Juicio al fascismo (detalle)
Sindicato Eléctrico, ciudad de México 1939 MA Rosa M. Brito

10. Nueva Democracia (detalle) 1944
Palacio de Bellas Artes, México
El Diablo en la Iglesia, 1947
MA Rosa M. Brito

11. Diego rivera (1886-1957)
• Diego Rivera was a famous and controversial artist,
in addition to be a political activist. He was the
founder of the Mexican Communist Party and his
personality always invited to the political debate
not only in México, but also in the United States
and the Soviet Union.
• He establishes himself in Paris in the year 1911.
During this trip he was influenced by the post-
impressionism, specially by the work of Cézanne,
which led to experiment with cubism and other
avant-garde art movements.
• Rivera returns to México with a renaissance style in
frescos and with the clear intention to portray the
historical context of the post-revolutionary México.
• He married Frida Kahlo in 1929. She was, and is,
considered one of the representatives of
surrealism in México in the 20th Century.
• Rivera´s fame took him to exhibitions and projects
in the United States. He painted in the Rockefeller
Center of New York, ,Hombre en la encrucijada
(1933) but short after, his work was destroyed
because it contained a portrait of Lenin, the Soviet
leader. One year later, Rivera reproduced that work
in Palacio de Bellas Artes, México city.
MA Rosa M. Brito

12. Hombre en la encrucijada, 1933
MA Rosa M. Brito

13. “El estilo de Diego Rivera era el
producto de la influencia de varios
movimientos pictóricos como el cubismo,
el impresionismo, el estilo clásico
europeo y el arte azteca. Sus murales
estaban tan repletos de figuras que nos
recuerdan al estilo barroco que cubría
iglesias con imágenes y minuciosos
detalles. Algunos críticos se referían al
estilo particular de Diego como
"agorafóbico" porque parecía tener
miedo de tener cualquier espacio abierto
en sus pinturas (Espejo, 66). En sus
murales Diego utiliza muchos símbolos
provenientes de códices aztecas. De
estos últimos utiliza los colores y las
figuras de los ídolos, así como también la
manera en que los indígenas utilizaban Dos mujeres (cubismo), 1914
las imágenes para narrar mitos y eventos
históricos.” Biografía Visual de Diego
Rivera, Marela Trejo Zacarías
MA Rosa M. Brito

14. Día de la flor, 1925. Encáustica
sobre tela. Los Angeles County
Museum of Art.
La elaboración de un fresco, 1931 Fresco
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco
MA Rosa M. Brito

15. San Francisco Art Institute – 6 Panels: Unidad PanAmericana 1940 fresco, 6.74 x
22.5m

17. Historia de México - El antiguo Mundo
Indígena, 1929-1935 Fresco Muro
Norte, Palacio Nacional, Ciudad de
México
MA Rosa M. Brito

18. Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central, 1947 Fresco sobre tablero
transportable Museo Mural Diego Rivera, Ciudad de México (4.70 x 15.60 mts.)
MA Rosa M. Brito

19. The Rupture Generation in México
• By the mid of the 40´s decade, a rebellious movement by
Mexican painters started to boil up. They were against
portraying the historical past in their works, as it had
been done earlier in the century with the muralists Diego
Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
•The painters now wanted to expand their minds and start
to take different styles, which will set them apart from
the rest.
• These styles were highly influenced by the European
avant-garde art movements, but introducing Mexican
cultural elements.
MA Rosa M. Brito

20. Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991)
Trovador, 1945
Hombre con guitarra, 1950
Animales, 1941

21. José Luis Cuevas (1934-)
Autorretrato, 1990
Figura obscena, 1996
El secreto de Walter Raligh, 1972

22. Carlos Mérida, Guatemalan-Mexican (1891-1984)
Carlos Mérida durante los trabajos en el
Centro Urbano Presidente Juárez. Ciudad de
Exégesis plástica sobre motivos cervantinos, 1981
México, ca. 1951-1952.

23. Remedios Varo, Spanish-Mexican (1908-1963)
Exploración de las Bordando el río Orinoco, 1959 1961
fuentes del manto terrestre,

24. Francisco Toledo (1940-)
La Lagartera , escultura de 24 metros
Tamazul (sapo), 1977
Murciélagos mirones, 2002

25. Frida Kahlo, (1907-1954)
El abrazo de amor del universo, 1949
Frida pintando
“Las dos Fridas”
1939-40
Crédito: Muray,
Nickolas

26. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
35 Aniversario luctuoso de David Alfaro Siqueiros - Artes e Historia México. (n.d.). Artes e Historia México. Retrieved September 12, 2011,
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Desde Prehispanico hasta Contemporaneo Mexicano: La Generación de la Ruptura. (n.d.). Desde Prehispanico hasta Contemporaneo Mexicano.
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Discurso Visual - Carlos Mérida. Aportaciones a la integración plástica. (n.d.). Discurso Visual - revista electronica - CENIDIAP INBA.
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Francisco Toledo, pintor oaxaqueño | Garuyo.com. (n.d.). Garuyo.com | Entretenimiento, diversion y ocio personalizado. Garuyo ¡hazlo tuyo!.
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Frida Kahlo Corporation, sitio oficial, de los derechos, licencias, productos y familia Kahlo. (n.d.). Frida Kahlo Corporation, sitio oficial, de los
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