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Mural by Diego Rivera showing the city of Tenochtitlán in Aztec times. In the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City.

Mexican muralism is a Mexican art movement. The most important period of this movement took place primarily from the 1920s to the 1960s, though it exerted an influence on later generations of Mexican artists.

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 early post-revolutionary period found many Mexican artists 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. made in 1945

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

Felix candela en Casino

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. Rivera and Orozco utilized the classical tradition of fresco painting, while Siqueiros preferred using innovative materials such as pyroxylin. All three saw mural painting as a means of 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.

Besides fresco and pyroxylin, artists in the movement used encaustic and acrylic painting.

Exponents


Presencia de América Latina by Jorge González Camarena (1964-65).
  • Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin
    • Government Palace of the state of Tlaxcala
    • Seminary at Apizaco, Tlaxcala
    • Mayolica Ceramic Building in front of the Cathedral of Puebla
  • Pablo O'Higgins, murals at the Secretaria de Educación Pública and at the Escuela de Agricultura in Chapingo.
  • Centro SCOP, Mexico City
  • Centro Medico Nacional Siglo XXI, Mexico City
  • Secretaria de Educacion Publica, Mexico City
  • Museo Regional de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico

References

  • Arnason, H. H.; Marla Prather, Daniel Wheeler (1998). History of Modern Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 
  • Campbell, Bruce (2003). Mexican Murals in times of Crisis. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-2239-1. 
  • Folgarait, Leonard (1998). Mural Painting and Social Revolution in Mexico, 1920-1940 : Art of the New Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58147-8. 
  • Lucie-Smith, Edward (1993). Latin American Art of the 20th Century. London: Thames & Hudson, Ltd. 
  • Lucie-Smith, Edward (1996). Visual Arts in the Twentieth Century. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 
  • Nieto, Margarita, Ph.D.; Louis Stern (2009). Alfredo Ramos Martínez & Modernismo. West Hollywood: The Alfredo Ramos Martínez Research Project. ISBN 978-0-6153-1520-1. 
  • "How a young revolutionary fooled the city elders". The Economist. Sep 23rd 2010. http://www.economist.com/node/17090723. Retrieved Sept. 25 2010. 
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