Week 2

Overview:

This section explores the period of the 1920's and 1930's and the emergence of Mexican Nationalism. Mexican artists threw themselves into the Post-revolutionary movement to re-write Mexican history through the prism of a new cultural identity that took into account the indigenous roots and the powerful legacy of colonialism in the modern society. These artists were also concerned with examining the growing class conflicts in Mexican society and the exploring a utopian vision of a modern Mexico. Their paintings explored Mexico's popular culture, rituals and ceremonies as well as the aesthetics of daily life to promote a new cultural awareness.

The Mexican muralists were able to put a new vision of Mexican history on the walls of the buildings they painted, depicting working people as the protagonists of history and making concrete links between the historical forces of the past and present. In 1922 Diego Rivera joined many other Mexican artists and intellectuals in joining the Communist Party. Rivera later entered into conflicts with increasingly doctrinaire policies of the Party. Rivera's view of art clashed with the imposition of a Socialist Realist school proposed by Stalin. Throughout the world this period of the 1920's and early 1930's was a time of great artistic advances as artists were inspired by the era of revolution to explore new areas of expression.

This movement was paralleled in other art forms and reinforced by the government programs that began to push for a nationalist agenda. The government of Lazaro Cardenas actively promoted a nationalist agenda and proposed the implementation and institutionalization of many of the reforms won in the Revolution and incorporated into the Mexican constitution, including land reform, nationalization of natural resources and free public education.

In the 1930's the Mexican art movement has established itself as a powerful force in Mexican society. Besides the work of "los tres grandes" new modern art schools also emerge, challenging the politically oriented artists and proposing new ways of portraying Mexican identity. In the international art world Mexican Art is seen as a fresh and innovative force that propels some of the country's top artists to begin painting murals in the United States.

The Mexican public art movement influenced artists all over the world, especially in the United States. Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros all painted murals in the United States and were acknowledged as mentors for a group of emerging US artists. The WPA project in the United States created a state funded public art project that paid artists to create murals and art works in public buildings. The fact that these Mexican artist we given respect in the United States reflected the importance of this work internationally and a recognition of the force that the Mexican Revolution had in this country.

This section will look at the emergence of a world wide movement of revolutionary artists in many areas of artistic expression from theater to dance, poetry, film, painting and music. It is no coincidence that the Mexican painters were heavily influenced by other art forms and saw themselves as a part of a larger movement that wanted to transform the role of the artist from a passive observer to an active participant in society.

This segment examines in depth the work of Orozco and Siqueiros and highlights the differing approaches that they employed as well as the common themes in their work.

YOU NEED TO READ OR LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW TO ANSWER QUESTION #3 ON THE MIDTERM

RIvera Interview in Spanish

Transcript of interview in English

Rivera Interview PDF.pdf

This interview will help you understand how Rivera incorporated his Marxist ideology into his art.

Siquieros information

Orozco's work

Frida Kahlo

More Frida Kahlo's works

Communist Manifesto

Enrique Chagoya's piece Fritas y Dieguitos- commercialization of art?

Chagoya