The Mexican Muralist Movement, 1920s-30s Arth 224: Colonial to Contemporary Latin American Art Dr. Mey-Yen Moriuchi Spring 2015.

The Mexican Muralist Movement, 1920s-30s

Arth 224: Colonial to Contemporary Latin American ArtDr. Mey-Yen Moriuchi

Spring 2015

Los 3 Grandes

• Diego Rivera• José Clemente Orozco• David Alfaro Siqueiros

Diego Rivera (1886-1957)

Jacques Lipchitz, 1914

The Café Terrace, 1915

Zapatista Landscape, 1915

Diego Rivera, Creation, 1922-23, encaustic and gold leaf. National Preparatory School, Mexico City.

Giotto, Lamentation, 1305

Diego Rivera, Day of the Dead, 1923-28, fresco. Secretary of Public Education.

Diego Rivera, History of the Conquest, 1929-30, Palacio Nacional de México

Sugarcane, 1931, portable fresco

Enslavement of the Indians, Palacio de Cortés, Cuernavaca, 1930

Battle of the Aztecs and Spaniards, Palacio de Cortés, Cuernavaca, 1930

Felix Parra, Massacre at Cholula, 1877

Diego Rivera, Liberation of the Peon, 1931, fresco

Caravaggio, Entombment, c. 1602

Emiliano Zapata, 1931, portable fresco

José Guadalupe Posada, Zapata and Calavera Revolucionaria,c. 1910-12

Detroit Industry, 1932, Detroit Institute of Fine Art

Man Controller of the Universe, 1934, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico.Recreation of the mural Man at the Crossroads, originally located at Rockefeller Center, New York but subsequently destroyed

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda, 1946-47

José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949)

José Clemente Orozco, Destruction of the Old Order (detail), 1926, National Preparatory School, Mexico City.

José Clemente Orozco, The Trench, 1926. Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City.

José Clemente Orozco, Catharsis, 1934, fresco. Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City.

José Clemente Orozco, Miguel Hidalgo, 1936-39. Palacio de Gobierno, Guadalajara, Mexico.

José Clemente Orozco, Cortés and Malinche, 1926, Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City

David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974)

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Torment and Apotheosis of Cuauhtémoc (detail), 1950-51. Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City.

Leandro Izaguirre, Torture of Cuauhtémoc, 1893

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Portrait of the Bourgeoisie, 1939. Mexican Electrician’s Union, Mexico City

David Alfaro Siqueiros, People in Arms, 1957. Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Revolutionary on a Horse, 1957. Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Collective Suicide, 1936, lacquer on wood with applied sections

David Alfaro Siquieros, Echo of a Scream, 1937, enamel on wood

Discussion Questions

1. Summarize the Manifesto written by David Alfaro Siqueiros, et al in 1923. What was their objective? What were they advocating? Give specific quotes to support your answer.

2. Describe some of the artistic influences of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Were there commonalities? How did they differ?

3. What political ideologies influenced Mexican Muralism? Describe how this impacted its development.

4. Do you think Rivera’s Rockefeller mural should have been destroyed? Why or why not?

5. Do you agree with Rockefeller’s assertion that “art which is not propaganda is not art at all”? Why or why not?

José Clemente Orozco, Man of Fire, 1936-39, Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara, Mexico.