Mexican Muralism
Encyclopedia
Mexican art
Mexican art consists of the various visual and plastic arts which developed over the geographical area now known as Mexico. The development of these arts roughly follow the history of Mexico, divided into the Mesoamerican era, the colonial period, with the period after the gaining of Independence...
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 MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
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 mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
ist effort in Mexico, a movement which marked the high point of Mexican influence throughout Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. 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
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the 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
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
and throughout other cities in Mexico, such as Guadalajara
Guadalajara
Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...
, 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
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
's art movement of 1940s America, which sought to employ artists through government patronage. Leading artist Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
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 RiveraDiego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
, 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
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
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
Encaustic
Encaustic may refer to:*Encaustic painting*Encaustic tile...
and acrylic
Acrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
painting.
Exponents
- Diego RiveraDiego RiveraDiego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...
. Some of his most important works include: Zapatist Landscape (Paisaje Zapatista) and The Mill (La Molendera)- National Palace (Mexico)National Palace (Mexico)The National Palace, or Palacio Nacional in Spanish), was the seat of the federal executive in Mexico. It is located on Mexico City's main square, the Plaza de la Constitución...
- 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 ArtsDetroit Institute of ArtsThe Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
- Teatro de los InsurgentesTeatro de los InsurgentesTeatro de los Insurgentes is a theater located on Mexico City's Avenida de los Insurgentes.It was built by José María Dávila in 1953 as part of President Miguel Alemán's program of urban renewal. Dávila commissioned muralist Diego Rivera to paint La historia del teatro, a visual history of the...
- Museo Mural Diego Rivera
- Museo Dolores OlmedoMuseo Dolores OlmedoThe Museo Dolores Olmedo is an art museum in the capital of Mexico, based on the collection of the Mexican businesswoman Dolores Olmedo.- History :...
contains a fresco by Rivera titled Frozen Assets - Estadio Olímpico UniversitarioEstadio Olímpico UniversitarioEstadio Olímpico Universitario is a stadium located in Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City. It was built in 1952 and at that time was the largest stadium in Mexico. This stadium has a capacity of 63,186 . During the 50s and the 60s this stadium was used mostly for college American football matches...
- Mural "Water, the origin of life" (formerly underwater) in the building known as "Carcamo de Lerma" in ChapultepecChapultepecChapultepec Park, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" in Mexico City, is the largest city park in Latin America, measuring in total just over 686 hectares. Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of the park's main functions is to be an ecological space in the vast...
Park 2nd section - San Francisco Art InstituteSan Francisco Art InstituteSan Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
- "Pan American Unity", City College of San FranciscoCity College of San FranciscoCity College of San Francisco, or CCSF, is a two-year community college in San Francisco, California. The Ocean Avenue campus, in the Ingleside neighborhood, is the college's primary location...
- Hospital Infantil de Mexico
- National Palace (Mexico)
- David Alfaro SiqueirosDavid Alfaro SiqueirosJosé David Alfaro Siqueiros was a social realist painter, known for his large murals in fresco that helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance, together with works by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and also a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an...
- National Museum of HistoryNational Museum of HistoryThe National Museum of History is located in the Nanhai Academy in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan and exhibits Chinese historical items...
. - Hotel Parque Lama (currently known as Polyforum Cultural SiqueirosPolyforum Cultural SiqueirosThe Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros is a cultural, political and social facility located in Mexico City as part of the World Trade Center Mexico City...
). - Escuela Preparatoria de Jalisco
- Palace of Fine ArtsPalace of Fine ArtsThe Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
- "Cuauhtemoc against the myth", mural in the Tecpan building near Plaza de las Tres CulturasPlaza de las Tres CulturasThe Plaza de las Tres Culturas is the main square within the Tlatelolco neighbourhood of Mexico City. The name "Three Cultures" is in recognition of the three periods of Mexican history reflected by those buildings pre-Columbian, Spanish colonial, and the independent "mestizo" nation...
in TlatelolcoTlatelolco (Mexico City)Tlatelolco is an area in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a square surrounded on three sides by an excavated Aztec archaeological site, a 17th century church called Templo de Santiago, a former convent, and office complexes that used to belong to...
, Mexico City - Ciudad UniversitariaCiudad UniversitariaCiudad Universitaria , Mexico, is UNAM's main campus, located in Coyoacán borough in the southern part of Mexico City. Designed by architects Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, it encloses the Olympic Stadium, about 40 faculties and institutes, the Cultural Center, an ecological reserve, the Central...
- Secretaría de Educación PúblicaSecretaría de Educación PúblicaThe Secretaría de Educación Pública is a Mexican federal government authority with Cabinet representation and responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of national educational policy and school standards in Mexico.Additionally, it has the following responsibilities:*Creation...
- "La Tallera", Sala de Arte Publico Siqueiros. Polanco, Mexico City
- Colegio Chico (today the Museum of Light), Mexico City
- Plaza Juarez, Alameda Central, Mexico City
- América Tropical, 1932, Olvera StreetOlvera StreetOlvera Street is in the oldest part of Downtown Los Angeles, California, and is part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. Many Latinos refer to it as "La Placita Olvera." Circa 1911 it was described as Sonora Town....
, Los Angeles, California (currently under restoration)
- National Museum of History
- José Clemente OrozcoJosé Clemente OrozcoJosé Clemente Orozco was a Mexican social realist painter, who specialized in bold murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others...
- Palace of Fine ArtsPalacio de Bellas ArtesThe Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...
- Supreme Tribunal of Mexico
- University of GuadalajaraUniversity of GuadalajaraUniversity of Guadalajara is a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. It is the second oldest university in Mexico, the fifth oldest in North America and the fourteenth oldest in Latin America...
- Hospicio CabañasHospicio CabañasThe Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, a World Heritage Site, is one of the oldest and largest hospital complexes in Spanish America....
- Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico City
- Jalisco Government Palace, Guadalajara
- Centro Urbano Presidente Aleman, Col. del Valle, Mexico City
- Hospital de Jesus, Mexico City
- "Prometheus", 1930, Pomona CollegePomona CollegePomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
, California
- Palace of Fine Arts
- Alfredo Ramos MartínezAlfredo Ramos MartínezAlfredo Ramos Martínez was a painter and muralist who lived and worked in Mexico, Paris, and Los Angeles...
- Hotel Playa Ensenada, 1929, Ensenada, Baja CaliforniaEnsenada, Baja CaliforniaEnsenada is a coastal city in Mexico and the third-largest city in Baja California. It is located south of San Diego on the Baja California Peninsula. The city is locally referred to as La Cenicienta del Pacífico, or, The Cinderella of the Pacific...
- "The Guelaguetza", 1933, home of Jo Swerling, Beverly Hills, CaliforniaBeverly Hills, CaliforniaBeverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
- Chapel of the Santa Barbara Cemetery, 1934, Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
- "Los Guardianes", 1934, home of Henry Eichheim, Montecito, CaliforniaMontecito, CaliforniaMontecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
- Chapman Park Hotel, 1936, Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
(destroyed) - Chapel of Mary, Star of the Sea, 1937, La Jolla, California
- "El Dia Del Mercado", 1937, Café La Avenida, Coronado, CaliforniaCoronado, CaliforniaCoronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...
- "On Monté Alban", 1942-1943, Escuela Normal para los Profesores, Mexico City (destroyed)
- Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden, 1945-1946, Scripps CollegeScripps CollegeScripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...
, Claremont, CaliforniaClaremont, CaliforniaClaremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
(unfinished)
- Hotel Playa Ensenada, 1929, Ensenada, Baja California
- Roberto MontenegroRoberto MontenegroRoberto Montenegro Nervo was a Mexican painter, illustrator, and stage designer....
- Alegoría del viento, 1928, located in the Palace of Fine ArtsPalace of Fine ArtsThe Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
, Mexico City - Ex Templo de San Pedro y San Pablo, today the Museum of Mexican Constitutions, Mexico City
- Secretaria de Educacion PublicaSecretaría de Educación PúblicaThe Secretaría de Educación Pública is a Mexican federal government authority with Cabinet representation and responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of national educational policy and school standards in Mexico.Additionally, it has the following responsibilities:*Creation...
, Salon Hispanoamericano, Mexico City
- Alegoría del viento, 1928, located in the Palace of Fine Arts
- 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
- Rufino TamayoRufino TamayoRufino Tamayo was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, painting figurative abstraction with surrealist influences....
- Museo SoumayaMuseo SoumayaThe Museo Soumaya is a private museum in Mexico City with free admission. It is owned by the Carlos Slim Foundation and contains the extensive art, religious relics, historical documents, and coin collection of Carlos Slim and his late wife Soumaya, after whom the museum was named.The museum holds...
- Palace of Fine ArtsPalace of Fine ArtsThe Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
- Museo Soumaya
- Jorge González CamarenaJorge González CamarenaJorge González Camarena was a prominent Mexican painter, muralist and sculptor who received the Mexican National Prize for Arts and Sciences...
- Presencia de América LatinaPresencia de América LatinaPresencia de América Latina , also known as Integración de América Latina is a mural painted by Mexican artist Jorge González Camarena between November 1964 and April 1965...
(1964-65) - Palace of Fine ArtsPalace of Fine ArtsThe Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
- National Museum of HistoryNational Museum of HistoryThe National Museum of History is located in the Nanhai Academy in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan and exhibits Chinese historical items...
- Presencia de América Latina
- 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 GómezPedro Nel GómezPedro Nel Gómez was a Colombian engineer, architect, painter, and sculptor. He started the Colombian Muralist Movement with Santiago Martinez Delgado, strongly influenced by the Mexican movement. With the fresco mural technique, Pedro Nel Gómez created 2,200 square meters of murals in public...
- Cid Theatre, The Cid (El Cid)
- The architect Juan O'GormanJuan O'GormanJuan O'Gorman was a Mexican painter and architect.-Biography:O'Gorman was born in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough of the Federal District, to an Irish father, Cecil Crawford O'Gorman and a Mexican mother...
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 MexicoHistory of MexicoThe history of Mexico, a country located in the southern portion of North America, covers a period of more than two millennia. First populated more than 13,000 years ago, the country produced complex indigenous civilizations before being conquered by the Spanish in the 16th Century.Since the...
which also includes over a hundred important historical figures such as: CuauhtémocCuauhtémocCuauhtémoc was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521...
, MoctezumaMoctezuma IIMoctezuma , also known by a number of variant spellings including Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma and referred to in full by early Nahuatl texts as Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin, was the ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan, reigning from 1502 to 1520...
, Hernán CortésHernán CortésHernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century...
, Miguel HidalgoMiguel HidalgoMiguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor , more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo, was a Mexican priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.In 1810 Hidalgo led a group of peasants in a revolt against the dominant...
, José María Morelos y Pavón, Porfirio DíazPorfirio DíazJosé de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori was a Mexican-American War volunteer and French intervention hero, an accomplished general and the President of Mexico continuously from 1876 to 1911, with the exception of a brief term in 1876 when he left Juan N...
, Emiliano ZapataEmiliano ZapataEmiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio Díaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South, during the Mexican Revolution...
, and Francisco Villa amongst others. He also painted the outside of Biblioteca Central in Ciudad Universitaria.
- Pablo O'HigginsPablo O'HigginsPablo Esteban O'Higgins was an American-Mexican artist, muralist and illustrator....
, murals at the Secretaria de Educación Pública and at the Escuela de Agricultura in Chapingo.
- Jose Chavez MoradoJosé Chávez MoradoJosé Chávez Morado was a Mexican painter and sculptor.- Biography :Morado was born in Silao, near the city of Guanajuato, where Diego Rivera was born, and like Rivera he is a well known and highly regarded painter and sculptor who became most famous for the murals he painted in Mexico in the first...
- Centro SCOP, Mexico City
- Centro Medico Nacional Siglo XXI, Mexico City
- Secretaria de Educacion Publica, Mexico City
- Museo Regional de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico
- Jean CharlotJean CharlotLouis Henri Jean Charlot was a French painter and illustrator, active in Mexico and the United States. Charlot was born in Paris. His father, Henri, owned an import-export business and was a Russian-born émigré, albeit one who supported the Bolshevik cause. His mother Anna was herself an artist...
- Ramon Alva de la CanalRamón Alva de la CanalRamón Alva de la Canal was a Mexican painter and illustrator.- Biography :...
- Fernando Leal
- Raul AnguianoRaúl AnguianoJosé Raúl Anguiano Valadez was a Mexican critical realist painter, draftsman, muralist, and engraver, as well as a member of the second generation of the so-called "Mexican School of Painting" in Mexican art, along with Juan O'Gorman, Judith Gutierrez, Jorge González Camarena, José Chávez Morado,...
- Amado de la CuevaAmado de la CuevaAmado de la Cueva was a Mexican painter.De la Cueva studied in Rome. After his return to Mexico in September 1922, he painted amongst others together with Diego Rivera his murals at the Secretaría de Educación Pública...
- Fermín Revueltas
- Ramon Cano Manilla painted several murals in Tamaulipas, beginning in 1948.