Mexican muralism

Jose Guadalupe Posada 1852 – 1913
Jose Clemente Orozco 1883 – 1949
Diego Rivera 1886 – 1957
David Siqueiros 1896 – 1974

Mexican muralism

Mexican muralism refers to the art project initially funded by the Mexican government in the immediate wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) to depict visions of Mexico's past, present, and future, transforming the walls of many public buildings into didactic scenes designed to reshape Mexicans' understanding of the nation's history. The murals, large artworks painted onto the walls themselves had social, political, and historical messages. Beginning in the 1920s, the muralist project was headed by a group of artists known as "The Big Three" or "The Three Greats". This group was composed of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Although not as prominent as the Big Three, women also created murals in Mexico. From the 1920s to the 1970s, murals with nationalistic, social and political messages were created in many public settings such as chapels, schools, government buildings, and much more. The popularity of the Mexican muralist project started a tradition which continues to this day in Mexico; a tradition that has had a significant impact in other parts of the Americas, including the United States, where it served as inspiration for the Chicano art movement.

THE MEXICAN MURALISTS

If it is the role of art to bear witness to the vitality of the spirit of the people by offering a lyrical and poetic vision in language they understand, then the great Mexican Muralists should all be well rewarded by the revolution and the esthetic adventure of the era. In contrast with the Soviet artists, who need to bend to the canons of official Realism, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros are able to create an art of the streets, both original and rooted in the ancestral culture of the Mexican people.

Their history merits being told. In 1919, Siqueiros is sent to Europe with a captain’s commission. Passing through New York, he had important discussions with his friend Orozco. In Paris, he hurried to see Rivera who, after a Cubist period, had returned to figurative work, strongly influenced by the powerful creations of the "popular"
engraver Posada. Siqueiros and Rivera went to Italy for a study trip. The Tintorettos from the Venetian School of San Rocco, the frescoes of Fra Angelico of Florence, and the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican prompted them to reflect on what could become, in their own country, art that everybody could understand.
In 1921, Minister Vasconcelos commissioned these artists, on their return to Mexico, to decorate some public buildings. Other painters became enthusiastic. Among them were Alva de la Canal, Fernando Leal, Fermin Revueltas, Xavier Guerrero, the Guatemalan Carlos Merida, and the Frenchman Jean Chariot.

The most splendid work of this mural renaissance was done by Rivera, between 1923 and 1928.
He made gigantic compositions for the National Palace and the Cortes Palace at Cuernavaca, and painted one hundred and twenty-four frescoes on the walls of an ancient monastery that had become the Ministry of Education; immense areas of lyrical, satirical, epic paintings, solidly constructed and colored with wisdom. Orozco, Rivera’s elder by three years, leaves, notably on the walls of the National Preparatory School, his message which is sometimes less caricatural, more lyrical, more abstract than Rivera's. Siqueiros shows, in The Elements, that he is an extraordi-naiy virtuoso of design, expressing a developed sense of protest.

Did Rivera monopolize the scene too much? Did the other painters keep up? The fact is
that five years ago there was a general dispersion of artists. Siqueiros dedicated himself to political activism, which landed him in prison for a year. Orozco left for the United States. Chariot joined an archaeological team in the Yucatan. The recent new members, such as O'Higgins and Tamayo—more sensitive to European influences than their elders—do not make up for the departure of the older artists.

The experience continues in the United States through painters like Biddle and Benton, or their students, such as Jackson Pollock. Orozco paints a fresco in California and undertakes a large mural in Hanover, New Hampshire. Siqueiros works in Los Angeles. Rivera is keeping himself busy in Detroit. Where and how far will he go? The sometimes revolutionary themes of the Mexicans are judged as somewhat disturbing in the United States.

1Mural._Room_1._Musicians_and_dancers.jpg

Bonampak mural. Room 1. Musicians and dancers.

Bonampak is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The site is approximately 30 km (19 mi) south of the larger site of the people Yaxchilan, under which Bonampak was a dependency, and the border with Guatemala. While the site is not overly spatial or abundant in architectural size, it is well known for the murals located within the three roomed Structure 1 (The Temple of the Murals). The construction of the site's structures dates to the Late Classic period (c. AD 580 to 800). The Bonampak murals are noteworthy for being among the best-preserved Maya murals.

Jose Guadalupe Posada
1852 – 1913

José Guadalupe Posada
José Guadalupe Posada Aguilar (2 February 1852 – 20 January 1913) was a Mexican political lithographer who used relief printing to produce popular illustrations. His work has influenced numerous Latin American artists and cartoonists because of its satirical acuteness and social engagement. He used skulls, calaveras, and bones to convey political and cultural critiques. Among his most enduring works is La Calavera Catrina.

He began to work with Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, until he was able to establish his own lithographic workshop. From then on Posada undertook work that earned him popular acceptance and admiration for his sense of humor and propensity concerning the quality of his work. In his broad and varied work, Posada portrayed beliefs, daily lifestyles of popular groups, the abuses of government, and the exploitation of the common people. He illustrated the famous skulls, along with other illustrations that became popular as they were distributed to various newspapers and periodicals.

In 1883, following his success, he was hired as a teacher of lithography at the local Preparatory School. The shop flourished until 1888 when a disastrous flood hit the city. He subsequently moved to Mexico City. His first regular employment in the capital was with La Patria Ilustrada, whose editor was Ireneo Paz, the grandfather of the later famed writer Octavio Paz. He later joined the staff of a publishing firm owned by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo and while at this firm he created a prolific number of book covers and illustrations. Much of his work was also published in sensationalistic broadsides depicting various current events.

From the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 until his death in 1913, Posada worked tirelessly in the press. The works he completed in his press during this time allowed him to develop his artistic prowess as a draftsman, engraver and lithographer.

José Guadalupe Posada, Calavera oaxaqueña, broadsheet, 1903

Calavera de la Catrina (Skull of the Female Dandy), from the portfolio 36 Grabados: José Guadalupe Posada, published by Arsacio Vanegas, Mexico City, c. 1910

Reproduction of the restored Gran calavera eléctrica (Grand electric skull), by Posada 1900–1913

'Calavera Oaxaqueña', (c.1903), by Posada

'El jarabe en ultratumba', (c.1910), by Posada

The Calavera of the Alley Cat, by Posada

The Calavera of Don Quixote, by Posada

Jose Clemente Orozco
1883 – 1949

José Clemente Orozco
(November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and others. Orozco was the most complex of the Mexican muralists, fond of the theme of human suffering, but less realistic and more fascinated by machines than Rivera. Mostly influenced by Symbolism, he was also a genre painter and lithographer. Between 1922 and 1948, Orozco painted murals in Mexico City, Orizaba, Claremont, California, New York City, Hanover, New Hampshire, Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Jiquilpan, Michoacán. His drawings and paintings are exhibited by the Carrillo Gil Museum in Mexico City, and the Orozco Workshop-Museum in Guadalajara. Orozco was known for being a politically committed artist, and he promoted the political causes of peasants and workers.

Portrait of Orozco by David Alfaro Siqueiros

The Epic of American Civilization

(Baker Berry Library at Dartmouth College)
1932 - 1934

The Epic of American Civilization

(Baker Berry Library at Dartmouth College)
1932 - 1934

Departure of Quetzalcoatl

Gods of the Modern World

Mural Omnisciencia, 1925

Murals by Orozco at San Ildefonso College. The central panel is "The Trench"

A painting of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Jalisco Governmental Palace, Guadalajara

Prometeo del Pomona College, 1930

Law and Justice, San Ildefonso College

Lower part of El hombre creador y rebelde y El pueblo y sus falsos líderes

Catharis
1934
Palace fo Fine Arts, Mexico City

Cortes and Malinche
1926
Fresco

Diego Rivera
1886 – 1957

Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera
(December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the mural movement in Mexican and international art.

Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals in, among other places, Mexico City, Chapingo, and Cuernavaca, Mexico; and San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City, United States. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; this was before he completed his 27-mural series known as Detroit Industry Murals.

Rivera had four wives and numerous children, including at least one natural daughter. His first child and only son died at the age of two. His third wife was fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, with whom he had a volatile relationship that continued until her death.

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of Diego Rivera, 1914

The Threshing Floor
1904

In spring 1909 Rivera followed his new friends to France, after which he returned to the peninsula for only short and sporadic periods, although continuing to be in close touch with Spanish artists and intellectuals. In Paris too he studied the museum collections, visited exhibitions, attended lectures, and worked in the free schools of Montparnasse and on the bank of the Seine.

In the summer of 1909 he visited Belgium; in Brussels, home of the Symbolist artists, he painted House over the Bridge, and met a young Russian painter six years older than himself, Angelina Beloff. Born in St Petersburg of liberal middle-class family, she had been trained as a teacher of art at the St Petersburg Academy, and was now on her way to Paris, where for twelve years she was to live as Rivera's first partner.

Portrait of Angelina Beloff by Diego Rivera 1909

Angelina Beloff (born Angelina Petrovna Belova; June 23, 1879 – December 30, 1969) was a Russian-born artist who did most of her work in Mexico. However, she is better known as Diego Rivera’s first wife. She studied art in Saint Petersburg and then went to begin her art career in Paris in 1909. This same year she met Rivera and married him. In 1921, Rivera returned to Mexico, leaving Beloff behind and divorcing her. She never remarried.

Two Women (Dos Mujeres, Portrait of Angelina Beloff and Maria Dolores Bastian), 1914

Shortly after his return from Italy in March 1921 Rivera, drawn by socio-political developments in Mexico, decided finally to leave Europe, and he prepared to return to Mexico. He left behind him in Paris with Angelina Beloff his daughter Marika, born on 13 November 1919 of his liaison with Marevna Vorobyov-Stebelska, another Russian artist whom he had met in 1915 in the Russian circle to which he had been introduced by Angelina Beloff. For a time Rivera maintained relationships with both women, and in 1917 he lived for six months with the spirited, six years younger Marevna. On his return to Mexico, however, he broke off all contact with both. From time to time, through mutual friends, he sent Marevna maintenance payments for his daughter, though without ever acknowledging paternity. Back in his homeland, he turned his back on Europe completely.

Self-Portrait - Marevna

Maria Bronislavovna Vorobyeva-Stebelska (1892 – 4 May 1984), also known as "Marie Vorobieff" or Marevna, was a 20th-century, Russian-born painter known for her work with Cubism and pointillism.
From her relationship with the Mexican cubist painter and later muralist Diego Rivera in Paris she had a daughter, Marika Rivera (1919-2010), who became a professional dancer and film actress.

Portrait of Marevna Vorobev-Stebelska
1915

Creation
1922-1923
National Preparatory School

For the depiction of Woman or Eve the artist had taken as his model Guadalupe Marin, with whom he now began a liaison, following relationships with other models. In June 1922 Rivera and the Guadalajara-born Lupe Marin were married and took a house in Mixcalco Street, just outside the main square of Mexico City, Zocalo Square. From their five-year marriage two daughters, Guadalupe and Ruth, were born in the middle of 1924 and at the beginning of 1927.

Edward Weston
Guadalupe Marin de Rivera, first wife of Diego Rivera. 1924

Guadalupe "Lupe" Marín (October 16, 1895 – September 16, 1983), born María Guadalupe Marín Preciado, was a Mexican model and novelist.
Marín was born in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, Mexico. When aged eight, Marín moved with her family to Guadalajara.In 1922, she became the second wife of muralist Diego Rivera. She was the mother of Rivera's two youngest daughters, Ruth and Guadalupe Rivera Marín. Marín was married to Rivera for six years, ending in 1928.

Portrait of Lupe Marin by Diego Rivera

Good Friday on the Santa Anita Canal
1923-1924
Ministry of Education, Mexico City

The Proletarian Revolution, which consists of scenes of revolutionary struggle, the setting up of cooperatives and victory over capitalism, opens with what is probably the best known mural of the whole cycle, The Arsenal- Frida Kahlo Distributes Arms. In the only landscape-format mural of the series Rivera portrays friends and comrades of the circle around Julio Antonio Mella, the exiled Cuban Communist living in Mexico. At the centre of the mural stands Frida Kahlo, distributing arms and bayonets to the workers who have decided to fight. Rivera had met Kahlo, who became his wife a year later, in 1928 through the progressive circle of artists and intellectuals he depicted. She joined the Mexican Communist Party in the same year, and Rivera shows her, like the other Party members, with the red star of the Communist activist on the breast. At the left edge of the painting David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rivera's like-minded colleague, wears the uniform of an army captain, which he had actually been in the revolutionary years around 1915; Mella, who was murdered in the street in Mexico City on 10 January 1929 on the orders of the Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado, stands at the right edge next to his partner Tina Modotti, who hands bandoleers to comrades.

The Arsenal- Frida Kahlo Distributes Arms
1928
Ministry of Education, Mexico City

After a number of fleeting affairs following the break-up with Lupe Mann, Rivera married Frida Kahlo on 21 August 1929; she was 21 years his junior. A prospective artist, she had called on him the previous year, while he was still working on the murals in the SEP building, to seek his opinion of her first attempts at painting, and with his encouragement had decided to devote herself full-time to painting. For both, art and politics were the prime purposes in life, paving the way for a marriage of perfect companionship after the first passionate love relationship.
He was 42 and she was 22. Their mutual infidelities and his violent temper resulted in divorce in 1939, but they remarried December 8, 1940, in San Francisco, California.
The degree to which each needed the other is shown by their reunion after a year's separation in 1940, which lasted up to Kahlo's death in 1954.

Diego Rivera and Frida Kaloch

Diego Rivera and Frida Kaloch

Diego Rivera and Frida Kaloch

Pan-American Unity
(detail-Frida Kahlo)

Epic of the Mexican people mural by Diego Rivera, located in the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, Mexico

Mural of exploitation of Mexico by Spanish conquistadores, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City (1929–1945)

History of Cuernavaca and Morelos, Conquest and Revolution
Crossing the Gorge
Cortes Palace 1930-1931

Mural of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan and life in Aztec times by Diego Rivera

Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mexico
Totonac Civilization

Man, Controller of the Universe or Man in theTime Machine (detail)
Lenin and Trotsky
Palacio de Bella Artes, Mexico City

Man, Controller of the Universe or Man in theTime Machine (detail)
Lenin and Trotsky
Palacio de Bella Artes, Mexico City

Nude with Calla Lilies

Sra. Dona Elena Flores de Carrillo

Portrait of Natasha Zakolkowa Gelman

Water, Origin of Life
Figure Symbolizing the African Race

Water, Origin of Life
Figure Symbolizing the Asiatic Race

Water, Origin of Life
The Hands of Nature Offering Water

Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (Dream of a Sunday Afternoon at Alameda Central Park)

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon at Alameda Central Park (detail, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo)

David Siqueiros
1896 – 1974

David Siqueiros
David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, he was one of the most famous of the "Mexican muralists". He was a member of the Mexican Communist Party, and a Stalinist and supporter of the Soviet Union who led an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Leon Trotsky in May 1940.

By accordance with Spanish naming customs, his surname would normally have been Alfaro; however, like Picasso (Pablo Ruiz y Picasso) and Lorca (Federico García Lorca), Siqueiros used his mother's surname. It was long believed that he was born in Camargo in Chihuahua state, but in 2003 it was proven that he had actually been born in the city of Chihuahua, but grew up in Irapuato, Guanajuato, at least from the age of six. The discovery of his birth certificate in 2003 by a Mexican art curator was announced the following year by art critic Raquel Tibol, who was renowned as the leading authority on Mexican Muralism and who had been a close acquaintance of Siqueiros. Siqueiros changed his given name to "David" after his first wife called him by it in allusion to Michelangelo's David.