Art of the: Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) The 1910 revolution transformed Mexico. President Porfirio Diaz, who had presided for 33 years over a stable but deeply divided nation, was ousted. The next ten years were consumed in a bloody civil war. Afterward, the nation s new leadership set about turning the revolt into a durable political regime. The government also promoted a cultural revolution to bond Mexican citizens in a new state. The visual arts were at the leading edge of that effort.
Art after the Mexican Revolution In 1920, the new government's aim was to establish a new era for Mexico and its newly empowered people, and one of the ways it accomplished this was through art. It commissioned art which would promote and support the values fundamental to the revolution and to help establish a new identity for Mexico. This new identity was based on Mexico's rich historical traditions as well as a sense of moving forward into the modern age. The Mexican mural movement was a powerful way to connect their people through giving them pride and recognition in the things that made them Mexican.
Murals The quintessential art of the revolution was murals because of the accessibility. Large-scale murals in public places could be seen by many. The murals' aesthetic appeal would also help Mexicans adapt to the new regime by affecting an overall sense of pride and cultural beauty within the communities as a whole. The murals were usually painted with themes glorifying the Mexican Revolution, recalling Mexico's early pre-hispanic heritage and promoting the ideals of the new government. In order to create these murals, the government employed some of the best Mexican artists of the day.
Mexicanidad Mexican artists were interested in creating an aesthetic with a distinctly Mexican character based on national history, traditions and identity. Sources and symbols were varied some included the country s dramatic natural environment (valleys and volcanoes) while others focused on culture including the legacy of the indigenous civilizations before the 1521 Spanish conquest or the world of mestizos (mixed ancestry). The artists produced works that alluded to the Mexican people and sought in a more realistic and accurate manner to record their traditions and daily life.
Murals in the USA In the 1920s and 1930s, Mexico became of wide interest to many people in the United States as both an ancient wellspring of culture and a source of sensational new artistic developments. Institutions awarded mural commissions to Mexican painters. Mexican artists produced remarkable work with imagery of both countries highlighting the encounter between north and south and looked at Anglo-America from the viewpoint of Hispano-America.
Jose Clemente Orozco was one of these artists who based his art on the indigenous history and culture existing in Mexico before the Europeans arrived. He painted a mural cycle at Dartmouth College that recounts Mexican history from the early mythic days of the feathered-serpent god Quetzalcoatl to a contemporary and bitterly satiric vision of modern education. See guide
Jose Clemente Orozco, Epic of American Civilization: Hispano-America 1932-1934
Diego Rivera Presentation
Rivera on Art for the People Diego Rivera, History of Mexico 1929-1935
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Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park (1947 48)
Man, Controller of the Universe (Man in the Time Machine) (1934)
Frida Kahlo Classmate s presentation
Kahlo s Art Emotionally raw and visually disturbing. She used her personal tragedies - both physical and psychological - combined with a realistic painting style including self-portraits that often show the artist suffering. Kahlo's interest in her own mixed German-Mexican ancestry in conjunction with the influence of her husband's strong nationalism in his own art meant that many of Kahlo's works dealt with combined issues of national identity, her husband's looming presence as an artist in his own right, and/or her role as La Mexicana, the traditional Mexican woman and wife. Though not an official member of Surrealism, Kahlo's bizarre imagery along with her linear style was reminiscent of Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí with the difference being that Kahlo's subject matter was deeply personal rather than humorous or intellectual. She was not interested in automatic writing, biomorphism, dreams or the subconscious, all of which provided a focus for Surrealism.
Self-portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States. 1932.
My Dress Hangs There, 1933.
Self-portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937.
Memory, 1937.
My Grandparents, My Parents and I, 1936.
Four Inhabitants of Mexico City, 1938.
The Two Fridas, 1939.
Thinking about Death, 1943.
Self-portrait as a Tehuana, 1943.
Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick, 1954.
Frida and Diego Rivera, 1931