Mexican+Muralist+Movement

= = =__**The Mexican Mural Movement**__ =

//Introduction//
====The Mexican mural renaissance began in the 1920’s, where the work of José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and José David Alfaro Siqueiros became internationally renowned. Their work portrays the essence of what the mural movement stood for, and it is interpreted by many people in many different ways. It has been heavily criticized and appraised, and although the three artists had artistic and ideological differences, their differences emphasize what an outstanding achievement the Mexican mural movement was. The following three artists are known as "Los Tres Grandes," and they "played a central role in the cultural and social life of the country following the nationalist revolution." [2].====



====José Clemente Orozco is considered Mexico's most powerful and significant muralist [1]. He was born in November of 1883 in the state of Jalisco. Orozco was the son of two very educated and cultured parents, and was a direct descendant of the early Spanish settlers in Jalisco, Mexico. Orozco began drawing at a very young age, then moved on to painting afterwards. Originally he had been studying architecture until he was injured in a chemical explosion, thus propelling him to move on to painting as his profession. Orozco has many famous works, and a lot of them can be found on the outside walls of the National Preparatory School, where he painted murals on three stories of patio walls. Referring to this particular job, Orozco once said "My one theme is //humanity//. My one tendency is //emotion// to a //maximum//. My means, the real and //integral// representation of bodies in themselves and in their inter-relation." Apparently, the process in finishing the walls was interrupted on multiple occasions. Some people objected to Orozco's "frank and historically faithful interpretations of church-state relations." Some of his panels were even partially destroyed. The walls of The National Preparatory School were painted on "fresco," or done in the "fresco technique" which was revived by Diego Rivera first. "Fresco" is simply painting on a plaster-like surface [3]. Contemporary artists don't generally use it anymore. Orozco came to the U.S. a couple times as his popularity grew, but rather than that has always resided in Mexico. He died in September of 1949 at the height of his career.====



====Diego Rivera was born in the city of Guanajuato in 1886 [1]. He, also like Orozco, began his artistic endeavors at a young age. Many do not know that Diego Rivera was born a twin, but his brother sadly died at two years old [5]. Some time afterwards, Rivera was enrolled in the San Carlos Academy, but eventually decided to work independently. During this time, he held an exhibition where he was granted a generous scholarship by the governor Don Theodoro Dehesa, and he studied abroad in Spain, Belgium, Holland, France, and England. Coming back to Mexico, he revived the "fresco" technique that had been lost for centuries, and he made it quite popular among other artists who also mastered this technique along with him. Diego Rivera was known as a womanizer, and was married four times. The third time, his marriage was to Frida Kahlo, a fellow artist. Additionally, Rivera was known as a passionate man, in many ways [5]. "//Sueño de una tarde dominical en el Alameda//" or "Dream of a Sunday afternoon in the Alameda" (as shown directly below) is one of Rivera's most controversial pieces, but also regarded as one of his "finest achievements." One of the reasons why it was so controversial was because the 19th century philosopher, Ignacio Ramírez, is painted in the mural holding a placard that reads "God does not exist" [2]. Rivera was an adamant atheist, and this statement was particularly offensive to many people. On November 15th, 1957, Diego Rivera died at the age of seventy.====





====José David Alfaro Siqueiros was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in December of 1896, and is of Spanish and Portuguese descent [1]. Starting in 1911, Siqueiros participated in strikes and conspiracies, many political movements, imprisonment, and even an assassination [6][1]. He joined the Constitutional Army with the rank of Captain young in his life. Afterward, he went to Europe in 1919 to continue his art studies. When he returned to Mexico in 1922, he painted some of his first murals in the National Preparatory School. The murals by Siqueiros and many other influential artists were the "foundation of a new socially conscious art that reinvigorated mural painting for the first time since the Italian Renaissance." [1]. Siqueiros was a very politically active man throughout his whole life, and almost always integrated it into his art. In 1934, he was named President of the National League Against War and Fascism, and in the same year he advocated a universal attitude for mural paintings, whereas he went to New York and was assisted by artists like Diego Rivera, improving traditional art techniques to make them modern. These art pieces can be found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Among many other places, Siqueiros traveled to France, Spain, Egypt, India, and Poland throughout his life. In 1960, after participating in political movements all over the world, was named Executive Secretary of the Mexican Communist Party, but was arrested for participating in a street demonstration that resulted in violence. In response to his arrest, nearly 100 artists withdrew their art for the Second Mexican Biennial of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving. A mass amount of people also protested his arrest, no matter their political stance or ideology [1]. He died in 1974 at the age of seventy-seven.====

__Examples of Diego Rivera's art__


__Examples of David Alfaro Siqueiros's Art__



__**Citations**__ [1] Reed, Alma, __The Mexican Muralists__, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1960. [2] Rochfort, Desmond, __Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros,__ San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1993. [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresco [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Rivera#Personal_life [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alfaro_Siqueiros

To Learn More About Mexican Culture and/or History, Try These Sites!
http://spanishdialects-11c.wikispaces.com/Mayan+Culture
 * //Mayan Culture...//**

//**Narcocorridos in Mexico...**// http://spanishdialects-11c.wikispaces.com/Narcocorridos+in+Mexico

http://spanishdialects-11c.wikispaces.com/Mexican+Ghost+Stories
 * //Mexican Ghost Stories...//**