Mexican muralism: characteristics, authors and works
Mexican muralism is a pictorial movement that began in the 1920s, as part of the modernization policies of the State of Mexico after the 1910 revolution.
It is a movement inspired by one purpose: to build a national identity to bring together the different sectors of Mexican society, given the deep social inequalities of the time, especially educational and cultural
President Álvaro Obregón, elected for the period from 1920 to 1924, appointed José Vasconcelos as secretary of public education. This developed the first cultural program of the Mexican State after the revolution.
In order to create a feeling of national unity and promote the values of the modern State, Vasconcelos promoted, on the one hand, the national public education, concentrating efforts on the Spanish language as a point of unification in a multicultural Mexico and multilingual. On the other, he developed a public art program to build and reinforce collective identity and memory.
According to Claudia Mandel in her essay "Mexican Muralism: Public Art, Identity, Collective Memory", Vasconcelos was inspired by the ideas of Russian intellectuals Anatoli Lunacharsky and Máximo Gorki, promoters of public art for social edification, as well as in the literacy campaigns and creation of government public libraries North American.
In this way, Vasconcelos also sought to ensure the integration of the indigenous population, traditionally discriminated against by the dominant sectors.
In this sense, Javier Ocampo López, in his essay "José Vasconcelos and Mexican education", argues that this "nationalism artistic culture "was a whole national crusade in which there was not only a lot of money from the State, but also the resolute reception of the population. Thus was born Mexican muralism. But what characterized this movement, not only at the axiological level but also at the plastic and aesthetic level?
Characteristics of Mexican muralism
Mexican muralism followed a program to achieve the purposes of the revolutionary state: in the first place, the valuation and recovery of the history, source of national identity, and, secondly, the recognition that the descendants of that history were still present in the contemporaneity. This would give art not only themes and values, but also a very particular aesthetic. Let's see.
Monumentality
If muralism was an art conceived by the State for a social strategy, it is clear that it should have a public scope, which could only be achieved through the wall or monumental sculpture.
Thus, the essential support of Mexican muralism was, evidently, the wall, which would give monumentality to the artistic concept. These walls were arranged in state buildings, in schools, universities or churches.
When we say wall, we not only mean flat walls, but also vaulted ceilings, pendentives, barrel vaults, and boards. This is how Elise Mijando de Jesús makes it appear in her essay "An Approach to the Techniques of Siqueirian Mural Painting".
Mijando de Jesús analyzes the frescoes of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (former convent of San Ildefonso), a mural project started in 1922 at the initiative of Vasconcelos, in which Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros participated, along with Jean Charlot, Ramón Alva de la Canal, Fernando Leal and Fermín Revolts.
The wall also ensured that the art served its public purpose by not being collectible, striking a blow against the elitist concept of the art market. Thus, the chosen support was consistent with the values of the triumphant revolution.
Techniques
Two predominant techniques were used in Mexican muralism: fresco and encaustic, as reported by Mijando de Jesús.
Fresco is a pictorial technique that consists of painting on a wet layer of lime with mineral pigments dissolved in water. The lime drying process causes the pigments to bind and set, increasing their durability. This technique requires speed in the execution, since it competes against the drying time, which is why it does not allow repainting. Thus, those who use this technique are true masters of the art.
In the encaustic technique, the binder material is hot wax mixed with pigments. It can be applied with an equally hot brush or spatula. After being applied, it is polished with very dry linen rags. It has been used since ancient times, especially on panel, but also in mural painting.
Dialogue with the vanguards
At first, the muralists applied elements of the western avant-garde, such as expressionism (especially in Orozco), Futurism (in Siqueiros) and Synthetic Cubism (in Rivera), but for this reason they cannot be considered to have imitated. On the contrary, they ended up turning away from them.
If the avant-gardes set out to achieve total artistic autonomy and dissolve the importance of content (with the exception of surrealism), Mexican muralism did not. Indeed, muralism returned to the content, but a new content, with new mythologies, stories and purposes, thanks to which it surpassed the Eurocentric gaze and constituted itself as a truly Latin American.
The process of conceptualization of these contents generated unique plastic forms, thanks to the observation of pre-Hispanic and indigenous aesthetics.
The art of muralism, in this way, rejects the absolutization of the autonomy of art and returns it to its broad social function, essentially educational and propagandistic, in the best style of sacred art medieval.
Themes of Mexican muralism
The political and social vocation with which Mexican muralism was born was the frame of reference for the selection of themes, which were at the service of the State. Let's get to know the most important ones.
UNIVERSAL REPUBLICAN SECURITIES AND POLITICAL PROPAGAND
At first, themes were represented within the individualistic idealism of the promoter of muralism, José Vasconcelos. Republican and libertarian principles will be some of them.
Those were times in which the ideologies of the left were in full expansion and stood as a promise. Thus, values and guiding principles of socialism were also represented (the class struggle, the freedom, oppression, the life of the peasants, the working class), their political leaders, among others.
PROGRESS, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND KNOWLEDGE
The tendency of the muralist movement was to subscribe to modernization and progress. Therefore, they also made an apology for knowledge, science and technology, including industrialization and the machine. All this represented the cult of progress as a horizon from a Marxist logic.
PRE-HISPANIC PAST
The muralists set out to represent the history and mythology of pre-Hispanic cultures, and, In this way, they gave an image and a voice to the inheritors of the indigenous past through the Arts. These included myths, symbols, customs, historical accounts, etc. However, the indigenous was not represented from the foundation of the movement, but was a progressive discovery.
MEXICO HISTORY
Different passages of Mexican history would become part of the thematic repertoire. The conquest and colonization, the war of independence, the Mexican revolution, the abolition of slavery, the campaigns to promote literacy, etc. Some representations would show the triumphs of the nation, others the contradictions that had to be fought against.
New iconography
When developing new themes, it was necessary to renew the iconographic repertoire of art. Thus, worker and peasant iconography emerged in a first stage.
Regarding worker and peasant iconography, Madel points out as examples the works of the National Preparatory School of 1922, in which observe Christian allegories and occult signs, symbolism and synthetism, all these elements that are somehow recognizable in the painting of Gauguin. For example, the mural Maternity, by Orozco, produced in 1923.
Later, to the extent that muralism found its connection with Mexican specificity, extensively developed indigenous iconography, which gave the movement identity, meaning and wealth.
As for indigenous iconography, some of the first works that came to light were those of the muralists Jean Charlot and Fermín Revueltas. Charlot represented The massacre of Tenochtitlán. Likewise, Revueltas stood out when painting the Allegory of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the indigenous virgin of Latin America.
Indigenist style
In reality, the indigenous entered the spiritual nationalism of Vasconcelos only after 1922, and finally appeared - according to Madel - in the Manifesto of the Union of Workers, Technicians, Painters and Sculptors of Mexico of 1923, according to which the art of the Mexican people is the greatest and best expression in the world.
However, as early as 1921, David Alfaro Siqueiros had made a call in the manifesto Three contemporary-oriented appeals to the painters and sculptors of the new American generation, in which he proposed, according to Madel herself, to leave the sentimentality of art nouveau and turn to the indigenous visual tradition.
From then on, not only the indigenous iconography is incorporated, but also the plastic style, arisen from the study of the sources of pre-Hispanic or contemporary popular art, within the reach of artists.
See also 5 keys to understanding the importance of Mexican muralism.
Main authors of Mexican muralism
It is well known that David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco were the most renowned artists of muralism thanks to their relationship with José Vasconcelos. But in addition to these, whom we are also going to refer to in this section, other names stand out. Let's see.
Jean charlot
Louis Henri Jean Charlot (1898-1979) was a French-born but naturalized Mexican painter. Upon discovering pre-Hispanic art, he was fascinated by its characteristics, so he worked under the influence of this discovery. He was also Diego Rivera's assistant in his early years. He is known to have painted the Massacre in the Templo Mayor or The Conquest of Tenochtitlán (1922-1923).
Ramón Alva de la Canal
Ramón Alva de la Canal (1898-1985) was a painter and illustrator. He studied at the San Carlos Academy, as did several of the muralists. He was part of the painters union. Among his works stands out The landing of the Spanish and la cross planted in new lands (1922-1923).
Fernando Leal
Fernando Leal (1896-1964) was one of the painters hired by José Vasconcelos for the great project of the National Preparatory School, where he painted the fresco The dancers of Chalma or The feast of the Lord of Chalma (1923-1924). He also painted the Bolivarian epic in the lobby of the Simón Bolívar amphitheater between 1939 and 1942.
Fermín Revueltas
Fermín Revueltas (1901-1935) was a painter, stained glass artist, draftsman and muralist. He participated in the Mexican movement known as estridentismo, which integrated Futurism, Dadaism, Ultraism, and Constructivism in a single movement. He was part of the first generation of muralists who participated in the decoration of the National Preparatory School where he painted his famous Allegory of the Virgin of Guadalupe (1922 and 1924).
David Alfaro Siqueiros
Siqueiros, who lived between 1896 and 1974, differs from Rivera and Orozco in that his themes project the future more than the past. At the beginning of him he practiced a classicist and nationalist art. However, starting in 1932, it evolved into a much more dynamic art. An example of this is the Portrait of the bourgeoisie, from the headquarters of the Mexican Electrician Union, executed in 1940.
This painter sought a universal aesthetic balance with nationalist and modern motifs, which, according to Madel, came from his contact with the technological advances of North American society. In this sense, Madel maintains that, for Siqueiros, the mural was conceived as a “scenic space multi-dimensional and mass spectacle using the technique of cinematographic montage, by means of Eisenstein ”.
It is not surprising, therefore, the presence of elements from the avant-garde of Futurism in the painter's work: geometric, diagonal, straight lines and curved shapes.
You can also see the influence of Aztec art in the compact masses, the visual synthesis and the stone sense of its figures from the most advanced period. Even Olmec elements in the physiognomy of the characters represented: large forehead, pronounced cheekbones, oblique eyes, prominent nose and lips, says Madel. An example of all this will be the murals Proletarian mother / Peasant mother Y The burial of the worker (unfinished).
It may interest you: David Alfaro Siqueiros: biography and works of the Mexican muralist.
Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera (1886-1957), who studied in Europe and, first of all, practiced synthetic cubism, inherited from this avant-garde balance, order, harmony and the principles of plastic construction, which is visible in the mural The creation, 1922.
Rivera applied elements of Byzantine and Italian art. When he finally let himself be won over by the cause of Mexican identity, he explored and studied the sources of pre-Hispanic art, such as codices and pre-Hispanic art pieces.
Madel says that by doing what the Renaissance painters did, who studied Greek myths and Biblical stories in detail to build a classical art, Rivera became the inventor of the classical indigenous.
As a result, Rivera promoted the representation of the indigenous world from an idealizing perspective. In this, the inclusion of the feminine is also recognized, to which Rivera gives voice and presence.
See also 5 fundamental murals of Diego Rivera.
Jose Clemente Orozco
José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) was the most influenced of the Mexican muralists by Expressionism. On the one hand, he profusely worked on socialist values alongside education, progress, and industrialization. On the other hand, Orozco's universe of characters focused on the masculine, in which he distinguished himself from Rivera.
Orozco rejects the idealized and mythologizing compositions of the indigenous past, since he understands that the pre-Hispanic and the Hispanic are intertwined in a conflictive process marked by the struggle between progress and the sectors reactionaries.
In this way, Orozco was the first to allude to Spanish colonialism, as evidenced by the fresco Cortés and La Malinche, of 1926, in which the consequences of Hispanic domination and indigenous subjugation are evident.
See also José Clemente Orozco: biography and works.
Background of Mexican muralism
Mexican muralism has its antecedents in the search for a nationalist art. This began in the nineteenth century, after the independence concern of Mexico. At that time, Leandro Izaguirre, Félix Parra, José Obregón, Rodrigo Gutiérrez and the engraver José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) stood out.
However, a more concrete and significant antecedent is represented by the exhibition at the San Carlos Academy held in 1910. This exhibition was organized by the painter Gerardo Murillo, better known as Dr. Atl (1875-1964).
The purpose of the San Carlos Academy exhibition was to respond with a nationalist proposal to the exhibition of Spanish painting sponsored by Porfirio Díaz to commemorate Mexico's struggle for independence from colonialism Spanish.
The participating artists committed themselves to indigenous themes as a vindication of the native peoples. The artists Saturnino Herrán and Jorge Enciso worked in this sense.
Hence, Mr. Atl, organizer of this initiative and promoter of modernism, has been considered as the ideological precursor and theoretical defender of muralism, in search of a painting with values and spirituality.
It may interest you: Artistic movements of the 20th century
