The Mexican Muralist Movement

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, by the early 1920s, Mexican Secretary of Education Vasconcelos ensured the creation of an artistic renaissance in which Mexican artists reinterpreted Mexican history in accord with revolutionary principles, locating major works of arts on the walls of public buildings and, thus, making them accessible to the most humble and unlettered of Mexicans. The author points out that Mexico became a destination of choice for Americans and Europeans with a wide variety of leftist views, ranging from liberalism to communism. The paper explores the work of Diego Rivera, unmistakably a major light in the Mexican Muralist Movement, and his wife Frida Kahlo, who was not a muralist, but who retained some of the essential characteristics that defined the Mexican Muralist Movement.

Table of Contents
Background
Spiritual Revolution
Cross-Pollination via Admiration
A Different Sort of Revolution, a Different Sort of Art
Foundations of the New Art
Diego Rivera
Frida Kahlo

From the Paper:

"Others besides Delpar regard this as "the most fascinating phase of the whole revolutionary movement , the attempt to readjust the spiritual and cultural background of an entire nation in accordance with the revolutionary changes that the machine age had produced". Vasconcelos expanded cultural activities widely, including archaeology, ancient history of Mexico, religion, literature, music and the visual arts. Until then, none had ever been developed as integrated parts of the nation's cultural heritage. The most vital and strongest to emerge, and one that has been uniquely identified with Mexico, is mural painting."

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