The Mexican Mural Movement Los Tres Grandes: Diego Rivera (1886-1957) José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974)

General Porfirio Díaz (1830-1915) Left: 1867, during Mexico’s fight against French intervention Right: 1908 President of Mexico (from 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911)

Secretary of Education Mexican Revolution 1910-1920 Jose Vasconcelos Secretary of Education under Obregón Álvaro Obregón, President 1920–25

(left) Diego Rivera (Mexican 1886-1957) The Architect, o/c, 1914 (right) Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians, o/c, 1921 Analytic Cubism Diego Rivera, The Architect,

Diego Rivera, Woman at the Well, 1913 National Gallery of Art, Mexico City

Diego Rivera, Zapatista Landscape – The Guerilla, 1915

Diego Rivera, Creation, 1922-3, encaustic and gold leaf, Antiteatro Bolivar, Nat. Prep. School, Mexico City Diego Rivera, Creation, 1922 - 23, encaustic and gold leaf, Amphitheater Bolivar, National Preparatory School, Mexico City

Diego Rivera, Creation, 1922 - 23, encaustic and gold leaf, Amphitheater Bolivar, National Preparatory School, Mexico City

Rivera, Creation, 1922-23 (right) early Renaissance Allegory of Good Government, fresco detail, Sienna, 1338, by Ambrigio Lorenzetti. Rivera had traveled to Italy in 1920 to study Italian Renaissance art

“Only why do the artists of this continent think that they should always assimilate the art of Europe? They should go to the other Americans for their enrichment, because if they copy Europe it will always be something they cannot feel because after all they are not Europeans.” - Diego Rivera Pan-American Unity mural for San Francisco City College, 1940

(renderings of) Murals of warrior kings from the Temple of the Jaguars, Chichen-Itza (c. 900 CE), visited by Diego Rivera and Jose Vasconcelos in 1921. Toltec and Maya

Diagram of a ball court stone relief from Chichen Itza At the invitation of Vasconcelos, Rivera traveled to Yucatán in 1921 to view the Maya pre-Conquest sites of Chichén Itza and Uxmal.

In 1927 Rivera traveled to the Soviet Union as a delegate from the Mexican Communist Party (joined in 1922) to attend the tenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Watercolor sketches for a mural in the Red Army Club, Moscow, which he never painted. Rivera’s communist views, like those of Orozco and Siqueiros, were independent of party doctrines. Rivera, May Day Moscow, watercolor, 1928

Rivera at the Education Ministry, Mexico City, Rivera, 1st floor Ministry of Ed, Mexico City Rivera at the Education Ministry, Mexico City, with one of his murals, 1924. Project began in 1922 and finished in 1928

Rivera, (left) with Frida Kahlo, 1930, (right) In the Arsenal, 1928, Fresco, approx. 79 7/8" x 13' 6". South wall, Patio de las Fiestas (Courtyard of Fiestas), third floor, Secretaría de Educación Pública, Mexico City. Frida Kahlo, center, distributes arms. In the right hand side Tina Modotti holds an ammunition belt. Text on the red banner is from a corrido, a song of the agrarian revolution.

Compare (left) Rivera, In The Arsenal, fresco detail, 1928 Giotto, Mourning of Christ, c. 1305, fresco detail, Cappella dell'Arena, Padua

"Giotto was a propagandist of the spirit of Christianity, the weapon of the Franciscan monks of his time against feudal oppression, Bruegel [Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, C.1525-1569] was a propagandist of the struggle of the Dutch artisan petty bourgeoisie against feudal oppression. Every artist who has been worth anything has been a propagandist. . . I want to be a propagandist of Communism and I want to be it in all that I can think, in all that I can speak, in all that I can write, and in all that I can paint. I want to use my art as a weapon. . ." The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art, Diego Rivera, 1932

Rivera, Wall Street Banquet, 1928, fresco, 2nd floor, Ministry of Education, MC

Diego Rivera. Death of the Capitalist. 1928. Fresco Diego Rivera. Death of the Capitalist. 1928. Fresco. South wall, Courtyard of the Fiestas, Ministry of Education, Mexico City, Mexico. “These works that call themselves revolutionary, and that in the cases of Rivera and Siqueiros expound a simple and Manichean [dualistic] Marxism, were commissioned, sponsored and paid for by a government that was never Marxist and ceased being revolutionary…this painting helped to give it [the government] a progressive and revolutionary face.” - Octovio Paz Diego Rivera, The Protest, 1928, fresco, Nat. Prep. School, Mexico City

Leon Trotsky, Diego Rivera, and French Surrealist writer, Trotsky, Rivera, Breton Leon Trotsky, Diego Rivera, and French Surrealist writer, André Breton, in Coyoacán in 1938

Diego Rivera. The History of Mexico - The Ancient Indian World. 1929-35. Fresco. North wall, National Palace, Mexico City, Mexico. The topic of this mural is the history of Mexico from the fall of Teotihuacan, about 900 BCE to the beginning of the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas in 1935. http://caliban.lbl.gov/panoramas/mural.jpg

“… the great issue of whether Diego Rivera, The History of Mexico. 1929-35. Fresco. West wall, detail of central arch, National Palace, Mexico City, Mexico “… the great issue of whether ‘Mexico’ was one nation or two.” (Indian or/and European)

Diego Rivera. The History of Mexico. 1929-35. Fresco Diego Rivera. The History of Mexico. 1929-35. Fresco. West wall, left inner arch, National Palace, Mexico City, Mexico

Rivera, The History of Cuernavaca and Morelos,1929-30. Fresco Rivera, The History of Cuernavaca and Morelos,1929-30. Fresco. Cortez Palace, Cuernavaca, Mexico Rivera, Palace of Cortes, overview

Cortez Palace, Cuernavaca, Mexico Cortez Palace, Cuernavaca, Mexico. The Palace dates back to the colonial era; built in 1533, it served as the summer residence of Hernan Cortes

Rivera, The History of Cuernavaca and Morelos - The Enslavement of the Indian and Constructing the Cortez Palace. Detail. 1929-30. Fresco. Cortez Palace, Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Diego Rivera, The History of Cuernavaca and Morelos - The Enslavement of the Indian and Constructing the Cortez Palace. (detail) 1929-30. Fresco. Cortez Palace, Cuernavaca, Mexico

Rivera, The History of Cuernavaca and Morelos: Crossing the Barranca (ravine) 1929-30, fresco detail, Cortez Palace, Cuernavaca, Mexico. Rivera, Palace of Cortes mural (detail)

Views of the Garden Court of the Detroit Institute of Art with Diego Rivera’s mural, Detroit Industry

North wall, Detroit Industry, fresco, 1932, gift of Edsel Ford Rivera, Detroit Industry, 1932-3, The Detroit Institute of Arts North wall, Detroit Industry, fresco, 1932, gift of Edsel Ford

Detroit Industry, detail of North Wall showing laborers of all races working in unison for the good of industry.

"The yellow race represents the sand, because it is most numerous "The yellow race represents the sand, because it is most numerous. And the red race, the first in this country, is like the iron ore, the first thing necessary for the steel. The black race is like coal, because it has a great native esthetic sense, a real flame of feeling and beauty in its ancient sculpture, its native rhythm and music. So its esthetic sense is like the fire, and its labor furnished the hardness which the carbon in the coal gives to steel. "The white race is like the lime, not only because it is white, but because lime is the organizing agent in the making of steel. It binds together the other elements and so you see the white race as the great organizer of the world." - Rivera Detroit murals south wall with figures representing the white race (“lime,” top left) and Asian race (“like sand,” right).

Rivera’s enthusiasm for industry and machines as Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry (south wall), 1932-3, Detroit Institute of Arts Rivera’s enthusiasm for industry and machines as gods of the modern world is evident in allusions to Aztec Earth goddess, Coatlique

Rivera, Diego, A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park, 1947-48 Fresco, Alameda Hotel, Mexico City. Now located in the Diego Rivera Museum on Alameda Park. 45’ X 15’ Current location

Diego Rivera, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park (detail), 1948, fresco, Museo Mural Diego Rivera, Mexico City, Mexico

Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe (detail) 1934, fresco, Museo del Palacio de Belas Artes, Mexico City (INBA) Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe (detail) 1934, fresco, Museo del Palacio de Belas Artes, Mexico City. Recreation of destroyed Rockefeller Center Mural, NYC

Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe (detail with Lenin), 1933, fresco

Rivera, The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City, Diego Rivera, San Francisco Institute fresco, 1930 Rivera, The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City, 1931, fresco, San Francisco Art Institute

Diego Rivera’s San Francisco Institute fresco Diego Rivera San Francisco Institute fresco with Taylor Diego Rivera’s San Francisco Institute fresco

Diego Rivera. Allegory of California, 1930-31. Fresco Diego Rivera. Allegory of California, 1930-31. Fresco. Mural on wall and ceiling of main staircase between tenth and eleventh floors. Exchange's Luncheon Club/City Club, Pacific Stock Exchange Tower, San Francisco

Diego Rivera, San Francisco City College fresco Rivera, Pan-American Unity, 1940, fresco, City College of San Francisco, 5 panels

Christian iconography – paradox of Mexican Communism David Alfaro Siqueiros (Mexican Social Realist Muralist, 1896-1974), Tropical America (detail) Oliveras Street, Los Angeles, 1932, Fresco applied with an air gun on cement, 19.7’ x  98.4' Christian iconography – paradox of Mexican Communism

The center of Siqueiros'mural depicts an indigenous Mexican peasant lashed to a double cross beneath a symbol of American imperialism — the American eagle

Siqueiros at work on Tropical America mural during his expulsion from Mexico in 1932 for radical political militancy. Siqueiros came to Los Angeles for six months and created three murals. One remains.

Siqueiros’ América Tropical fresco with right section whitewashed two weeks after completion in 1932. Siquerios visa was revoked and the artist was sent back to Mexico

Siqueiros, New York City Experimental Workshop, 1936

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Echo of a Scream, 1937, enamel on wood, 48/36” NYC MoMA

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Collective Suicide (detail),1936, Enamel on wood with applied sections, 49" x 6‘, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Siqueiros, Ethnography, 1939, enamel on composition board, 122 /82 cm Siqueiros, Ethnography, 1939, enamel on composition board, 122 /82 cm. NYC MoMA Siqueiros, Ethnography, 1939, enamel on composition board, 122 /82 cm. NYC MoMA

Siqueiros, Revolutionary on a Horse, 1957 Fresco, Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Don Porfirio & His Courtesans, 1957, fresco, Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City (INAH) David Alfaro Siqueiros, Don Porfirio & His Courtesans, 1957, fresco, Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City

David Alfaro Siqueiros, Zapata, 1966, pyroxylin on masonite, Mexico City (right) Diego Rivera, Agrarian Leader, Zapata, fresco, 7’9”/6’2” NYC MoMA David Alfaro Siquieros, Zapata, 1966, pyroxylin on masonite, Mexico City compared with Rivera, Agrarian Leader, Zapata, fresco, 7’9”/6’2” NYC MoMA

José Clemente Orozco (Mexico, 1883-1949) The Franciscan and the Indian, 1930, lithograph, NYC MoMA Jose Clemente Orozco, The Franciscan, 1930, lithograph, NYC MoMA

Jose Clemente Orozco The Expulsion of Quetzalcoatl (detail), fresco, of The Epic of American Civilization, 1932-34, mural cycle of 24 massive panels on the walls of the ground floor in the Baker Library reserve reading room, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. (right top and bottom) Orozco at work on the north and west walls

Orozco, The Expulsion of Quetzalcoatl (detail), American Civilization Quetzalcoatl in human form, Codex Borbonicus Jose Clemente Orozco, The Expulsion of Quetzalcoatl (detail), fresco, Dartmouth, 1932-4 Orozco, The Expulsion of Quetzalcoatl (detail), American Civilization Fresco panel, Dartmouth College Library, New Hampshire 1932-4. Quetzalcoatl points toward his prophecy

Expulsion of Quetzalcoatl (who points to his prophecy) Golden age II Expulsion of Quetzalcoatl (who points to his prophecy) Prophecy

Orozco, panels 1 (Migration), 2 (Aztec Warriors), and 5 (Golden Age under rule of Quezalcoatl) from Epic of American Civilization, 1932-34

Epic of American Civilization: The Modern World Orozco was a dialectical thinker, not Manichean like Siqueiros and Rivera, but did he truly reject the idea of painting as propaganda as claimed? Orozco: “A painting should not be a commentary but the thing itself; not a reflection but light itself; not an interpretation but a thing to be interpreted.” (quoted by Ades) Epic of American Civilization: The Modern World

Orozco, The Modern Migration of the Spirit, 1933, one of 24 fresco panels, Dartmouth Library mural, The Epic of American Civilization, 1932-34. Militant Christ = an aroused and aggressive spirituality.

Both Pre-Conquest and Modern American Gods sacrifice the individual. Orozco, two panels from Dartmouth College Library fresco: (left) Ancient Human Sacrifice (right) Gods of the Modern World. Matriculated fetal skeletons = the deadening effect of the academy and the perpetuation of institutional authority over education at the service of society. Both Pre-Conquest and Modern American Gods sacrifice the individual. Orozco was against all ideology, religious or secular

Orozco, (left) Hispano-America (panel 16) and (right) Anglo-America (panel 15), American Civilization fresco panels, 1932-4, Dartmouth College Library, New Hampshire How does the thesis of this mural compare with Rivera’s underlying thesis in Pan American Unity mural (1940) at San Francisco City College? Jose Clemente Orozco, Hispanoamerica & Angloamerica, fresco, 1932-4, Dartmouth, New Hampshire

“There are as many literary associations as spectators “There are as many literary associations as spectators. One of them, when looking at a picture representing a scene of war, for example, may start thinking of murder, another of pacifism, another of anatomy, another of history, and so on. Consequently, to write a story and to say that it is actually TOLD by a painting is wrong and untrue.” - Orozco “A Note from the Artist,” 1934

Orozco, Prometheus, fresco, 1930, Pomona College Dining Hall, Claremont, California. First mural in the United States by a Mexican muralist. Ceiling panel (top rectangle as shown here) measures 7 x 28.5 ft

Jose Clemente Orozco, Prometheus, 1930, tempera on masonite 61 cm, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City. A version of the mural painted the same year for Pomona College, California Jose Clemente Orozco, Prometheus, 1960, tempera on masonite 61 cm, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City. A version of the mural painted the same year for Pomona College, California

José Clemente Orozco, Dive Bomber and Tank, 1940, fresco, six panels, each 9' x 36," overall 9 x 18‘ Painted before the public at MoMA NYC: “working as a clown in a circus.” “I simply paint the life that is going on at the present—what we are and what the world is at this moment. That is what modern art is.” - Orozco