Painters and Paz A Conversation in Twentieth-Century Mexican Painting

Diego Rivera ( ) At fifteen he earned a scholarship At eighteen he earned a government pension (official monetary support for his art) At nineteen he was awarded a travel-grant to Europe Paris Returns to Paris

“Angeline Beloff” (1917) In Paris he worked on his painting, took a mistress, had a child (who died of influenza), and began developing a greater political consciousness.

“Two Women” (1914) In Paris, Rivera went through a Cubist phase...

He met Russian “Cubists” who argued that art should be for the people (and that’s what they were doing by painting in this style). But Rivera began to wonder to what extent the “common man” could relate to Cubist paintings.

“Zapatista Landscape” (1915)

In 1919 Siqueiros came to Paris, and he and Rivera discussed the potential for murals as a “proletarian” art form. In 1920 Jose Vasconcelos (Secretary of Education, ) sent Rivera to Italy to study Italian murals. Trotsky & Rivera, 1940.

Rivera seems to have been especially interested in the works of thirteenth/fourteenth-century muralist Giotto.

Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 and began traveling around Mexico studying and collecting “indigenous” art and culture. At this time he also joined the Sindicato de Obrerors Tecnicos, Pintores, y Escultores and the Mexican Communist Party.

“The Day of the Dead” Ministry of Education (1924)

“The Distribution of Arms” Ministry of Education (1924)

“The Court of the Rich” Ministry of Education (1924)

“Allegory of California” San Francisco Stock Exchange Lunch Club (1930)

“Detroit Industry” Detroit Institute of Arts” (1932)

“Vaccination” Detroit Institute of Arts” (1932)

In 1933 he was involved in a controversy over his insistence on keeping a portrait of Lenin in a mural at Rockefeller Center: “Man, Controller of the Universe.” Palacio de Bellas Artes. (1934)

“Epic of the Mexican People.” Palacio Nacional ( )

“Blood of the Martyrs” (1926)

David Alfaro Siqueiros ( ) Began with studying a Mexican en plein air style when he became involved in a student conspiracy against President Huerta (1913) Then he joined the army of President Carranza In 1919 he went to Paris where he met Rivera In 1922 he returned in response to Jose Vasconcelos’ appeal to use art for the Revolution He helped organize the Sindicato de Obrerors Tecnicos, Pintores y Escultores and was elected to the executive committee of the Mexican Communist Party.

In 1924 he published a manifesto for the artist union. “He declared that easel painting was egotistic, over-intellectualized, elitist and insufficiently ideological to instruct the masses; in contrast to this, murals were not private property and reached a wider public. Further, artists must take the side, and the role, of workers, labour in teams to avoid bourgeois individualism, unionize themselves to protect the interests of their craft, and strive to create a proletarian art that would revolutionize the world.” --Grove Encyclopedia of Art

Siqueiros (unlike Rivera) was quite the revolutionary Prison 1932 Exile 1937 Fighting in Spanish Civil War 1940 Led attempt to murder Trotsky Exile Prison (had been sentenced to eight years)

“Maria del Carmen Portala” (1933)

“Cabeza de Mujer” (1939)

“American Tropical” (1932)

“Workman” Lithograph, (1936)

“Retreat of the Bourgeoisie” ( )

“El Diablo de la Iglesia” (1947)

“For the Complete Safety of all Mexican Workers.” ( )

Jose Clemente Orozco ( ) Born in middle-class family Lost left hand, hearing, and damaged his sight in an explosion Responded to Jose Vasconcelos’ appeal (1923) 1934, in New York, Alma Reed became his patron; introduced him to the Ashram

“Prometheus” Frary Dining Hall, Pomona College. (1930)

“Wounded Soldier.” (1930)

“The Epic of American Civilization” ( ) “Ancient Human Sacrifice”

“The Epic of American Civilization” ( ) “Modern Human Sacrifice”

“The Epic of American Civilization” ( ) “The Migration”

“The Epic of American Civilization” ( ) “The Departure of Quetzalcoatl”

“The Epic of American Civilization” ( ) “The Machine”

Jose Luis Cuevas (b. 1934)

Frida Kahlo ( ) 1925 hurt in bus accident. 32 operations in her lifetime 1929 shows her work to Rivera; marries him 1953 right leg amputated dies 1954 (suicide?)

Her major work was self-portraiture:

She often painted herself with her husband...

Andre Breton described her as a “self-invented Surrealist,” but she said she wasn’t a Surrealist because she didn’t paint dreams, but her own reality...

“The Broken Column” (1944)

“Henry Ford Hospital” (1932, Oil on Sheet Metal)

“The Two Fridas” (1939)

“Long Live Life” (1954)

Matthias Goeritz ( ) b. Danzig, Germany (now Gdansk, Poland) Emigrated to Spanish Morocco in 1940; Spain in 1945 Helped found “Escuela de Altamira” Moves to Mexico his wife dies Influenced architect Luis Barragan

“El Cuadro de Los Cuadros”

“My Hand” (1952) “The Plaza of the Five Towers” ( )

Influenced Luis Barragan:

Rufino Tamayo ( ) From Oaxaca Mostly self-taught Rejected Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco 1936 working and teaching in New York

“Women of Tehuantepec” (1939) Oil on canvas. 33 7/8 x 57 1/8 in. (86 x 145 cm)

“Man before the Infinite.” (1950)

Rufino Tamayo The Somnambulist Oil on canvas, 1954 Anonymous donor 1964:130 © San Diego Museum of Art

Red Couple

“Children's Games” (1959) Oil on canvas; 51 1/4 x 76 3/4 in.

“Hombre en la Ventana”

Family

Dream Figure (1960)