Siqueiros’ use of industrial-grade paints and materials influenced Jackson Pollock who studied under Siqueiros in his Experimental Workshop, which he opened in New York City in 1936. In 2012 the work was presented to the public after an extensive restoration and renovation funded by the Getty Foundation. América Tropical: Oprimida y Destrozada por los Imperialismos was completed in Los Angeles in 1932. The imagery, with a bound and murdered indigenous person at its center, proved too much for American audiences and was soon painted over. Photo: The Getty Research Instituteĭavid Alfaro Siqueiros, the most progressive of the three, would only complete one mural in America. Mural: © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SOMAAP, Mexico City. Roberto Berdecio, an associate of David Alfaro Siqueiros in the 1930’s, standing in front of América Tropical just after its completion. Related Reading: The Artists of the WPA: The Promise of a New Deal
These artists’ influence on American art was profound, as can be seen in works by over forty Americans included in the exhibition, and many of these Americans who drew inspiration from the Mexican Muralists would end up contributing to the WPA’s artist programs. Their murals-and most paintings, film, and photography of their contemporaries-celebrated the indigenous peoples of Mexico and promoted Socialist government beliefs shared by many artists active in Mexico at that time. In 1920, after a decade of revolution and unstable factions seizing control of the Mexican government, Álvero Obregón was elected president. Under Obregón’s leadership, and with the aid of José Vasconcelos, his Minister of education, they launched a program to build schools and employed artists to decorate the walls with murals in order to tell the history of the Mexican peoples in imagery.įrom this program, three leading talents emerged, often referred to as Los Tres Grandes: Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. With our February 4, 2021, sale featuring works from The Artists of the WPA, Harold Porcher, our director of Modern and Post-war art, takes a moment to reflect on the Mexican muralists who influenced the artists involved in the Works Progress Administration programs, as well as many additional Modern artists that followed after them.
The exhibition was curated by Barbara Haskell, and assistant curator, Marcela Guerrero, and ran from February 17, 2020, to January 31, 2021.
The Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent exhibition, Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945, was a comprehensive evaluation of post-revolution art in Mexico and the powerful influence it had on artists of America.
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