Re/Visions: Mexican Mural Painting

The Mexican Muralist movement is the artistic child of post-revolutionary Mexico. Octavio Paz clearly distinguishes the political and ideological elements of the paintings of Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco from their strictly pictorial content. The poet also places the works of these Mexican artists in the wider context of modern world painting. The dynamism of their figures, the distortions and emphatic compositions and the explicit social content of the Muralists' work put them firmly in the Expressionist camp. Some of their works bear comparison with European artists such as Beckmann or Edvard Munch, and perhaps also influenced later artists such as Jackson Pollock. Paz explains how Mexican Muralism was closely linked with the Mexican revolution, which gave the nation a new sense of identity and an impulse to return to its origins; and we learn how José Vasconcelos, Minister for Education, involved creative artists from all the media in the reconstruction of Mexico's identity.

Part of the series

Mexico through the Eyes of Octavio Paz