Painting the Mexican Revolution
Overview
OER Fundamentals are invited to remix this course planning template to design and share their OER project plans, course information and syllabus, and reflection.
Project Planning
My OER Goals & Purpose: I want to develop a lesson on Mexican Muralism for a History of Mexico course that can also be used in art History courses
My Audience: This OER is for high school and college learners in art and history
My Team: WNA
Existing Resources: Mexican Revolution
New Resources: Photos that I have taken of artwork by Rivera, Kahlo, Orozco, Siquieros, and Tamayo
Supports Needed: NA
Our Timeline: July 2023
Art and Culture in 20th-Century Mexico
Perhaps the most significant cultural development in the 20s and 30s was in the visual arts. Rufino Tamayo, Juan O’Gorman, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera began studying art in the decade before the outbreak of the Revolution, but they came into their own during this period. Their artistic sensibilities represented a departure from the classical and realist art forms favored during the Porfiriato, and together they developed a truly Mexican style. In line with the Revolution, art was made accessible to the people through murals.
The Mexican Modernist School used large-scale murals to reinforce political messages, especially those that emphasized Mexican rather than European themes. This public art was used as a means to educate the populous, convey the ideals of the revolution, and instill national pride in Mexicans.
Mexican Muralism and Revolutionary Art
The Mexican Revolution had a dramatic effect on Mexican art. The government allied itself with intellectuals and artists in Mexico City and commissioned murals for public buildings to reinforce political messages, especially those that emphasized Mexican rather than European themes. The production of art in conjunction with government propaganda is known as the Mexican Modernist School, or the Mexican Muralist Movement. Many such works glorified the Mexican Revolution or redefined the Mexican people vis-à-vis their indigenous and colonial past. The first of these commissioned works was done by Fernando Leal, Fermin Revueltas, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera at San Ildefonso, a prestigious Jesuit boarding school. The muralist movement reached its height in the 1930s with four main artists: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jose Clemente Orozco, and Fernando Leal. It is now the most studied aspect of Mexico’s art history. These four artists were trained in classical European techniques and many of their early works were imitations of then-fashionable European paintings styles.
Many Mexican government buildings featured murals glorifying Mexico’s pre-Hispanic past and incorporating it into the definition of Mexican identity. Many of these muralists also revived the fresco technique in their mural work, although some like Siqueiros moved to industrial techniques and materials such as the application of pyroxilin, a commercial enamel used for airplanes and automobiles.
Diego Rivera
Rivera painted his first significant mural, Creation, in the Bolivar Auditorium of the National Preparatory School in Mexico City in January 1922 while guarding himself with a pistol against right-wing students. In the autumn of 1922, Rivera participated in the founding of the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors, and later that year he joined the Mexican Communist Party. His murals were greatly influenced by his leftist political leanings, dealing with Mexican society and reflecting the country’s 1910 Revolution. He developed his own native style based on large, simplified figures and bold colors. A strong Aztec influence was present in his works, and much of his art emulated the Mayan steles of the classical era.
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter known for her self-portraits. While she painted canvases instead of murals, she is still considered part of the Mexican Modernist School due to the emphasis of Mexican folk culture and use of color in her works. She was married to muralist Diego Rivera and like Rivera was an active communist. Kahlo was influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, as demonstrated by her use of bright colors, dramatic symbolism, and primitive style. She often included monkeys in her works; while this is usually a symbol of lust in Mexican mythology, Kahlo’s portrayal was tender and protective. Christian and Jewish themes were often depicted in Kahlo’s work. She combined elements of classic religious Mexican traditions with surrealist components in her paintings.
Reflection
To create this remix, I copied and pasted from the original rather than remixing it from the original OER textbook chapter...I'm concerned about whether or not the attribution will be correct once I publish it, so I suppose I will find out once I hit publish!! OK, so after I initially published this, I saw the tiny "View & Manage Authors" in the corner and was able to add the other authors manually :)
This is the first time creating something using OER Commons tools, so I am excited to begin adding content in the future, as I have several completed curriculum projects that are housed is various repositories and in different formats. I can see the value of standardization so that resources care more accessible and usable, particularly now that the majority of classes use an LMS for content and assignments.
My plan is to incorporate images that I have taken of murals in Mexico and at MoMA, include bios for Rufino Tamayo, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siquieros, and add an activity that can be used in History, Chicanx/Latinx Studies, and Art History courses.