Introduction
The Mexican muralist movement was a period in art when revolutionary art was accepted as part of a cultural hub. While muralism has a long history that can be traced back to early cave paintings, the most essential or pertinent works to modern culture were made during the Mexican muralist revolution. Following the Mexican revolution in the 1920s, the movement was led by a few key figures, including David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco. Mexican muralists sought to use social and political images to foster debate and unify a divided country. Individuals of all levels would regularly live with and examine these murals, becoming a tradition. In numerous aspects, Diego Rivera’s mural artwork analyses serve as a political tool in an unjust period to develop and motivate a Mexican national society.
Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera
Mural painting is among the most ancient and influential artistic, intellectual, and social discourse forms. Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera and others revitalized this painting style in Mexico, paving the way for the Muralist Movement; hence, political and social issues inspired his artworks. Mexico saw a political and social upheaval at the turn of the twentieth century, prompting the government to commission a series of massive frescoes to commemorate its successes. The muralist movement would significantly impact their own country and the rest of the world.
As a child, Rivera was continuously fascinated with the creation and connected with the working classes as an adult. His paintings typically featured tiny farms, peasants, and city dwellers. This was in contrast to American muralists, who frequently depicted industrial themes. Later in his career, though, he became obsessed with American industrialism. Despite learning and adhering to the rigid norms of classical European art, Rivera preferred a style comparable to Mexican folk art. In 1922, Mexico’s 39th president, Alvaro Obregón, persuaded Rivera to return to his hometown to join in a national dominant art movement. The national art movement allowed him to paint in his style while depicting Mexicans’ societal struggles. His murals at the Palacio Nacional de México, notably ‘The Arrival of Cortés,’ represent the brutalities of the Spanish conquistadors, Mexican revolutionary heroes, and commoner farm laborers. In the composition’s center, men of higher social groups, decked with jewels, appear to be negotiating a slave trade. Enslaved people and farmers surround the conquistadors in the lower-left corner, and a slave is even exposed to ‘cruelties.’
Diego Rivera’s works were meant for all individuals, and he believed that people had the right to see them; hence by demonstrating the incompatibilities between science and art, he created his particular Positivism. His paintings were intended for a wide range of audiences, including those who could appreciate the nuances of private lives, such as movie stars, and those who could see the colors of the Mexican flag and have a flashback of the agony felt throughout the Mexican Revolutions. As a communist, he criticized the wealthy, capitalist society and even the Catholic church in his artwork. That was because those were big institutions built on Mexican soil during the colonial period. These three frameworks would continue to play an essential role in molding Mexico’s future throughout the modern period.
The Mexican muralist movement involved not only Diego Rivera but also other individuals such as David Alfaro Siqueiros. Siqueiros’s murals and easel paintings even included technical advancements, and ‘Echo of a Scream’ was one of his most famous enamel paintings, and it communicated similar concepts to his mural paintings. It began in 1937, before his involvement in the fight against Francisco Franco’s fascist tyranny. The work represents the aftermath of war and the trauma of loss. At first glance, ‘Echo of a Scream’ is quite stunning. Two weeping babies stand out as the composition’s most prominent figures. One of the babies’ heads grows larger and produces another baby from its mouth; hence, his surrealist painting technique appears unreal. The baby is in the middle of a battle zone, and the ground shows the aftermath of the conflict and its devastation. Shells, damaged canons, and shrapnel can be seen, adding to the ominous ambiance. Siqueiros uses slight hues to generate a strong emotion within the artwork and reflect a disastrous period.
Orozco, who lived in the United States from 1927 to 1934, was also involved in a mural painting as Diego Rivera. Some of his murals can be found on the patio of the National Preparatory School, previously the San Ildefonso Jesuit institution. They include ‘The Elements,’ ‘The Aristocrats,’ ‘Man in Battle Against Nature,’ ‘Destruction of the Old Order,’ ‘Christ Destroys His Cross,’ and ‘The Trench and the Trinity.’ Other images in this area reflect opposing forces (in a negative light) and the Revolutionary War’s human tragedy. He painted the mural ‘Omniscience’ at Mexico City’s House of Tiles in 1925. The following year, at the Orizaba Industrial School in Veracruz, he painted a mural depicting post-revolutionary Mexico.
Conclusion
Several Mexican muralists successfully established a strong feeling of cultural identity and national society. Mexicans’ civil rights and justice were emphasized in most of their art piece. Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco, the three great muralists, gave narrative tools to enlighten and liberate individuals. Diego Rivera’s mural paintings served as political tools to develop and motivate a Mexican national society in an unfair period. As a result, an artwork is intended to inspire, indict, and encourage people in the same way Mexican muralists shared their achievements, cultural past, and challenges following the Mexican revolution.