How did modernist art arrive in Latin America? 3

Mexican Muralism: the true colonial history accessible to the people

At the beginning of the 20th century, at the other end of this territory without very defined borders that we call Latin America, the movement that we call Mexican muralism emerges. Muralism was developed and defended by a group of Mexican painters and intellectuals, after the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which overthrew the dictatorship of Porfírio Diaz, gaining strength, including, by the horrors caused by the World War and the Great Depression that spread throughout the world. between the 1920s and 1930s. In search of social, political and economic changes, mestizos, the middle and lower classes, united against Porfirio Díaz, and it was during this revolutionary movement in opposition to the dictatorship that Mexican artists also wanted to achieve a true artistic revolution, radicalizing the ideas of what art would be. Not by chance, they returned to mural painting (fresco): they defended that art should have social reach, that is, it should be accessible to the people.

When Álvaro Obregón came to power, he implemented countless changes in Mexican society. He carried out agrarian reform, distributing more than 3 million hectares of land to peasants; he invested heavily in education, as 90% of the population was illiterate, and he established a fund to promote the arts, which in part was used to finance the muralists. His works – carried out in public buildings of the government, the judiciary and the legislature – were created to proudly exalt the indigenous and native past, to re-educate people about the true Mexican history.
Important to note: The murals did not tell of the Spanish heroes who defeated the Mayans and Aztecs in violent battles, but of the massacre of indigenous peoples by Spanish colonizers – who, wherever they went, built churches and iconographies, celebrated masses, converting those who did not kill . Latin America, after all, was conquered with images, more than weapons!

These artists argued that art should have social reach and, for that, it should be accessible to the people. They then adopted muralism ("fresco" was a European definition) because it was an effective device for telling stories they thought were important: they were easy to understand and they weren't portable like a canvas. In this way, they prevented anyone from keeping the best of the visual production of that period in mansions with high walls or in dusty museums that people never dreamed of visiting.
Among the main names associated with this vibrant moment in Mexican art are José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, among many others. This group is celebrated not only because of the radical nature of its national propositions, but also because of its international penetration, since the muralists are now in demand all over the world, holding panels in different places in the USA and also in Europe. In fact, most of these artists had some kind of passage through Europe before muralism became so deeply established. But it is also true that European aesthetic lessons had little to do with the revolutionary theme they developed!

Thus, Latin American art, in this sense, is also plural, dynamic, contradictory, hybrid and syncretic. The existence of a virile and independent Latin American art presupposes exchange, confrontation and constant and open relationship with the art of other nations. The truth is that the center begins to be transformed by the margins.
Proletarian mother, by David Alfaro Siqueiros, in 1929
In the second block, we talked with curator and researcher Sabrina Moura about updating the idea of Latin America within Contemporary Art.

https://www.artequeacontece.com.br