13 Visual Arts and Architecture Art Until relatively recently the art of twentieth-century Latin America was dismissed by European and North American critics as a pale imitation of the mainstream modernism of the United States and Western Europe. Such critics argued that Latin American art was intrinsically hybrid, an eclectic and sometimes incompatible mix of traditions and styles. Al- though there is no question that the majority of the most acclaimed artists from Latin America studied abroad or at least participated in wider aesthetic movements, today it is precisely this hybrid quality that is seen as one of the great features of painting and other forms of visual culture produced in Latin America. The racial and ethnic diversity of the region, where Amerindian tribes still coexist with the descendants of Spanish or Portuguese colonizers, of African slaves, and of European, Middle Eastern, or Far Eastern immigrants, has contributed to the vital- ity and originality of artistic production. Ideas from abroad have been as- similated but creatively adapted to the New World context, breathing new life into established artistic styles. Cubism, for example, influenced many Latin American artists, not least the Cuban Wifredo Lam and the Brazilian Tarsila do Amaral. They adapted the new European style to their local environments, combining it with indigenous sources. The visual arts in Latin America have related more closely to their so- ciopolitical context than their European or North American counterparts have traditionally done. The association between the literary avant-garde and visual artists, an association that began in the 1920s when Latin American modernism first formally emerged in the arts as a whole, has tended to raise artists’ awareness of social and political problems. This social commitment was reflected in particular in the Mexican muralism of the 1920s and 1930s, still sometimes considered the only “authentic” Latin American art of the twentieth century. Marxist theory has had a powerful influence on artists and their work in many Latin American countries. For example, the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, who served as secretary of the Communist Party of Mexico, combined his 318 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! artistic career with trade union activities. Bibliography His political activities resulted in his impris- Ades, Dawn. 1989. Art in Latin America: The onment and subsequent exile. Modern Era, 1820–1980. London: Hayward Gallery. Certain Latin American governments Lucie-Smith, Edward. 1993. Latin American have also been instrumental in commis- Art of the 20th Century. London: Thames sioning works of art and, notably, for draw- and Hudson. ing on the talents of avant-garde and poten- tially controversial artists to carry out major government and other official proj- José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) ects. After the Mexican Revolution (1910– The Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco, 1920), the Mexican government invited a native of the state of Jalisco, is best three mural painters, Diego Rivera, José known for his giant murals in the expres- Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro sionist style. He is closely associated with Siqueiros, to decorate a number of govern- Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. ment buildings to inspire a sense of na- His most impressive works can be found in tional identity. Likewise, in Brazil the highly the state capital, Guadalajara. Orozco is nationalistic regime of Getúlio Vargas perhaps the least overtly political of the (1930–1945) called upon the services of the three Mexican muralists, and his later muralist Cândido Portinari to similar ends. work often seems politically ambiguous. Like writers, artists enjoy a privileged Most of his early work can be found in position within the consciousness of Latin Mexico City, where he painted murals be- American nations, where political institu- tween 1922 and 1927. He then spent seven tions have traditionally proved ineffectual years in the United States, but it was on his at forging a sense of belonging to a wider return to Mexico that his artistic powers community. Artists and other intellectuals reached their peak, in the late 1930s and enjoy a status and credibility rarely af- 1940s. forded their overseas counterparts. This Like Rivera and Siqueiros, Orozco’s chief celebrity status sometimes extends beyond patron was the state, and most of his im- Latin America, as in the cases of Mexican portant works were created to decorate painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. public buildings, such as the Palacio de Go- Many Latin American artists of the twen- bierno (Government Palace) and the uni- tieth century, including, for example, Frida versity in Guadalajara. His murals on the Kahlo, drew inspiration from the rich tradi- Palacio de Gobierno depict the Mexican tion of religious folk art, which survives all people’s oppression and struggle for lib- over Latin America and increasingly caters erty, from pre-Conquest Eden to post-revo- to the tourist market. Women painters, in lutionary emancipation. Orozco’s murals particular, including the Chicana artist Car- decorate the chapel ceiling of the nearby men Lomas Garza, have used this personal, Hospicio Cabañas, a former orphanage. naïve form of self-expression to convey These more spiritual works depict the women’s concerns in art, as an alternative Spanish conquistadors as the Horsemen of to the visual idioms preferred and prized the Apocalypse, trampling the indigenous by the male-dominated art world. peoples of Mexico underfoot. In Mexico —Lisa Shaw City, Orozco’s work can be found on the VISUAL ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE 319 Detail of a mural depicting scenes from Mexican history by José Clemente Orozco that decorates the Palacio de Gobierno (Government Palace) in the city of Guadalajara. (Courtesy of Lisa Shaw) main staircase and around the first floor of mouth College. The latter work, composed the main patio of the Colegio de San Idel- of twenty-four individual panels or scenes fonso (also called the Escuela Nacional and covering approximately 3,200 square Preparatoria, or ENP). In spite of his en- feet, depicts the history of the Americas thusiasm for the Mexican Revolution from the migration of the Aztecs into Cen- (1910–1920), as elsewhere, these works re- tral America to the development of modern flect his doubts about its prospects, and industrialized society. Orozco’s work in the they caricature modern Mexico almost as United States challenged traditional con- brutally as they do the nation prior to the servative views, attacking hypocrisy, greed, Revolution. and oppression, and often proved highly Orozco’s time in the United States gave controversial. rise to the mural Mankind’s Struggle, Born in Zapotlán (now Ciudad Guzmán), painted in 1930 for the New School for So- as a child Orozco moved to Guadalajara, cial Research in New York City. His North and later to Mexico City, where he was in- American murals also include Prometheus, fluenced by the renowned folk artist José painted between 1932 and 1934 for Frary Guadalupe Posada. Much of his work is Hall at Pomona College, and the acclaimed fresco painting, executed directly on wet work Epic of American Civilization plaster. (1932–1934), for the Baker Library at Dart- —Lisa Shaw 320 POP CULTURE LATIN AMERICA! See also: Visual Arts and Architecture: Art ples, and post-revolutionary society. Like (Diego Rivera; David Alfaro Siqueiros) Siqueiros, however, he took a scientific view of his work, continually experiment- Bibliography ing with the new techniques that emerged Ades, Dawn, ed. 2002. José Clemente Orozco in with industrialization. the United States, 1927–1934. New York: Rivera’s most ambitious project, a series Norton. Cruz, Barbara C. 1998. José Clemente Orozco: of epic murals based on Mexican history Mexican Artist. Berkeley Heights, NJ: for the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) Enslow. in Mexico City, remained unfinished owing Orozco, José Clemente. 2001. José Clemente to his death on 25 November 1957. Begun Orozco. Mineola, NY: Dover. in 1929, these murals epitomize Rivera’s style and are among his greatest works. Diego Rivera (1886–1957) Around the walls of the main staircase the Diego Rivera was the most famous and ar- vast panorama of Mexican history com- guably the greatest of the three renowned bines brutal imagery with attention to de- Mexican mural artists (along with José tail. The main section depicts the Spanish Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Conquest, subjugation of the native inhabi- Siqueiros). The husband of artist Frida tants, war, Inquisition, invasion, Indepen- Kahlo, Rivera interpreted Mexican history dence, and the Mexican Revolution. The and particularly the Mexican Revolution depiction of post-revolutionary Mexico and (1910–1920) through the medium of huge the future features Karl Marx pointing the murals principally created to decorate pub- way forward for the workers. Frida Kahlo lic buildings in Mexico City. He was largely and her sister Cristina are also depicted. responsible for bringing Mexican art to the By the 1930s Rivera’s fame had spread attention of international audiences. to North America and beyond, and his Greatly influenced by the Mexican Revo- work was exhibited in New York. From lution and its Russian counterpart (1917), 1930 to 1931 he carried out two commis- Rivera believed that art should help em- sions in San Francisco, the murals Alle- power the working classes to understand gory of California, for the Stock Ex- their histories. He believed that art should change building, and The Making of a be accessible to everyone, not isolated in Fresco, for the California School of Fine museums and galleries. To this end he trav- Arts. He returned to the city in 1940 to exe- eled to Italy to study early Renaissance cute the mural Pan American Unity for fresco painting. In 1921 a new cultural pro- the Golden Gate International Exposition. gram was introduced in Mexico to take art He was also asked to paint large murals to the masses, and the government com- for the Detroit Art Institute and the mural missioned Rivera, along with Orozco and Man at the Crossroads (1934) for the Siqueiros, to paint a series of frescoes for Rockefeller Center in New York City.