PROCEEDINGS PROCEEDINGS The Getty Conservation Institute Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation The Siqueiros Legacy: Institute, October 16–17, 2012 Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals the Artist’s Monumental Murals the Artist’s Monumental Murals The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving Getty Publications (800) 223-3431 www.gettypublications.org The Getty Conservation Institute The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute October 16–17, 2012 The Getty Center, Los Angeles Edited by Leslie Rainer and Luann Manning The Getty Conservation Institute Los Angeles The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 © 2013 J. Paul Getty Trust. All rights reserved. The Getty Conservation Institute works internationally to advance conservation practice in the visual arts—broadly interpreted to include objects, collections, architecture, and sites. The GCI serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field. In all its endeavors, the GCI focuses on the creation and delivery of knowledge that will benefit the professionals and organizations responsible for the conservation of the world’s cultural heritage. The Getty Conservation Institute 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 700 Los Angeles, CA 90049-1684 United States Telephone: 310 440-7325 Fax: 310 440-7702 Email: [email protected] www.getty.edu/conservation ISBN: 978-1-937433-17-8 The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 Table of Contents 5 Preface DAY 1 Conservation, Protection, and Interpretation of América Tropical Leslie Rainer 9 The Conservation of América Tropical: Historical Context and Project Overview Jesus Treviño 19 América Tropical through the Eyes of a Filmmaker Jaime Mejía Servín 27 “América Tropical” y el Renacimiento del arte en Estados Unidos Mark Buckland 31 América Tropical as Artifact: Designing a Framework for its Protection, Viewing, and Interpretation Gary Lee Moore 43 Sheltering Siqueiros: Complexities of Building in a Historic Site Leslie Rainer 53 Preserving América Tropical: From Original Technique to Conservation Treatment Thomas Hartman 65 Interpretive Design for América Tropical: Created, Concealed and Revealed 3 The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 DAY 2 Conservation of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s Murals in Mexico, South America, and Southern California Gabriela Gil Verenzuela 79 La Obra Mural de Siqueiros: Una Política de Rescate Patrimonial por Parte del Estado Mexicano Sergio Montero Alarcón 89 Observaciones Sobre las Causas del Deterioro en la Obra Mural de David Alfaro Siqueiros Nestor Barrio 97 Agonía y Éxtasis del Ejercicio Plástico de David A. Siqueiros Carolina Ossa Izquierdo 103 Siqueiros y Terremotos, Precursores del Muralismo en Chile Diana C. du Pont 109 Made Public: Siqueiros’ Portrait of Mexico Today 4 The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 Preface Leslie Rainer and Luann Manning Since 1988, the Getty Conservation Institute and the City dous challenges for their conservation. The papers in of Los Angeles have collaborated on a comprehensive these proceedings address a number of those challenges. project to preserve the mural, América Tropical (1932) The papers are organized in two sections and in the lan- by David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of the great Mexican guage in which they were presented (English or Spanish). artists of the 20th century. América Tropical is one of The papers presented on Day One discuss the three murals Siqueiros painted in Los Angeles and his many complex issues associated with the comprehensive only surviving mural in the United States still in its project to conserve the mural América Tropical. They original location. The aim of the project is to conserve include: an overview of the conservation project’s his- this monumental mural, provide for its protection by tory and significance; a film maker’s interpretation of constructing a canopy shelter, and make it accessible to the mural’s history; an early assessment of the mural’s the public by installing a viewing platform and an inter- condition in the 1970s; a discussion of the design chal- pretive center. Upon completion of these components, lenges of the shelter, viewing platform, and interpretive the site re-opened to the public in October 2012. In center; the construction challenges faced in completing conjunction with the official opening of the mural, the the project in a historic setting; the conservation treat- Getty Conservation Institute organized an international ment of the mural; and finally the design and installa- symposium titled “The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of tion of the interpretive center. Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals,” which The papers presented on Day Two address the took place at the Getty Center in Los Angeles on October issues involved in conserving and presenting some of the 16 and 17, 2012. most important murals painted by Siqueiros in Mexico These selected papers are the proceedings from City, Buenos Aires, Chile and Southern California. the two-day symposium, which convened conservators, We would like to acknowledge the hard work of architects, engineers, curators, and exhibit designers to those involved with the compilation of these proceed- present different aspects of the conservation process of ings, particularly Sylvia Tidwell and Viviana Dominguez Siqueiros’s murals in the Americas. As an ambitious art- for editing the papers, Gary Hespenheide for the design ist and innovator working with modern materials and and layout of the proceedings, and Angela Escobar for new technologies on an architectural scale, Siqueiros her overall guidance and supervision of this process. created monumental works of art that present tremen- 5 The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 6 The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 DAY 1 Conservation, Protection, and Interpretation of América Tropical The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 8 The Siqueiros Legacy: Challenges of Conserving the Artist’s Monumental Murals Proceedings of a Symposium Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute, October 16–17, 2012 The Conservation of América Tropical: Historical Context and Project Overview Leslie Rainer Abstract: In 1932 David Alfaro Siqueiros painted the esfuerzos por preservar el mural han sido continuos. The mural América Tropical on a second-story exterior Getty Conservation Institute y la Ciudad de Los Ángeles wall at El Pueblo de Los Angeles, a historic district and han terminado recientemente un proyecto bastante the heart of Los Angeles. The artist, commissioned to exhaustivo para conservar, proteger y presentar América paint an idyllic scene of old Mexico, instead depicted an Tropical, el único mural del artista que aún permanece indigenous figure on a double cross, surmounted by an abierto al público en su ubicación original en los Estados American eagle, and revolutionaries with rifles crouched Unidos. Esta ponencia presenta la historia de América on a nearby rooftop. The highly controversial mural was Tropical: su censura, redescubrimiento, y los esfuerzos whitewashed soon after its completion and then largely hechos para preservarlo. forgotten until the 1960s, during the rise of the Chicano mural movement. Since that time, efforts to preserve Introduction the mural have been ongoing. The Getty Conservation Institute and the City of Los Angeles have recently com- In 1932 David Alfaro Siqueiros came to Los Angeles pleted a comprehensive project to conserve, protect, pres- for approximately six months. During this time he ent, and interpret América Tropical, the artist’s only painted three murals—the first, titled Street Meeting, mural that is accessible to the public in its original loca- at Chouinard Art Institute; the second, titled América tion in the United States. This paper presents the story of Tropical, commissioned for an exterior wall of the Plaza América Tropical—its censorship, its rediscovery, and the Art Center at El Pueblo de Los Angeles, in the historic efforts to preserve it. heart of downtown; and the third for the residence of filmmaker Dudley Murphy in Pacific Palisades, known Resumen: En 1932 David Alfaro Siqueiros pintó el mural as Portrait of Mexico Today.1 Each of these murals was América Tropical en el muro exterior de un segundo innovative, using new materials and techniques that piso en El Pueblo de Los Ángeles, una zona histórica Siqueiros discovered and developed in Los Angeles. en el corazón de dicha ciudad.