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Collapse Subdiscussion Jonathan Luna
SundayAug 9 at 8:47pm
To pin down one specific challenge from the Mexican Muralist Movement, I would have to mention when Deigo Rivera began creating art in The United States. Including Diego, many artists took to the states as inspiration. They wanted to reflect upon the states to create a different form of art than before. Something different than the usual rural murals of struggle. Hence, the United States became a new form of the Mexican muralist movement, but not everybody favored. A constant feeling would be that "Significantly, there is an absence of concern for the origins and identity of his own country "(M.M. 126). Critiques felt that the Mexican muralists were going far away from their origins. They were experimenting too much. However, Diego and the other artists didn't see it that way. Diego saw how the states were when he lived there. He saw their struggles. He saw how they went from an empire to a crumbling empire when the stock market crashed. Millions faced poverty and limitations as the Campesinos did. Diego was simply reflecting the similarities in struggles.
Yet, it wasn't viewed that way. Many viewed Diego as a sell-out, or a millionaire suck up, or even something who's trying to forget his past. For many, "Rivera became the target of virulent criticism from former comrades and fellow artists as being a 'false revolutionist' and a 'millionaire artist for the establishment"(M.M 123). Many felt Diego wasn't representing his people, rather he was representing someone else he knew nothing of for the money. Yet the interesting thing was that Diego faced criticism from the states as well. Many criticized how he portrayed Americans or how their views were mocked. An example is how Diego would paint a fat, ugly child or a child being vaccinated. This is something that Americans didn't want to see. However, Diego was simply trying to convert the similarities in the struggle. He wanted to expand his art. This is something that wasn't understood until history continued its course.
YesterdayAug 11 at 9:51pm
The Mexican muralists formed due to the Mexican Revolution successfully attracted the global attention with their bold and powerful work. “Between the early 1920s and the late 1930s, North American industrial society was transformed. The collapse of the optimistic decade of the 1920s and the tragic years that followed the Depression affected the lives and thinking of everyone living through those times (Mexican Muralists Chapter 5).”Under the pressure of new modernity and technology of utopia, the Mexico theory faced challenges.
New generation of artists such as Rufino Tamayo began to challenge the artistic, aesthetic and political principles. Rufino Tamayo was a Mexican painter. Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, and his painting style often involve figurative abstraction with modernization. Rufino Tamayo and other modernists began to explore a brand new Mexican identity using different expression, and try to overthrown and abandoning the political ideas that Rivera, Siqueiros, and others proposed. “ Rivera became the target of virulent criticism from former…..artists for being, among other things, a ‘false revolutionist’….(Mexican Muralists Chapter 5).” The new generation of artists wanted to create a unique Mexican voice that excluded any political standing. “…The Marxist socialists with whom he claimed allegiance..controlling the development of modern technologies means of production in order to create a society of…freedom was also a utopian concept (Mexican Muralists Chapter 5).” They want to explore the unique way that Mexican view the world, by the Mestizo lens that brings in the elements of the modern life and culture.