mexican rurals

Running head: Murals 1

Submitted By: Yangfuxiao Mei

Course: Art and Social Change in Latin America:

Instructor: Greg Landau

Date: 6th August, 2020

Murals 2

Murals of the 1920s

Orozco

According to chapter three’s Murals of the 1920s, Orozco began his mural painting at

the National Preparatory School in 1923. His paintings evolved from the execution of

apolitical ideas and ethereal European images at the National Preparatory School. He started

painting at the inner stairwell and along the wall at the school. His mural painting work was

unceremoniously interrupted in 1926 by hostility reactions on his previous work, which saw

him suspended from the school. Orozco paintings contained powerful and mostly disastrous

images about revolution, the corrupt justice, false morality hypocrisy, and the Spanish

conquest of Mexico. He believed that the most reasonable, powerful, and purest type of

painting was the mural painting. He viewed mural painting as disinteresting since no person

could change it into an object for material gain. It could also not be changed to cater for the

benefit of the privileged people in the society. To him, the mural painting was owned by

every individual.

Orozco uses several themes in his murals. For instance, in the national preparatory

school, the north wall court decoration was given the gift of nature to man as the central

theme. The painting had several other themes; for example, the decoration of the entrance

door had spiritual and physical integrity themes. The central area decoration had school-

going girls and sun allegory to show warm harmony, and the movement of lines shown

ascendant and dynamic masses. The main door decoration on the left wall panel showed

feminine dominance and warm harmony. The decoration on the sides of the corridor

symbolized masculine dominance and warm harmony while the library door decoration

signified harmony and coldness. The central area decoration of Pasantes meant warm

harmony with the dynamic and ascending movement lines. The right-wing decoration also

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symbolized warm harmony and vast dynamic masses. Orozco used the classical fresco

technique while drawing this mural.

The artists use images to come up with several ideas in their mural paintings. For

instance, in the mural done by Orozco, Cortez and Malinche, it symbolized the Spanish

collaboration results in Mexico. According to chapter three’s Murals of the 1920s, the artists

depict Malinche as a slave Indian girl who was given to Cortez by the chiefs. Cortez married

her due to her knowledge of Spanish and Mexican dialects so that she could interpret for him

while communicating with the Aztecs. Orozco portrays the couples whereby they are seen

joining their hands to signify the union. He paints a naked and prone person figure under

Cortez’s right foot. In the mural, Cortez’s lest arm prevents the supplication act for the Indian

by Malinche to show her separation from her past life. The Cortez and Malinche painting

shows subjugation and synthesis of her situation in the nation’s story of colonial intervention

history.

The political message embedded in the mural is seen when Malinche tries to rescue

the Mexican from the cruelty of Cortez. Cortez is seen holding her arm back to show that she

does not belong to the same side as the Mexican the ground since she did not have the power

to beg for their freedom. It also shows that women had no power to fight for the freedom of

the Mexican by that time. The mural shows the historical message of what had happened in

the past in the Mexicans struggle for independence. Cortez is seen stepping on the Mexican to

symbolise that the slavery for the Mexican was not yet over. Malinche used to be a slave

before Cortez picked her to be his interpreter when communicating with the Aztecs.

The mural emphasizes on the role of women since they are used as sexual objects in

the society. In the painting, Malinche and other women painted are nude to symbolise women

as sexual objects used by men because we do not see any man nude by many women are

completely or partly nude in the murals. This depiction does not reflect any change regarding

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how women have been depicted in the society. Women still dress close to nudity to attract the

attention of men in public places or gain more customers especially in a business enterprise.

To date, night clubs use nude women as an entertainment tool and boost drug businesses so

that the owners can gather profits.

Reference

Chapter 3. “The Murals of the 1920s, festival, revolt, and tradition”.