3 Discussions
Jaspereric
Discussion1_Reply.docxJodi Lo
SundayAug 2 at 8:56pm
Diego Rivera was born in 1886, and was one of the leaders of the Mexican mural movement in the 1920s. The national style and spirit of Mexican murals he pioneered had an significant influence on many artists and literary workers during that time. He is an active political fanatic and Communist Party member, and his life experience including artistic activities are consistent with his political attitudes and ideas. Therefore, Rivera's artistic creation were all part of his political activities, echoing his political attitude. From 1920 to 1922, Rivera devoted himself to studying and researching Renaissance frescoes in Italy, which laid the direction and tone of the fresco movement (“Diego Rivera Biography”). He became involved with a government mural program in 1921 with the new Secretary of Public Education José Vasconcelos “….. became one of its key inspirational figures. As the secretary of state for public education in mexico from 1921 to 1924…(Mexican Muralists Chapter 1)” Rivera announced that he would abandon extremely rational painting, instead create an art that can fully emphases national accumulation (“Diego Rivera Biography”). The most important is to be acceptable and understood by the general public. Rivera turned to a painting style which showed the national history, “ ….he declared that the role of art was to reflect life and act as a determine force in society (Mexican Muralists Chapter 1 ).”
A good example is the fresco “Man at the Crossroads ” (1934) constructed by Diego Rivera, which is still on display today (Xenne). This mural fully demonstrates the great influence of the Communist Manifesto on Mexican art, which encourages to hope for a new and better future. Rivera created a grand “epic” theme atmosphere through the use of a large number of images that are rich in symbolic meaning, along with the combination of events in different time and space. The works ended up to contain a quality of “great realism”, which greatly strengthens the spiritual infection of the audience. Rivera once said, “only a social revolution can clear the way for a new culture (Rivera).” This is precisely the connotation of Rivera’s art revolution. He uses his own art revolution to practice his political concept, and at the same time, political concept serves as the guide of the art movement. The practice of art is exactly the politics that needs to be compatible
TuesdayAug 4 at 1:12pm
In the 1920’s, following the Mexican Revolution, the new government enacted social reforms that empowered workers and farmers, but there was no shared culture or sense of a Mexican national identity. The nation turned to muralism to create and promote a national self-image that emphasizes both the country’s roots in indigeonous culture and heroic triumphs of it’s recent revolutionary conflicts. This new artistic direction was dominated by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros - Los Tres Grandes. The murals created by Diego Rivera at the Ministry of Education in the National Agricultural School at Chapingo in 1923 and 1928 represent an important stage in the development of the Mexican mural movement as a revolutionary vehicle for a national aesthetic.
Located in the second courtyard of the Ministry of Education, ‘The Corridor of the Fiestas’ connects traditional local culture and the recent Mexican revolution with modern socialism. Rivera designed three distinct sections that represent the peasantry, the working class and the wealthy elites. Titled the corrido panels, social evil, created by colonialism and the violence that followed, are overcome as socialism unites different ethnic groups and classes and inspires proletarian revolution. In Capitalist Dinner, Rivera comments on Capitalist’s obsession with money by illustrating them sitting around a dinner table, their eyes fixated on plates full of coins. Wall Street Banquet depicts America’s well known Capitalists seated around a dinner table studying the golden wall street ticker tape. The entire group is being watched over by a menacing machine-like figure who’s body is a bank vault symbolizing the consuming nature of capitalism and profit at any cost. In contrast, Our Bread is a panel depicting the harmony of the socialist revolution. Here, the entire image is orderly and content. In the center of the image, the socialist revolutionary hero presides over the scene, much like Jesus had in countless Christian works before. In contrast to the machine in Wall Street Banquet, the dinner is flanked by the heroic and unified image of the Mexican people. For Rivera, his politics were the inspiration for his art, but his aesthetic was influenced by traditional Mexican culture. These murals, like many other of Rivera’s politically charged works, were instrumental in establishing a new national Mexican identity.
