DE ANZA COLLEGE
ICS 5/ ARTS 2F
ARTISTS FOR THE PEOPLE
ARTISTS OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION
Fall of Tenochititlan 1520
Was probably the single most significant event in the history of Mexico. It changed
political power of the ruling class completely.
Land ownership,
religion,
laws,
language,
customs.
Introduced European
diseases,
plants – wheat, mustard plants
animals – horses, cattle, sheep
ironworking – guns, shoes for horses, wheel technology, harnesses
economy – Cortez gave land to his soldiers as pay. They became the landowners; the
Indians who once owned the land became the peons who worked the land for the
European landlord. – In 300 years the culture is fixed into ethnic divisions of very rich and
very poor.
Templo Mayor contains two shrines to Tlaloc (Water) and Huitzilopochtli (War and Sun).
Quetzalcoatl, honored in the round shrine, is the main deity of the Toltecs. Aztec
descendants continued to give him a special place of distinction.
Aztec kings derived their power from the fact that they are all descended from one Toltec
prince Acamapichtli. (A.D. 1372) In the next 200 years, Aztec rulers consolidated their state and
constantly pushed into new territory to make war and bring home captives for sacrifice.
Agriculture – Chinampa System - Floating Gardens of Xocamilco in Mexico City are remnants of
that agricultural system and Lake Texcoco.
Toltec – reproduction of a section of the Coatepantli or “Wall of Serpents” at Tula.
Facsimile Codex Borbonicus – Preconquest or early Colonial – Quetzalcoatl & Tezcatlipoca
(Smoking Mirror) God of the Underworld.
Human skull covered with turquoise, obsidian and pyrite.
Diego Rivera – Market Place at Tenochititlan, 1942
Jean Charlot – “Fall of Tenochititlan” ca. 1940’s.
National Cathedral in the Zocalo, Mexico City. Picture taken 1974
Bricks used to build the cathedral are bricks from destroyed Aztec temples
Cathedral sinks ca. 1” per century.
Represents the physical destruction of the old cultures, languages, customs and loss of
identity for the Indian cultures contacted by the Spanish.
Jose Guadalupe Posada d. 1913
Schooled in Western European artistic tradition –
Graphic artist who made etchings for song covers, theatre programs and newspapers.
Most famous for his newspaper “cartoons” called “broadsides”
1. His cartoons/images reached a huge population because they are circulated in the
newspaper.
2. He used satire and underground humor to represent Dictator Diaz in the 1890’s.
3. He is considered to be responsible for keeping the spirit of the revolution alive until it
actually took place in 1910.
Themes – National Heros
Emilio Zapata 1910-1912
Madero and Followers (Madero lead the resistance of the revolution and entered
Mexico City victorious in June 1911.
Lino Zamora – much loved bull fighter.
Calavera Series
Calavera of Madero, 1910
Calavera del Gato Morrongo 1910
Calavera of Don Quixote
Calavera Catrina.
Calavera of Contemporary Newspaper journalists and sellers, 1889-1895.
Other Satires
Satire of the comet that appeared 1899 (Haley’s Comet).
The Disobedient Son – 1890’s
Great Fright; Apparition of Pachita the Nougat Vendor 1893
Serious Statements about:
Poverty Prevails, Inflated prices kept that way by the Diaz regime
Militant Diaz regime – Recruitment techniques of Diaz’s army 1895 – 1910
Revolutionary hanged by landowners 1910-1912.
Religous themes that contain Indian origins:
Amazing Miracle – 2nd Appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe 1893
Pilgrims on the Way to Chalma – 1890’s
Posada was so popular that many artists copied him – see Calavera Zapatista. What about it is
different from Posada’s work?
Diego Rivera 1886-1957 and Frida Kahlo ca. 1908-1954.
Frida as an ancestral Indian with Diego as a child.
Frida Succumbing
Diego
The Flower Vendor
Liberation of the Peon
Wall Mural in the National Palace 1929 – 1945
Mexican War of Independence
History of Mexico from the Fall of Tenochititlan to the Future,- 1935
Wall Mural – Hospital de la Raza 1953
The People’s Demand for Better Health
United States Murals –
Pan American Unity, 1940, San Francisco City College
San Francisco Art Institute –
Detroit Art Institute – The Conveyor Belt – 1933
Jose Clemente Orozco
Epic of American Civilization: Hispano-America 1932-34
Hernando Cortez 1939
Jose Clemente Orozco con’t
Hidalgo, 1937
David Siqueiros 1898 – 198?
Polyform Cultural Center ca. 1972, Mexico City
Garden wall – Portraits of Mexico’s artists – Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, Posada, Mandez
and Murillo known as Dr. Atl.
How do the themes and images differ from the Precolumbian frescoes that we have seen?