Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mexican Muralism'

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This work has for proposal the analysis of the construction of a Mexican identity under the perspective of David Alfaro Siqueiros. This artist is an important character for the understanding of the transformations occurred in the Mexican society under the revolutionary context. The Mexican Revolution succeeded in motivating and involving the whole society and, due to the great popular participation in the uprisings, engendered the need to rethink this population contingent, surpassing the political and military character, and greatly affecting the culture. The muralist movement, on which Siqueiros took part, was significant to this question, since it tried to represent the inferior classes, inserting them in the official discourse. Under this perspective it is valid to point out that the analysis of the construction of identities is intrinsically connected to the social and political imaginary. In the Latin-American countries and especially in Mexico, object of this study, this relationship is directly connected to the notion of miscegenation. We cannot discuss Mexican identity without taking into consideration this question that is crystalline in the muralist movement and consequently in the work of Siqueiros. This identitary process is essential for the individual to engender the nation since it makes possible the integration between individual and society, despite its ocurrence in a contradictory manner, since it includes and excludes simultaneously. Hence, the emphasis of this work consists in the comprehension of how the Mexican historical context supported the Siqueirian identitary discourse.
Este trabalho tem como proposta a análise da construção de uma identidade mexicana sob a perspectiva de David Alfaro Siqueiros. Este artista é um personagem importante para a compreensão das transformações ocorridas na sociedade mexicana sob o contexto revolucionário. A Revolução Mexicana conseguiu dinamizar e comprometer toda a sociedade e, devido à grande participação popular nos levantes, engendrou a necessidade de se repensar este contingente populacional, ultrapassando o caráter político-militar, afetando sobremaneira a cultura. O movimento muralista, do qual Siqueiros fazia parte, foi significativo nessa questão, uma vez que buscou representar as classes subalternizadas inserindo-as no discurso oficial. Sob esta perspectiva é válido destacar que a análise da construção das identidades está intrinsecamente ligada ao imaginário político e social. Nos países latino-americanos e em especial no México, objeto desse estudo, essa relação está diretamente ligada à noção de mestiçagem. Não podemos discutir identidade mexicana sem levarmos em consideração essa questão que é cristalina no movimento muralista e conseqüentemente na obra de Siqueiros. Esse processo identitário é essencial para que o indivíduo possa engendrar a nação haja vista que possibilita a integração entre indivíduo e sociedade, mesmo ocorrendo de forma contraditória, pois inclui e exclui simultaneamente. Assim, a ênfase desse trabalho consiste, pois, na compreensão de como o contexto histórico mexicano subsidiou o discurso identitário siqueiriano.

Tucked within Pomona College’s campus in Claremont, California, sits Frary Hall, the home of Mexican muralist Jose Clemente Orozco’s first work in the United States. The mural, titled Prometheus (1930), has been subjected to many instances of vandalism over the years. Thus, in 1980, a protective coating was applied. Today, the coating, a highly-reflective varnish, has been noted as a hindrance of the fresco’s original matte surface. Using case studies and art historical analysis, this thesis examines the importance of the mural within the history of Mexican muralism and the pros and cons of removing the protective coating. In addition, this research looks at the potential of art conservation as a means of reactivating the mural and promoting discussions across campus about the preservation of this cultural landmark. The thesis is culminated by a detailed proposal for the continued conservation of the mural, using Prometheus as a starting point for further discussions about aesthetics and ethics within the discourses of art history, art conservation and art restoration.

In 1969 curator Fernando Gamboa commissioned eleven abstract artists to paint a collective mural to be displayed in the Mexico Pavilion at the 1970 World’s Fair held at Osaka, Japan. He instructed the artists to paint large sized individual paintings on stretched canvases that when joined collectively would form a mural measuring 400 sq ft. The artists selected by Gamboa were working in a style that broke the conventions of traditional Mexican muralism. They were a generation of painters who abandoned the ideologies of José Vasconcelos and the conception that artists should be responsible for changing society. Instead they embraced the words of José Luis Cuevas and based their work on the individual’s subjectivity. The binary Gamboa raises by linking Mexican muralism and modern painting problematizes the conception of murals in Mexico. Traditional muralism focused on public spaces and state forums for social communication. In contrast, mural-sized stretched canvases, which hung on the walls of the pavilion intended to provoke an international audience, produced an alternative meaning of muralism and questioned what artistic attributes constituted a Mexican mural in the 1970s

This study is concerned with the Self/Other dichotomy, originally formulated by scholars of South Asian history in the context of European imperialistic treatments of the peoples whom they colonized for centuries, as applied to Mexican history. I have chosen some visual, cinematic, and literary representations of indigenous and other dispossessed peoples from both colonial and post-colonial Mexico in order to gain some insights into the vision of the powerless, (the 'Other'), held by the powerful (the colonizers, whether internal or external), especially, but not exclusively, in the context of race. Some public and private works of Mexican art from the 18th , 19th. and the 20th centuries are used to understand the perceptions of the Other in Colonial Mexico City, at the time of Independence, in state-sponsored pre and post-Revolutionary spectacles representing indigenous peoples, cinematic representations of the marginalized and the dispossessed from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, and in the representation of the marginalized in the literary and photographic works of Juan Rulfo. I conclude that an ambivalent mixture co-existed in Mexican culture through the centuries, on the one hand, honoring the blending that is expressed in the word 'mestizaje', and on the other, adhering to a thoroughly Eurocentric world view. This ambivalence persisted from the 18th century through Independence and the Revolution and its aftermath, albeit in transformed '
M. A.

This thesis proposes to investigate the influence of the Mexican muralists in the United States, from the Depression to the Cold War. This thesis begins with the origins of the Mexican mural movement, which will provide the background to understand the artists' ideologies and their relationship and conflicts with the Mexican government. Then, I will discuss the presence of Mexican artists in the United States, their repercussions, and the interaction between censorship and freedom of expression as well as the controversies that arose from their murals. This thesis will explore the influence that the Mexican mural movement had in the United States in the creation of a government-sponsored program for the arts (The New Deal, Works Progress Administration). During the 1930s, sociological factors caused that not only the art, but also the political ideologies of the Mexican artists to spread across the United States. The Depression provided the environment for a public art of social content, as well as a context that allowed some American artists to accept and follow the Marxist ideologies of the Mexican artists. This influence of radical politics will be also described. Later, I will examine the repercussions of the Mexican artists' work on the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s. Finally I will also examine the iconography of certain murals by Mexican and American artists to appreciate the reaction of their audience, their acceptance among a circle of artists, and the historical context that allowed those murals to be created.
Master of Arts

English
Ph.D.
What does Mexico mean to the cultural imagination of the United States? What has it meant in the past? In what ways has the U.S. incorporated aspects of Mexican culture into its own? This dissertation explores these questions of cultural and intellectual exchange between the U.S. and Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s by positioning itself amid the present “transnational” and “hemispheric” turn in U.S. literary study. Its subject matter ranges from architecture and urbanism to journalism and travel writing to short stories and novels to muralism and the visual arts. Such an interdisciplinary approach is bolstered by crossing scales of geography from the international to the continental, the national, the regional and the local. Positioning the discussion in geographic terms allows one to see how the possibilities for cultural exchange could never be fully realized, as the ways in which U.S. writers and intellectuals understood Mexico-- then and now-- can rarely be separated from either the physical proximity or the cultural dissimilarity of the two countries, a relationship that has been described as one of “distant neighbors.” This dissertation takes the spatial components of culture seriously, employing useful concepts from the disciplines of human geography and cultural landscape studies to inform its understanding of how diverse figures ranging from Conrad Aiken, Stuart Chase, José Clemente Orozco, Katherine Anne Porter, Sophie Treadwell, William Carlos Williams-- among others less widely known-- understood Mexico and presented it to a U.S. audience during the interwar period. Their narratives often employ the symbolic landscape of Mexico to communicate the qualities of Mexican culture while unwittingly obscuring the reality of what the country itself. Nonetheless, each example points to possible correctives in the pattern, offering a hemispheric perspective from which much can still be learned today.
Temple University--Theses

Etudier l'Histoire de l'Art contemporain mexicain à travers l'adaptation du legs précolombien est une vaste entreprise. Qui n'a pas évoqué, voire revendiqué, ce lien qui unit les artistes et les anciennes civilisations ? Certains l'ont abordé à propos de peintres français comme Paul Gauguin, d'autres en se référant à des artistes américains, tels qu'Henri Moore ou Frank Lloyd Wright. Au Mexique, les cultures préhispaniques ne sont pas seulement une source d'inspiration formelle, philosophique ou poétique, comme elles ont pu l'être pour certains artistes en quête d'authenticité ou de mysticisme. Elles reflètent une histoire nationale et sont porteuses d'une part identitaire essentielle dans la construction du peuple mexicain. Elles prennent différents visages et incarnent une symbolique qui varie selon les époques. C'est ce rapport complexe qui existe au Mexique entre la création artistique contemporaine et le passé préhispanique que soutient cette thèse.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Departamento de Estudos Latino-Americanos, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Comparados Sobre as Américas, 2018.
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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).
Este é um estudo sobre o movimento muralista mexicano em diálogo com a perspectiva decolonial. São analisados os trabalhos de Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco e David Alfaro Siqueiros, respectivamente, a partir dos murais Historia de Morelos, Conquista y Revolución (1930); La Conquista Española de México (1939) e Cuauhtémoc Contra el Mito (1944). A partir de uma abordagem comparativa entre os três pintores proponho uma discussão sobre a possibilidade de o discurso estético do muralismo mexicano guardar pontos de interseção com os pressupostos da perspectiva decolonial.
This is a study of the Mexican muralist movement in dialogue with decolonial perspective. The works of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, respectively, from the murals Historia de Morelos, Conquista y Revolución (1930); La Conquista Española de México (1939) e Cuauhtémoc Contra el Mito (1944). From a comparative approach between the three painters, this work proposes a discussion about the possibility of discourse esthetic of Mexican muralism to establish points of intersection with the assumptions from a decolonial perspective.

Visual Reinterpretation of National Identity in the Public Space of Mexico Visual communication in public spaces of Mexico has been significantly shaping collective identity, from pre-Columbian times to nowadays. This PhD thesis analyzes the visual aspect of cultural and religious identity in pre-Columbian and colonial eras, later, the discussion is led through the development of the modern day national identity that followed while concurrently explaining how former structural characteristics were partially maintained. Those phenomena are explored from two vantage points: that of the cultural and political elites and that of the general population. However, these perspectives aren't presented in a sharp opposition, rather, as two conjugating cultural streams that have been continuously negotiating and shaping cultural and national identity in correlation with historical and cultural events, including influence from significant others. Accordingly, the thesis explores the official version of national identity, that is promoted by state power, but also how official identity is received into intimate spaces, the everydayness of the bearers of such identity, its reinterpretation and alternatively, the rejections. Since public art (mural art, popular graphics, graffiti, stencil art and other diverse means of...

Diploma thesis Motifs of pre-Columbian America in modern Mexican art deals with the pre- Columbian motifs in the work of three leading representatives of the Mexican muralism - Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Muralism, monumental painting with a clearly defined socio-educational function, started to develop on the initiative of the post- revolutionary Mexican government, since the 1920s of the 20th century. During its development, it gained international fame and today it is widely regarded as a uniquely Mexican style of art. An integral part of muralism form scenes from the life of pre-Columbian cultures. The main objective of this work is to analyse these scenes, the origin of particular motifs, their original meanings and meanings, which they assumed in the context of the murals. The work also reflects where muralists acquired knowledge about the Indian civilizations and what image of pre-Columbian past they created. The work also seeks to clarify the question in what specifically was the muralist access to pre-Columbian cultures innovative. The paper uses qualitative methods of analysis of the available written sources and analysis of visual materials.

Ce mémoire théorique veut démontrer le lien existant entre le muralisme mexicain et le sentiment d'identité nationale au Mexique, sujet fréquemment effleuré dans la littérature mais jamais approfondi. L'hypothèse soutenue affirme que la nation mexicaine moderne a trouvé une assise dans les représentations que les muralistes ont faites de son histoire et de son destin. Pour parvenir à établir la justesse de cette hypothèse, des références à divers auteurs de plusieurs disciplines connexes sont proposées : histoire, sociologie, politique et art. Des références à des textes publiés dans trois langues différentes sont utilisées (anglais, espagnol, français), comportant au besoin, une traduction libre de l'auteure du mémoire. De manière plus détaillée, un chapitre est consacré à répertorier les apports théoriques pertinents dans diverses disciplines, un autre chapitre examine la figuration et l'abstraction dans les avant-gardes artistiques, un troisième expose le contexte sociohistorique du Mexique de 1824 à 1950, un quatrième retrace le parcours artistique et sociopolitique des artistes et un dernier s'attarde à répertorier les symboles construisant l'identité nationale mexicaine. Dans ce dernier chapitre, une section est réservée à l'analyse thématique d'une murale de Diego Rivera, L'Histoire du Mexique. Les résultats de la présente recherche attestent le rôle prépondérant du Ministre de l'éducation, Vasconcelos, dans l'élaboration du sentiment national mexicain ; ils constatent également la pertinence de l'utilisation de l'art mural à des fins à la fois pédagogiques et nationalistes. L'analyse thématique de la murale, quant à elle, révèle une forte présence des symboles historiquement associés à divers passages de l'histoire mexicaine, en plus de proposer une vision orientée de son destin. Le travail des artistes muralistes a finalement donné lieu à une imagerie nationale dépeignant positivement un gouvernement moins socialiste qu'il ne voulait le laisser paraître. La vision proposée par les artistes est devenue le récit national officiel. Le muralisme aurait donc permis à la nation mexicaine moderne de trouver une assise, tant dans son récit historique que dans les aspirations politiques de ses dirigeants. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Nation, identité nationale, imaginaire, muralisme, avant-garde artistique, réalisme, réception.

As I was trying to suggest in this text, the cultural value of mural production is political in the sense that it responds to interests and motives of the social world and intends to transform the space which it occupies. When doing so, such visual works orient itself toward the construction of its own public. The mural process that aspires to create mural art must therefore be multiple and combined. A similar thought has been pointed out by Bruce Campbell his book Mexican Murals in Times of Crisis: [Mural practice must be] making its commitments and negotiating compromises within the balance of social forces; attempting to fix in some manner the social context in which it takes place; hailing a more or less broad sector of the social milieu; and seeking out some meaningful figure with an eye toward symbolic consensus, or "no man's land" capable of negotiating through perspectival conflicts over the space of the work.,,161 Only by attention to the practical components of muralism does it become possible to recognize a contextual variety of mural work. In fact, these are nothing more than distinct modes of formal compromise between the production of the mural image and its public. An alternative delineation of contemporary muralism is thus at the same time a delineation of practical accomplishments...

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1986.
Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 234-248).

In this thesis I examine the significance of Mexico's first saint, San Felipe de Jesus, relative to the nascent movement toward independent Mexican statehood, as revealed in a close analysis of the murals in the Cuernavaca cathedral in which he appears. I place the murals within their historical context relative to contemporaneous artistic examples, and present an analysis of the murals with special attention paid to three complex issues: their authorship, style and date. Furthermore, I explore the socio-political importance of the cult of Felipe de Jesus in the history of creole colonial Mexico, relative to the murals' date. The Cuernavaca martyr murals, I conclude, reveal the profound nature of the muralist's application of artistic style to his subject, and the importance of 'nuestro joven' San Felipe de Jesus underlying their production
acase@tulane.edu