3 Mexican Artists Who Painted Political Murals

The rise of celebrated murals came after the end of a complex revolution fueled by rebellion against inequality and a debilitating dictatorship. The fall of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz led to the rise of a society determined to cultivate social, cultural, and economic improvement through government reforms, such as a literacy initiative designed to combat Mexico’s low literacy rates and educate the public about the country’s history. Given Mexico’s low literacy rates, there was no better way to educate the masses about the country’s history than through massive illuminating murals created by Mexican artists.

Mexican artist Diego Rivera: the great muralist

Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco were the three Mexican artists commissioned by the newly appointed Minister of Public Education, José Vasconcelos, to illustrate the history and future of a resilient nation. Although all of the artists were hired to create murals, they each had a distinct style and approach behind their socio-politically charged pieces that quickly began to appear on the walls of the public domain.

Diego Rivera is perhaps the most popular of the Mexican trio, often recognized as the leader of the Mural movement, and due to his intense and controversial relationship with Mexican painter Frida Khalo, Rivera began studying art at the age of 10 after receiving funding from a government scholarship to continue his studies. His education in art eventually led him to Europe, where he became peers with artistic giants like Pablo Picasso and revered writers like André Breton, whose 1924 Surrealist Manifesto recognized him as one of the movement’s key founders.

One of Rivera’s most famous and beloved murals can be seen on the walls of the National Palace in Mexico City. He began the government-mandated project in 1929, eight years after Vasconcelos was appointed and nine years after the revolution. The History of Mexico is a grand mural, divided into three parts, along the walls of the palace staircase. It is a testament to the country’s resilience throughout history.

In this section of the mural, Rivera commemorates Aztec culture on the north wall by painting the Mexica, an indigenous people who lived and thrived in central Mexico before the Spanish invasion. A giant golden sun peeks into the frame from the top of the wall, shining over the Mexica as they engage in crafts such as weaving and painting, religious dances, and other practices.

The West Wall depicts a condensed history of the nation’s challenges and setbacks, including the struggle against oppressive forces, dictators such as Porfirio Diaz, and the French invasion. Notably, the mural depicts the indigenous struggle against Spanish colonization and religious assimilation, with the Mexica fighting against a known oppressor, Hernan Cortez, and resisting religious conversion and exploitation. Revolutionary leaders such as Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa are included as representations of the working class and peasant-led forces that led the nation to freedom from the long-term dictatorship of Diaz and the later implementation of labor rights and education reform under a rebuilt nation.

Central to Rivera’s mural is his interpretation of Mexican history from a Marxist perspective. Rivera was a proud member of the Mexican Communist Party. In 1927, he even traveled to Moscow after receiving an invitation to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, the revolution that led to the inauguration of the Soviet regime. The southern wall depicts Rivera’s hopes for a united socialist Mexico: Carl Marx holds his Communist Manifesto, the Soviet flag is raised by workers, and his wife Frida teaches children about socialism.

David Alfaro Siqueiros: A Radical Mind

David Alfaro Siqueiros was an outspoken artist with a background rooted in militancy. From an early age, Siqueiros’ rebellious nature was evident, and he was involved in student protests at the National Academy of Fine Arts. His radical spirit continued into adulthood when he joined the Constitutional Army, which fought against the federal army and for a more democratic constitution.

Siqueiros grew up with a keen knowledge of working-class struggles, and his military travels exposed him to the depressing reality of rural poverty. Later, after the revolution, he traveled to Europe, where he first met Diego Rivera in Paris and encountered the cubist influences of artists such as Paul Cezanne.

Even more than Rivera, Siqueiros was a committed communist and was also a member of the Mexican Communist Party. His devotion to communism was evident in his art and politics, the two fiery forces of his life that were intertwined and strongly shaped his murals. In 1934, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City was inaugurated, an important and celebrated building in Mexican society with a grand neoclassical exterior and an ornate Art Deco interior. Ten years after its inauguration, Siqueiros was commissioned to paint a mural inside as part of the ongoing initiative to promote the arts and educate the masses.

New Democracy (1944) is the centerpiece of a triptych on the palace’s second-floor gallery. The massive allegorical piece is equally impressive in its message, a depiction of the triumph over fascism following the victory over fascist armies in World War II. The fresco depicts a bare-chested woman emerging from an industrialized landscape with her arms outstretched, striking through the scene and freeing herself from the restraints of tyranny. She wears a Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom, and one hand carries a flaming torch while the other holds a white flower. Her pained expression and physical exertion allude to the weight of triumph, one the artist sees as incomplete, as the shackles remain around her wrists and the war against fascism is victorious.

Siqueiros’ interest in technological innovation and futurism is present in his murals. His dynamic composition adheres to social realist approaches, but his fast-drying techniques and industrial paints set him apart from Rivera and Orozco. Yet, like them, he firmly believed in art as a social tool, and he promoted the belief that art could serve as an educational tool to empower people.

Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco: Embracing the darkness

Orozco was a complex painter whose evocative murals reflected his experiences with war and poverty. Orozco grew up in a struggling working-class family in the small town of Zapotlán el Grande, Mexico, and later moved to Mexico City in 1890. It was there that Orozco’s fascination with art began. He recalled seeing José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican lithographer known for his political cartoons brought to life in a public window on his way to school. He credited his encounters with Posada as pivotal in his decision to study art. Orozco would later become an illustrator for the same Constitutional Army, and it was through his work with them that he was exposed to life-changing bloodshed that would influence the way he would later interpret the revolution through his art.

The trench (1926) is part of a series of murals Orozco painted in 1926 at the National Preparatory School that dealt with dark depictions of sexual, religious, and national violence. The mural was painted after Vasconcelos resigned as Minister of Public Instruction over his opposition to the election of President Plutarco Elias Calles, whose belief in the separation of the church from secular institutions made him a polarizing figure in the nation. Calles’ reformation led not only to changes in institutions, but also in the methods and imagery the muralists used in their frescoes, as they embraced more modernist styles and approaches.

This was evident in the mural, where Orozco presents a modernist theatrical interpretation of the violence that the revolution brought with it. His somber dramatic setting and exaggerated bodies show expressionist influences, with the three soldiers freely falling down in defeat. Nevertheless, the composition of the figures is reminiscent of the crucifixion, while maintaining the traditional Catholic imagery familiar to Mexican society.

Orozco was the most cynical of the three; his murals depicted themes of human suffering and the darker realities of war. In Orozco’s works, the revolution was not a glorified struggle won by the people, but a battlefield of chaos and loss, a battlefield that is still embedded in the scenes of his murals. It was clear that the violence he witnessed, combined with the challenges of the revolution that affected the working class, effectively revolutionized him and his art.

The many murals that The three big completed remains in public buildings throughout Mexico, reflecting the artists’ belief that art should be a democratic form of expression. In 1924, a union was formed by a group of artists called the Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos Pintores y Escultores (Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors Union). In June of the same year they issued a manifesto which was published in the popular magazine The Machete, which was signed by Rivera, Alfaro and Orosco. One line in particular read: Art and politics were inseparable, like soldiers, peasants and workers – the essence of revolutionary power.