Mexican Muralist Painters

The contemporary Mexican artistic movement known as muralism, a movement of public art that began with images painted on walls in an effort to represent Mexican national culture, is closely linked ideologically with its main sponsor, the new Mexican government elected in 1920 following the Mexican Revolution. This government promoted an ambitious myths, geography, and history of the local communities that constitute the basis of Mexican national culture.

But while many muralist works express populist or nationalist ideas, it is a mistake to attempt to reduce Mexican mural painting to formulaic, official government art. It is more than merely the result of the changes in political and social awareness that the Mexican Revolution represented; it also reflected important innovations in enabled them to be freer in expression than were more traditional practitioners of this style.

Moreover, while they shared a common interest in rediscovering their Mexican national identity, they developed their own distinct styles. Rivera, for example, incorporated elements from pre-Columbian sculpture and the Italian Renaissance fresco into his murals and used a strange combination of mechanical shapes to depict the faces and bodies of people. Orozco, similar direction as Orozco, but incorporated asymmetric compositions, a high degree of action, and brilliant color.

This stylistic experimentation can be seen as resulting from the demands of a new medium. In stretching their concepts from small easel paintings with a centralized subject to vast compositions with mural dimensions, muralists learned to think big and to respect the sweeping gesture of the arm—the brush stroke required to achieve all parts, and to continue to be viewable as people moved across in front of them.