Title: The Mexican Renaissance | Boundless Art History
Headings: The Mexican Renaissance
The Mexican Renaissance
Mexican Muralism
Learning Objectives
Key Takeaways
Key Points
Key Terms
Mexican Muralism
Los Tres Grandes
Diego Rivera
Jose Clemente Orozco
David Alfaro Siqueiros
Mexican Painting: Frida Kahlo
Learning Objectives
Key Takeaways
Key Points
Frida Kahlo
Paintings
Influences
Artistic Legacy

Content: Mexican Muralism
The era from 1930–1945 in Mexico is best marked by Mexican muralism. From the 1920s to 1970s a large number of murals with nationalistic, social, and political messages were created on public buildings, as part of efforts to reunify the country under the post-Mexican Revolution government. Mexican muralism started a tradition that continues to this day in Mexico. In 1921, after the end of the Mexican Revolution, José Vasconcelos was appointed to head the Secretaría de Educación Pública. At the time, most of the Mexican population was illiterate and the government needed a way to promote the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. Vasconcelos helped establish a government-backed mural program, hiring the country’s best artists, for this purpose. Similar to mural use in the pre-Hispanic and colonial periods, the purpose of these murals were not simply aesthetic, but social, to promote certain ideals. These ideals or principles were to glorify the Mexican Revolution and the identity of Mexico as a mestizo nation, with the indigenous promoted as well as the Spanish. The movement was strongest from the 1920s to the 1950s, which corresponded to the country’s transformation from a mostly rural and mostly illiterate society to an industrialized one. While today they are part of Mexico’s identity, at the time they were controversial, especially those with socialist messages plastered on centuries-old colonial buildings.