Title: How Mexico Formed A United National Identity Through Art
Headings: How Mexico Formed A United National Identity Through Art
How Mexico Formed A United National Identity Through Art
Content: Diego Rivera, together with José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, became known as ‘Los Tres Grandes,’ or ‘The Big Three.’ Despite their differing political beliefs, the three artists played an instrumental role in building a national identity. Their murals found inspiration in the visual remains of the Catholic conquistadores and the wall paintings of Aztec cultures in an artistic vocabulary that united the complex histories of the Mexican people. The actualization of these scenes through art served a social purpose: to establish a public, unrestricted dialogue. The Big Three had grown up during the time of Diaz, within a highly socially and economically stratified society, and the proliferation of information fought against these inequalities. The nature of the mural is permanent; thus the exhibition at the RCA London focused instead on the moveable artworks of these seminal figures of the 20th century. It was not only the Mexicans, however, who gained artistic impetus from the country’s revolutionary activity. Along with artists like Josef Albers, Edward Burra, Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Surrealist founder André Breton was inspired by the uncanny otherness he found in the country.