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: 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. He dubbed Mexico “the Surrealist place par excellence.” While she outwardly denied the claim, it was Breton’s interpretation that categorized Frida Kahlo as one of the greatest women Surrealists of the century. Edward Burra El Paseo, c. 1938, Watercolour on paper, 133.3 x 111.8 cm Private collection | © Estate of the artist, c/o Lefevre Fine Art Ltd
Although Kahlo’s dreamlike approach to art took the inward focus of her contemporaries to a more personal level, her flamboyant attire and intimate expression served a political purpose rather than a Surrealist one. Through her costume she rejected the European clothing that had become predominant in Mexico, and her depiction of her own physical trauma served as a reflection of the suffering she saw in her country. Without intending to do so, artists of the Mexican Revolution created a lasting impact on an international scale.