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Discussion Posts

 

On Revolutionary Mexico

1/19/2017

“Los Tres Grandes”, the group of Mexican muralists comprised of Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco, were highly influential in the Mexican Revolution. Their murals were largely based on social and political developments in direct and indirect ways. As a result of an influx of nationalism surrounding the revolution, the muralists went back to their old ways of painting and started to embrace Mexican techniques. Their murals started to depict the realities of the country from the perspective of the average citizen, branching away from what they had produced earlier. The stillness of their murals creates snapshots of what was truly going on at the time. These works are now frozen in history, embedded in the walls, telling the great epic of the Mexican Revolution from multiple perspectives. Many of the works depict the inequities of society that drive the need for change. These messages were instrumental in the development of the revolution. The murals made political and social problems relevant and accessible to all, opening a gateway to educate the masses on what was going on.

I believe that there are many parallels in the way the Mexican Revolution is rendered in the fictional book, “The Underdogs” with the murals created by “Los Tres Grandes”. Mariano Azuela depicts the revolution from the viewpoint of the dissatisfied agricultural workers in the same manner that the murals feature the common (sometimes agricultural) man. The murals were often crude and had “repulsive pictures, aiming to awaken in the spectator… an anarchistic fury if he is penniless, or if he is wealthy, to make his knees buckle with fright” (Rochfort, 43). The muralists were straightforward about what was going on in their frescos in the same way that Azuela described everything abhorrent and hateful that happened during the revolution, without holding back.

Los Tres Grandes

On Revolutionary Mexican artists

1/26/2017

I contend that Jose Clemente Orozco was the most revolutionary of “Los tres grandes”. I say this not because he was the most political or most radical of the three, but because he was the opposite. His ability to paint without clear political ties spoke volumes in the way that he felt about the Mexican Revolution. His background as a cartoonist for the Casa’s newspaper, La Vanguardia, is perhaps the most intriguing of his revolutionary participation. He took a violent anti-clericalism position during this time as he depicted his stylized characters. At the core of his beliefs he was a skeptic about all types of authority, which gives him the power to paint murals depicting the revolution from a new perspective. Orozco did not feel the need to impose his beliefs on anyone, which is why his murals encompassed both sides of the issue. In his work, “Carnival of the Ideologies”, he uses his art along with symbols to show the strife between both sides. Orozco is able to show the Mexican state as a “national power and a corrupt entity” at the same time. By informing the common man of both sides of the conflict Orozco was truly revolutionary.

Jose Clemente Orozco

On transforming public spaces at Dartmouth College and elsewhere

1/24/2017

Public art is created for the purpose of entertaining the viewer. Entertainment in the broad sense of the word could be passively or actively involving the audience. Sometimes public art is just meant to beautify or look aseptically pleasing, other times it is meant to provoke   deep feelings and spur conversation. Art when in a museum is much less effective in terms of influencing the public, as it must be paid to be seen whereas public art is usually out in the open. Art that is free of charge and accessible to everyone is more beneficial to the public, but it can also be problematic.

Where public art becomes problematic is in instances where the art conveys very strong messages that are often hurting or depicting certain issues or even people in a demeaning and offensive way. As seen in the Hovey murals, there are many deep rooted sentiments that  are offensive to not only natives, but also women. The problem with showing this art freely is because out of context it could seem like Dartmouth College is promoting these ideas that were painted so many years ago. However, if Dartmouth were to erase these murals they would be in a sense erasing history. I believe that all history, the good and the bad, should be preserved and used as a learning tool. By presenting these murals with context the public is able to learn valuable information about the time period and reflect on how far we have, or haven’t come since the time they were created.