This site gives insight into my first year seminar class in which we learn about Spanish Murals in Mexico and the United States. This class mainly focuses on the works of José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siquieros, and Diego Rivera, but also extends to other muralists and artists during the Mexican Revolution. We will talk about the their art both in Mexico and the United States, and their effects and influences on society, as well as society’s reaction to their art. This site will include discussion posts, response papers, our writing journal and our final research paper.
Course Description:
“Since the early twentieth century, mural art in urban landscapes and institutional spaces in Mexico and the United States have been the sites of extraordinary creativity and intense controversy. These are the concrete canvases where stories are told, identities are asserted, and communities are imagined. This course begins with a focus on the work of José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who began their careers in Mexico, but who also produced significant and highly politicized art in the US. We will analyze many reproductions of Rivera’s and Orozco’s art and view documentaries and feature films that illustrate aspects of their lives. We will study how their work has influenced later generations of Latino/a mural and graffiti artists in the United States. Later in the term we will also consider the performance artist, Guillermo Gómez Peña, and the performance piece, Orozco Mexotica, which was performed in the Reserve Room of Baker Library at Dartmouth College in May of 2002.” – Professor Moody