An Introduction to the Murals
I’m going to use Lewisohn’s article as a guide to study some of the murals: their
content (story) and style (making). In order to understand Lewisohn’s first line:
“Everyone loves a well-told story whether in words or in paint” (11), we need to have
some prior information on what we are looking at. The articles we have read in class
(those dealing with Mexico’s history and the coming of the Revolution, as well as those
articles by Moore and Abbott dealing with the interpretation of art), will certainly prepare
us for the understanding of the murals.
In his article, Lewisohn observes the following: “On the historical side the
repression that the Mexican Indian has suffered since the Spanish invasion has created a
reservoir of suppressed bitterness. This has supplied an intensity of conviction, which of
course is one of the essential factors in great art” (11). Here the critic is telling us
elements that the muralist is incorporating into his/her mural, some of which are real, like
the Spanish invasion. But there’s something interesting here; Lewisohn mentions the
words “suppressed”, “bitterness” and “conviction”. This is powerful because here he is
telling us that this art (mural) is more likely to have a purpose. Since murals are for the
public to view without having to pay, this purpose is even more powerful.
Let’s try to understand this Spanish invasion Lewisohn observes by looking, in
the following order, at two of Rivera’s murals: The City of Tenochtitlan and
Disembarkation of the Spanish at Vera Cruz. History is much more complex than this,
but by looking at these two murals we will have an understanding of what Lewisohn
means.
The first mural The city of Tenochtitlan depicts a way of life, that of the Aztecs
(the indigenous people) before the arrival of the Spanish. Tenochtitlan is now Mexico
City. The second mural, Disembarkation of the Spanish, depicts the actual conquest and
disruption of that way of life. And it is through this second mural that we fully
understand the meaning of “suppressed bitterness” and “conviction” that the indigenous
people will later feel towards the Spanish. Their feelings—notice—have so much value
because they have become part of a country’s thinking; those feelings have become now
an awareness of the past.
Lewisohn also observes the following: “In Mexico the race saga and the ideology
of revolution have been given pictorial expression by Rivera and Orozco and other
masters” (11). In this article we have a mural, The death of the peon. From our readings
and discussions in class, we know that the peasants suffered either the taking away of
their lands or their rejecting into the higher system: the economic (“modernization”).
Thus, Lewisohn tells us that Rivera’s mural The death of the peon depicts the daily life of
peasants. To this daily life we have to add their struggles, their abuse and their possible
achievement (which aren’t always explicitly present in the mural).
Then this critic adds, referring to Rivera’s murals: “[They] have bulk and weight,
they are heroic in the sense that they symbolize not one but many lives. The contrapuntal
design and the broad gestures indicated by a superb draftsmanship, unite to give poignant
expression to the rhythm of daily tasksto the saga of toil” (12). This is very interesting
because we, as viewers, have to ask ourselves how do we perceive this toil or any other
gesture and feeling pictured in the mural. So we can deduct that not only Rivera’s murals
but all murals are made from reality (history) and emotion (a human trait) as understood
and perceived by the artists for us to recognize.
The City of Tenochtitlan
Disembarkation of the Spanish at Vera Cruz
Death of the Peon
* For this essay I use murals depicting Pre-Columbian times and the Conquest and I did
so with the sole purpose of showing you how to study the murals. We must remember
that our course subject deals with the Mexican Revolution, which has nothing to do with
the Spanish invasion. The mural Death of the peon certainly belongs in the Revolution.
So for the murals we are working with images (which elicit emotions, thinking,
questions, doubt, creativity) and not words (which trigger ideas and a different kind of
thinking).
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