The Whitney Museum in New York rediscovers Mexican muralists and their influence on 20th century American art.
Diego Rivera, El levantamiento (The Uprising), 1931.
Whitney Museum with Diego Rivera's mural, Man and the Crossroad, 1934.
Alfredo Ramos Martínez, La Malinche, 1940.
Vida Americana. Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925 – 1945, at the Whitney Museum in New York, brings together pieces of Mexican mural art, as well as the work of photographers, filmmakers, and artists, whose work was strongly influenced by the aesthetic, ideological and social proposals expressed in Mexican art in the first half of the 20th century.
The exhibition features works by Rufino Tamayo, Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Miguel Covarrubias, Frida Kahlo, as well as photographs by Tina Modotti, among others. Powerful paintings of the so-called “big three” stand out: Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. In addition, Vida Americana opens a space for the documentation of the work that these artists carried out in the United States. Thus, the influence that Mexican creators had on other figures of the time is expressed through a visual dialogue with a selection of works by Jackson Pollock, Phillip Guston, Seymour Fogel and Marion Greenwood, among many others.
Vida Americana. Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925 – 1945, Whitney Museum of American Art, until May 17, 2020.
Photos and texts: Fabiola Fernández.
José Clemente Orozco, El fuego (The Fire), 1938.
Miguel Covarrubias, Vendedora de flores (Flower Seller), end of 1940.
Diego Rivera, Energía eléctrica (Electric energy), 1931-1932.
Alfredo Ramos Martínez, El defensor, 1932, and Cautiverio de la guerra, 1939.
Jackson Pollock, No title, 1938-1941.
Marion Greenwood, Construction Worker, 1940.