Vida Americana : Mexican muralists remake American art, 1925-1945 /
Haskell, Barbara,editor.
Castro, Mark A.,writer of supplementary textual content.
Whitney Museum of American Art,issuing body,host institution.
McNay Art Museum,host institution.
"The first half of the 20th century saw prolific cultural exchange between the United States and Mexico, as artists and intellectuals traversed the countries' shared border in both directions. For U.S. artists, Mexico's monumental public murals portraying social and political subject matter offered an alternative aesthetic at a time when artists were seeking to connect with a public deeply affected by the Great Depression. The Mexican influence grew as the artists José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros traveled to the United States to exhibit, sell their work, and make large-scale murals, working side-by-side with local artists, who often served as their assistants, and teaching them the fresco technique. Vida Americana examines the impact of their work on over 70 artists including Aaron Douglas, Marion Greenwood, Philip Guston, Isamu Noguchi, and Jackson Pollock. It provides a new understanding of art history, one that acknowledges the wide-ranging and profound influence the Mexican muralists had on the style, subject matter, and ideology of art in the United States between 1925 and 1945"--
Catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Vida Americana, Mexican muralists remake American art, 1925-1945, held at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, February 17-May 17, 2020 and McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, June 25-October 4, 2020.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Foreword / Adam D. Weinberg -- América: Mexican muralism and art in the United States / Barbara Haskell -- Prometheus unbound: Orozco in Pomona / Renato González Mello -- "Only a Rivera": the mural painter in the United States / Mark A. Castro -- Celluloid América: Siqueiros, Hollywood and plástica fílmica / Anna Indych-López -- Transcultural modernists as bicultural bridges: Anita Brenner, Alma Reed and Frances Toor / Michael K. Schuessler -- Mexican modern: early promotion of Mexican art in the United States / Dafne Cruz Porchini -- Friends, foes, or strangers: Mexican Americans and the Mexican muralists in the 1930 / Marcella Guerrero -- Picturing transracial alliances: Mexican muralists and Asian American artists / Shipu Wang -- Migration and muralism: new Negro artists and Socialist art / Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw -- Introducing the "big three" : Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros in the 1920s American press / James Wechsler -- The Mexican revolution as an aesthetic event: early myths and perceptions / Andrew Hemingway -- Artists in the exhibition -- Acknowledgments -- Lenders to the exhibition -- Index -- Photography credits.
"The first half of the 20th century saw prolific cultural exchange between the United States and Mexico, as artists and intellectuals traversed the countries' shared border in both directions. For U.S. artists, Mexico's monumental public murals portraying social and political subject matter offered an alternative aesthetic at a time when artists were seeking to connect with a public deeply affected by the Great Depression. The Mexican influence grew as the artists José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros traveled to the United States to exhibit, sell their work, and make large-scale murals, working side-by-side with local artists, who often served as their assistants, and teaching them the fresco technique. Vida Americana examines the impact of their work on over 70 artists including Aaron Douglas, Marion Greenwood, Philip Guston, Isamu Noguchi, and Jackson Pollock. It provides a new understanding of art history, one that acknowledges the wide-ranging and profound influence the Mexican muralists had on the style, subject matter, and ideology of art in the United States between 1925 and 1945"--
Mural painting and decoration, Mexican
Mural painting and decoration, Mexican
Art, American