David Alfaro Siqueiros
Born	December 29, 1896(1896-12-29) Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico
Died	January 6, 1974 (aged 77) Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican
Field	Painting, Muralist
Training	San Carlos Academy
Movement	Social Realism
Works	Portrait of the Bourgeoisie (1939-1940), The March of Humanity (1957-1971)

José David Alfaro Siqueiros (December 29, 1896 in Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico - January 6, 1974 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico) was a social realist painter (muralist), and also a Stalinist, known for large murals in fresco that established the "Mexican Mural Renaissance" together with work by Diego Rivera, Orozco, and others. Events 1170 - Thomas Becket: Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Events 1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England. 1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Cuernavaca (Cuauhnāhuac|kʷaw̥'naːwak is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. Morelos is one of the constituent States of Mexico. Morelos has an area of about, making it the second-smallest of the country's states The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e A mural is a Painting on a wall ceiling or other large permanent surface Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an Artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts Working class Events 1170 - Thomas Becket: Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II Year 1896 ( MDCCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Events 1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England. 1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. Cuernavaca (Cuauhnāhuac|kʷaw̥'naːwak is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. Morelos is one of the constituent States of Mexico. Morelos has an area of about, making it the second-smallest of the country's states The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an Artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts Working class These are lists of painters: List of painters by name By religion List of Muslim painters By country or region A mural is a Painting on a wall ceiling or other large permanent surface Stalinism is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1929–1953 Diego Rivera (December 8 1886 &ndash November 24 1957 was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez José Clemente Orozco ( November 23, 1883 &ndash September 7, 1949) was a Mexican social realist painter, who

Summary

His notable projects include his collaborative mural at the Mexican Electricians' Union (1939-40), From Porfiriato to the Revolution at the Museum of National History (1957-55), March of Humanity and the Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros on Avenida Insurgentes (1965-71), and his role in procuring mural commissions for artists on the University City campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1950s Mexico City. The Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros is a multi-functional cultural facility located in Mexico City 's World Trade Center Mexico building complex Avenida de los Insurgentes ( English: Insurgents' Avenue) sometimes known simply as Insurgentes, is the longest Avenue in Mexico City The National Autonomous University of Mexico (in Spanish: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México UNAM) is a Public university based

Siqueiros was one of "the big three" Mexican muralists, lead by Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. Diego Rivera (December 8 1886 &ndash November 24 1957 was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez José Clemente Orozco ( November 23, 1883 &ndash September 7, 1949) was a Mexican social realist painter, who His art directly reflected the time period in which he flourished as an artist. His art was deeply rooted in the Spanish Civil War and the Mexican Revolution, a violent and chaotic period in Mexican history in which various social and political factions fought for recognition and power. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of The Mexican Revolution (Revolución Mexicana was a major armed struggle that started with an uprising led by Francisco I The period from the 1920s to the 1950s is known as the Mexican Mural Renaissance, and Siqueiros was active in the attempt to create an art that was at once Mexican and universal. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive From 1919 to 1922 he traveled to Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain to study art. Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Throughout his career he traveled internationally, promoting his version of muralism in the United States, South America (including Uruguay, Argentina and Chile), Cuba, Europe, and the Soviet Union. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Uruguay.(official full name in República Oriental del Uruguay;, Oriental Republic of Uruguay) is a country located in the southeastern part of South America For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the The Republic of Cuba (ˈkjuːbə or) consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles) Isla de la The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 In 1966 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.

Political activism was an important piece of Siqueiros' life. A self-proclaimed Marxist, he was at times both the favorite and the enemy of the Mexican Communist Party. He was exiled twice from Mexico, once in 1932 and again in 1940, following his assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky. Exile means to be away from one's home (ie city state or country while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij

Youth

Siqueiros was born the second of three children in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1896. His father, Cipriano Alfaro, was well-to-do, and was a descendant of Felipe Alfaro of Portugal. His mother, Teresa Siqueiros, came from a Chihuahua family of musicians, actors, and poets. Siqueiros had two siblings: a sister, Luz, three years older, and a brother Chucho, one year younger. David was two years old when his mother died and his father sent the children to live with their paternal grandparents. Siete Filos, David’s grandfather, would have an especially strong role in his upbringing. However, Cipriano, a devout Catholic, disapproved with the way that his parents had been raising the children in the countryside, so in 1907 he brought them back to live with him in Mexico City. ^[1]

There David attended a religious school. He credits his first rebellious influence to his sister, who had resisted their father’s religious orthodoxy. Around this time, David was also exposed to new political ideas, mainly along the lines of anarcho-syndicalism. One such political theorist was Dr. Atl, who published a manifesto in 1906 calling for Mexican artists to develop a national art and look to ancient indigenous cultures for inspiration. ^[1] In 1911 when he was only fifteen years old, Siqueiros was involved in a student strike at the Academy of San Carlos of the National Academy of Fine Arts that protested the school's method of teaching and urged the impeachment of the school's director. Their protests eventually led to the establishment of an “open-air academy” in Santa Anita. ^[1]

At age eighteen, Siqueiros and several of his colleagues from the School of Fine Arts, joined Carranza’s Constitutional Army fighting the Huerta government. When Huerta fell in 1914, Siqueiros became entrenched in the “post-revolutionary” infighting, as the Constitutional Army had to battle the political factions of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata for control. Doroteo Arango Arámbula ( June 5 1878 &ndash July 20 1923) better known as Francisco or " Pancho " Villa Emiliano Zapata Salazar ( August 8, 1879 – April 10, 1919) was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in ^[1] His military travels around the country exposed him to Mexican culture and the raw everyday struggles of the working and rural poor. After Carranza’s forces had gained control, Siqueiros briefly returned to Mexico City to paint before traveling to Europe in 1919. Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico First in Paris, he absorbed the influence of cubism, intrigued particularly with Cezanne and the use of large blocks of intense color. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Cubism was a 20th century Avant-garde Art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European While there, he also met Diego Rivera, another Mexican painter in “the big three” just on the brink of a legendary career in muralism, and traveled with him throughout Italy to study the great fresco painters of the Renaissance. Diego Rivera (December 8 1886 &ndash November 24 1957 was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere ^[1]

Early Art and Politics

Although many have said that Siqueiros’ artistic ventures were frequently “interrupted” by his political ones, Siqueiros himself believed the two were intricately intertwined. By 1921, when he wrote his famous manifesto in Vida Americana, Siqueiros had already been exposed to Marxism and seen the raw images of the working and rural poor while traveling with the Constitutional Army. In “A New Direction for the New Generation of American Painters and Sculptors,” he called for a “spiritual renewal” to simultaneously bring back the virtues of classical painting while infusing this style with “new values” that acknowledge the “modern machine” and the “contemporary aspects of daily life". ^[2] The manifesto also claimed that a “constructive spirit” is essential to meaningful art, which rises above mere decoration or false, fantastical themes. Through this style, Siqueiros hoped to create a style that would bridge national and universal art. In his work as well as his writing, Siqueiros sought a social realism that at once hailed the proletariat peoples of Mexico and the world while avoiding the clichés of trendy “Primitivism” and “Indianism". ^[2]

In 1922, Siqueiros returned to Mexico City to work as a muralist for Obregón’s revolutionary government. Then Secretary of Public Education José Vasconcelos made a mission of educating the masses through public art and hired scores of artists and writers to build a modern Mexican culture. In Mexico, the Secretary of Public Education is the head of the Secretariat of Public Education (in Spanish: Secretaría de Educación Pública José Vasconcelos Calderón ( February 28 1882, Oaxaca Oaxaca &ndash June 30 1959, Mexico City) was a Mexican Siqueiros, Rivera and Jose Orozco worked together under Vasconcelos, who supported the muralist movement by commissioning murals for prominent buildings in Mexico City. Still, the artists working at the Preparatoria realized that many of their early works lacked the “public” nature envisioned in their ideology. In 1923 Siqueiros helped found the Syndicate of Revolutionary Mexican Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, which addressed the problem of widespread public access through its union paper, El Machete. That year the paper published – “for the proletariat of the world” – a manifesto, which Siqueiros helped author, on the necessity of a “collective” art, which would serve as “ideological propaganda” to educate the masses and overcome bourgeois, individualist art.

Soon after, Siqueiros painted his famous mural Burial of a Worker (1923) in the stairwell of the Colegio Chico. The fresco features an indigenous women mourning over a coffin, decorated with a hammer and sickle. ^[3] But as the union became ever more critical of the revolutionary government, which had not instituted the promised reforms, its members faced new threats to cut funding for their art and the paper. A feud within the union over whether to cease publishing El Machete or lose financial support for the mural projects left Siqueiros at the forefront, as Rivera left in protest of the decision to uphold politics over artistic opportunity. Despite being let go from his “teaching” post under the Department of Education in 1925, Siqueiros remained deeply entrenched in labor activities, in the union as well as the Mexican Communist Party, until he was jailed and eventually exiled in the early 1930s. ^[1]

Artistic career

In the early 1930s, including his time spent in the Mexican Lecumberri Prison, Siqueiros produced a series of politically-themed lithographs, many of which were exhibited in the United States. His lithograph Head was shown at the 1930 exhibition “Mexican Artists and Artists of the Mexican School” at The Delphic Studios in New York City. ^[4] In 1932, he led an exhibition and conference entitled “Rectifications on Mexican Muralism” at the gallery of the Spanish Casino in Taxco, Mexico. ^[1] Shortly after, he traveled to New York, where he participated in the Weyhe Gallery’s “Mexican Graphic Art” exhibition. With a team of students, he also completed a mural, known sometimes as Tropical America, in 1932 at the Italian Hall at Olvera Street in Los Angeles ^[2] Painting fresco on an outside wall – visible to passersby as well as intentional viewers – forced Siqueiros to reconsider his methodology as a muralist. He wanted the image – a red-shirted orator captivating a group of women on the street – to be accessible from multiple angles. Instead of just constructing “an enlarged easel painting,” He realized that the mural “must conform to the normal transit of a spectator. ”^[2] Eventually, Siqueiros would develop a mural technique that involved tracing figures onto a wall with an electric projector, photographing early wall sketches to improve perspective, and new paints, spray guns, and other tools to accommodate the surface of modern buildings and the outdoor conditions.

Back to New York in 1936, he was the guest of honor at the “Contemporary Arts” exhibition at the St. Regis gallery. There he also ran a political art workshop in preparation for the 1936 General Strike for Peace and May Day parade. The young Jackson Pollock attended the workshop and helped build floats for the parade. Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28 1912 &ndash August 11 1956 was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionist movement Continuing to produce several works throughout the late 1930s – such as Echo of a Scream (1937) and The Sob (1939), both now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York – Siqueiros also led a number of experimental art workshops for American students. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, USA, on 53rd Street between Fifth New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous He spent the better part of 1938 with the Republican Army in Spain fighting against Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship before returning to Mexico City to work on a project for the electrician’s union. In a stairwell of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas, Siqueiros designed one of his most famous works, Portrait of the Bourgeoisie, warning against the duel foes of capitalism and fascism. The piece shows these two forces operating as a single political machine, swallowing workers to create wealth. Yet an armed, brave-faced revolutionary, of unnamable class or ethnicity, dives into the scene to rescue the workers, and a blue sky on the ceiling flanked by electrical towers displays hope for the proletariat in technological and industrial advances. Before the mural’s completion in 1940, however, Siqueiros was forced into hiding and later jailed for his links to an attempt to assassinate Leon Trotsky, then in exile in Mexico City from the Soviet Union. ^[1]

Later Life and Works

Unfinished 1940s mural painted by David Alfaro Siqueiros, in Escuela de Bellas Artes, a cultural center in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Siqueiros participated in the first ever Mexican contingent at the XXV Venice Biennale exhibition with Orozco and Rivera in 1950, a mark that the artists had met absolute international acclaim. The Venice Biennale (Biennale di Venezia also called in English the "Venice Biennial " is a major Contemporary art exhibition that takes place once ^[5] Yet by the 1950s, Siqueiros returned to accepting commissions from what he considered a “progressive” Mexican state, rather than painting for galleries or private patrons. ^[5] He painted an outdoor mural entitled The University to the People, The People the University at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City in 1952. In 1957 he began work on 4,500-square-foot government commission for Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City; The Revolution Against the Porfirian Dicatorship was his biggest mural yet. ^[5]

Yet near the end of the decade, his staunch political views, and loud expression of those views, had again gained him skepticism from the government as well as the public. Under pressure from the National Actors’ Association, which had commissioned the mural, the government suspended his work on The History of Theater in Mexico at the Jorge Negrete Theater in 1958. ^[6] Siqueiros was eventually arrested in 1960 for supposedly inciting a May Day riot, though the charges were commonly known to be false. Numerous protests ensued, even including an appeal by well-known artists and writers in a New York Times ad in 1961. ^[7] Unjustly imprisoned, Siqueiros continued to paint, and his works continued to sell. He was finally released in spring of 1964. ^[5]

Siqueiros’ last major project was also his largest: the multi-paneled mural of The March of Humanity on Earth and Toward the Cosmos at the Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros in Mexico City. [1] Completed in 1971 after years of extension and delay, the mural broke from some previous stylistic mandates, if only by its complex message. Known for making art that was easily read by the public, especially the lower classes, Siqueiros message in The March is more difficult to decipher, though it seems to fuse two visions of human progress, one international and one based in Mexican heritage. ^[5] The mural’s placement at a ritzy hotel and commission by its millionaire owner also seems to challenge Siqueiros’ anti-capitalist ideology. ^[5]

Style

As a muralist, Siqueiros believed art should be public, educational, and ideological. He painted mostly murals and other portraits of the revolution – its goals, its past, and the current oppression of the working classes. Because he was painting a story of human struggle to overcome authoritarian, capitalist rule, he painted the everyday people ideally involved in this struggle. Though his pieces sometimes include landscapes or figures of Mexican history and mythology, these elements often appear as mere accessories to the story of a revolutionary hero or heroes (several works depict the revolutionary “masses,” such as the mural at Chapultepec). ^[6]

His interest in the human form developed at the Academy in Mexico City. His accentuation of the angles of the body, its muscles and joints, can be seen throughout his career in his portrayal of the strong revolutionary body. In addition, many works, especially in the 1930s, prominently feature hands, which could be interpreted as another heroic symbol of proletarian strength through work: his self portrait in prison (El Coronelazo, 1945, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City), Our Present Image (1947, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico), New Democracy (1944, Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City), and even his series on working class women, such as The Sob.

Selected Other Works

• Proletarian Mother, 1929, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico
• Zapata (lithograph), 1930, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
• Zapata (oil painting), 1931, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian, Washington, D. C.
• War, 1939, Philadelphia Museum of Art
• Jose Clemente Orozco, 1947, Carillo Gil Museum, Mexico City
• Cain in the United States, 1947, Carillo Gil Museum, Mexico city
• For Complete Social Security of All Mexicans, 1953-36, Hospital de La Raza, Mexico City

External links

• Siqueiros at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City
• The Polyforum, Mexico City
• Siqueiros on Artcyclopedia.com
• Siqueiros Image Bank (collection of photographs used by Siquieros for his work)
• Ten Dreams Galleries
• Mexico Info Profile (in Spanish)

References