The Solipsist: mural

Showing posts with label mural. Show all posts

19 October 2012

Unequal Time for Siqueiros

Before we leave the subject of murals once again, I think we should give at least a nod to David Alfaro Siqueiros, the man whose name I persist in misspelling. With Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, Siqueiros was one of the Big Three Mexican muralists of the early Twentieth Century.

I do not intend now to dedicate this blog to Diego Rivera. There are other blogs so engaged, and certainly many more dedicated to his wife, Frida Kahlo, also known as Santa Frida. We will follow up here, however, with more detail photographs. The large section of the mural depicting Mexican history that topped the previous entry is located on the center wall of the stairwell in the National Palace. In the photograph above that panel is on the right. The side walls of the stairwell also feature murals on that same subject, One of those side walls is shown in the photograph above. It is a massive mural, amazing in its scope.

Restoration Project

This is a section of Diego Rivera's massive mural depicting all of Mexican history. It is located in the National Palace in Mexico City, a photo of which follows.

Mazatlán Graffiti

. . .was my title. La Mexicana preferred something like "A Grand Mural of Mazatlán." Just another of those nitpicky disagreements about genre.

The Stairwell Mural

The main problem with murals, as I have said before, is that one cannot take them down, crate them up, and take them on tour. If one is a fan of murals, as I am, one must go to the mural. The mural is never going to come to you.

I came to appreciate better the second great problem with murals when I saw Diego Rivera's mural depicting the history of México in the stairwell of the National Palace in México City. There is no way to photograph murals in order to give someone else even an approximation of what they are like in the flesh. I have looked at a lot of professional photographers' attempts at this on the internet. They all fail miserably. And so knowing in advance that I am going to fail, too, I am going to show you some photos anyway.

There are many Rivera murals in the National Palace that he painted between 1929 and 1945. I am only going to address that mural in the main stairwell. Diega Rivera was not an admirable man. We need not go into details here. However, this mural depicting the history of México is incredible. It includes depictions of over 1,100 figures from Mexican history. It was painted with paint that Rivera formulated himself using natural dyes and other natural pigments from Mexico.

The main stairwell consists of three walls, the two smaller side walls and the large central wall capped by five arches. The mural covers these three walls. In photos one can usually only see three of the arches of the central wall because columns on the second floor make it difficult to get a wide angle picture of the entire central wall. One climbs the stairs, goes around to the railing on the second floor, and gapes a this thing. The right wall depicts the ancient, mythical world of México, and the left wall depicts two alternate visions of the future of México. The big central mural sets out the meat of modern Mexican history under the five big arches.