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The present study aims to identify, analyse and illustrate with concrete examples – a selection of art works and famous artists – the complex interaction between art and politics, viewed from an historical perspective. We propose a comparative research of various manners of using art as a political expression tool, through social messages and propaganda discourses, identifying the mechanisms artists use in order to react to different political events, the way they perceived the social issues, and the modalities through which both the censure and the expression liberty shaped the art world. Using examples of art works from the XVIII-XIX century period, but also from the contemporary époque, we analyse the mechanism of reciprocal influence between politics and art, emphasizing the fundamental importance of this peculiar, very dynamic relationship, for the structuration of the social life.

Diego Rivera, an acclaimed Mexican painter active during the first half of the 20th century, painted multiple frescoes in Mexico and the United States. Some include depictions of bacteria, their interactions with human hosts, and processes related to microbiology and public health, including the microbial origin of life, diagnosis of infection, vaccine production, and immunization. Microbiological subjects in Rivera's murals at the Mexican Ministry of Health in Mexico City; the Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit; Rockefeller Center, New York/Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City; Chapultepec Park, Mexico City; and the Institute of Social Security, Mexico City, span almost 25 years, from 1929 to 1953. Illustrating the successes of the application of microbiological discoveries and methods to public health and the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, they benefited from Rivera's creativity in melding microbiology's unique technological and scientific aspects and public health elements with industrial and political components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the interactions of artists, Mexico's Communist Party, or the Partido Comunista Mexicano (PCM), and the Mexican state within the context of Mexico's vibrant post-revolutionary era. Although during these early years the Party's official membership numbers remained relatively minimal, this article argues that the extraordinary influence of Mexico's creative participants on the politics of the period was significant. During the 1920s the PCM derived a great deal of prestige from its association with art and the muralists, including Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and as a result Mexico's lively political and artistic scene attracted the attention of writers, photographers, artists, and intellectuals from all over the world. Art and politics intertwined as artists played major roles in political affairs, and politicians appropriated the arts to transmit the "official" national history. Indeed, during these exhilarating years, the artists and the PCM built a powerful coalition, and one whose influence endured long beyond the 1920s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diego Rivera's mural El hombre controlador del universo (1934) can be read as foreshadowing the anxieties and optimisms about atomic power that shaped popular culture in Mexico during the nuclear age. In epic fashion, Rivera's vision affirms the agency of ordinary people in the face of a technological epoch while eerily anticipating the bipolarity of the Cold War, themes that would be revisited by Julián Soler in his film Santo contra Blue Demon en la Atlantida (1969), which bears out the prophecy of Rivera's mural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este trabajo analiza, desde una perspectiva histórica y artística, la evolución de los conceptos “Trabajo” y “Trabajadores” durante los primeros años del muralismo mexicano, periodo que buscó reconfigurar la identidad nacional conjugando valores de la Revolución en curso. A través de Alegoría del Trabajo (1910) de Saturnino Herrán, identificado como el pionero del muralismo en México, y la monumental obra de Diego Rivera en la Secretaría de Educación Pública (1923); se pudo evidenciar que en trece años la estructura fabril mantuvo sus aspectos centrales, sin embargo, el nacionalismo revolucionario transformó la concepción respecto a los trabajadores mezclando lo indígena, lo popular y la militancia política de los artistas y obreros.

The article is a tribute to the famous scholar Lev Samoilovich Ospovat, who together with his wife Vera N. Kuteishchikova, paved the way for the Latin American literary studies in the USSR. Lev Samoilovich started with his studies of Pablo Neruda’s life and work; he was the first to write and publish a book in Russian on the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda: A Survey of His Work (1960). A year later on the basis of this book, he defended his PhD dissertation. Subsequently, its author, critically reflecting on his experience, admitted that he often followed some officially imposed stereotypes in the interpretation of Neruda’s work and evolution. At the same time, even in this book one clearly sees an attempt to overcome the stereotypes, especially with regard to the attribution of Neruda's poetry to the method of socialist realism, and to understand the poetic world of the Chilean poet not only in connection with his political activities. L.S. Ospovat became widely known as the author of two books from the series “Life of Outstanding People” — Federico Garcia Lorca and Diego Rivera and a number of brilliant articles and prefaces. The result of Lev Ospovat’s Latin American studies was the book New Latin American Novel he co-authored with his wife; the book retains its value up to nowadays. At the end of his life Ospovat became interested in Pushkin studies and published several articles containing interesting discoveries in this area. The article is accompanied by fragments from Lev Ospovat’s memoirs that of L.S. Ospovat, which allows the reader to get an idea of the kind, highly intelligent, honest and very attractive person.

Quisiera dar curso a estas palabras, que esbozan una entrada posible a la obra de Julio Ramos, siguiendo uno de sus procedimientos críticos más notables y que, ciertamente, parece emerger de una circunstancia personal, biográfica: la inestabilidad inherente a una ciudadanía móvil en tanto sujeto caribeño, latinoamericano, en Estados Unidos y otras geografías continentales. Esta residencia movediza, compartida con algunos de sus objetos de estudio, me impulsa a comentar el fluir de la crítica de Ramos siguiendo algunas de las sendas por él trazadas para examinar, en Desencuentros de la modernidad en América Latina: literatura y política en el siglo XIX (1989) y Detroit’s Rivera: The Labor of Public Art (2017), el trabajo de dos íconos del latinoamericanismo más “heroico” de fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX: el poeta cubano José Martí y el pintor mexicano Diego Rivera. DOI: https://zenodo.org/record/8212709

This article investigates how Yiddish writing in Mexico illuminates the ambiguous position of Jews both within their local context and as part of a global network of Yiddish modernist writers. Through an analysis of the poetry of two Jewish immigrants to Mexico, Yitzjok (Isaac) Berliner (1899–1957) and Jacobo Glantz (1902–1982), this article argues that these immigrant poets adopted local themes and styles characteristic of Mexican modernism as a way to rhetorically write Jews into the nation. Although Mexican modernist literature and art was most typically expressed in Spanish, these poets took on local forms but preserved Jewish difference by writing in Yiddish. At the same time, Berliner and Glantz also engaged with a global, diasporic network of Yiddish modernism centered in New York and Warsaw. Focusing on the so-called "Mexican" subject matter enabled these poets to participate in a larger conversation about expanding the boundaries of Yiddish literature, proposing the literature's worldliness by speaking beyond an explicitly Jewish experience. The works of these immigrant writers, therefore, demonstrate the emergence of a Third Space at the intersection not only of the immigrant and the nation, but also between the periphery and the centers of a transnational Yiddish network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the history of the so-called Mexican notebook of Mayakovsky, he traveled with from Europe to America and back in 1925. The notebook preserves one record in Spanish made by José Manuel Puig Casauranc, Minister of Public Education in Mexico, and traces of torn pages. According to Mayakovsky's testimony, Casauranc’s record was followed by a brief appeal to the working people of Soviet Russia, written in Spanish by the deputy F. Moreno, which the poet destroyed when crossing the US border, fearing political complications. It was suggested that two separate pages from Mayakovsky archive with the autographs of F.-T. Marinetti in French belong to this notebook. Drawing on new archival and memoir sources, the paper explores social, cultural and biographical circumstances of getting the autograph. Particular attention is paid to the interpretation of the goals and results of Mayakovsky's trip to Mexico, his contacts (Alfonso Reyes, Diego Rivera, Manuel Casauranc, Francisco Moreno, Tina Modotti, List Arsubido). On the basis of historical, literary and textual analysis of the Mexican notebook, its publication as part of the 19th volume of the Complete Collection of Works by V.V. Mayakovsky in 20 vols. (IWL RAS) is justified.

Este artículo añade un nuevo giro al papel de México como “emporio” revolucionario y punto de encuentro transnacional entre el comunismo internacional y el radicalismo regional. Por el contrario de la mayoría de las discusiones en torno al transnacionalismo como crisol para grandes transformaciones sociales y culturales, el trabajo señala retos y resultados adversos, dadas las complejidades de la experiencia. Como agentes de conflicto apunta, por ejemplo, las particularidades del colectivo comunista reunido en la capital azteca, tales como el carácter multinacional de las redes afiliadas a la Comintern y las personalidades conflictivas de algunos de sus miembros. Ofrece también ejemplos específicos de los choques personales y sus resultados para la estabilidad interna del movimiento y sus organizaciones representativas.

The City at the Crossroads of History was commissioned for the Puffin Gallery of Social Activism, Museum of the City of New York. Despite the unanimous approval by the museum's own committee of leading academics and intellectuals, it was censored on political grounds by the museum and the Puffin Foundation. Composed of four panels, the 16'x21' mural is now on display at Red Square, New London, CT. The mural gives visual expression to the great spirit of social activism in New York City, recognizing the collective contribution of millions of people in the ongoing struggle for social and economic justice—a dynamic, ever-present, interrelated social process. Revolutionary struggle is now an essential element of life – critical for the very survival of our species. Complete mural and more information can be found at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• GPR high frequency surveys allow estimating the state of alteration of the mural by Diego Rivera • 3D images of the interior of the wall to detect the arrangement of cracks • 1D synthetic method for interpreting the type of material that causes the anomalies The aim of this paper is to verify whether GPR surveys using high-frequencies allow estimating the state of alteration of murals and, through the generation of three-dimensional images of the interior of the wall at different depths, detect the arrangement of cracks, the texture and structure of the building materials, and their relationship with the mural painting preservation. The results obtained are required to determine the causes of the recurrent damages, previous to its restoration of a mural painting by Diego Rivera located in a cultural heritage colonial building in Mexico City, where invasive or destructive techniques cannot be applied. Additionally, in order to refine results, synthetic modeling and comparison with real traces were used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historias is the property of Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

O presente artigo intenta em analisar a originalidade da obra do gravador mexicano José Guadalupe Posada (1852–1913) a partir de um exame iconológico da obra Terrible y verdadeira noticia (1910). Em 1930, Diego Rivera ressaltou o caráter original e distante da imitação da produção de Posada, colocando-o como um exemplo para os artistas mexicanos do século XX. Contudo, através de uma ótica warburguiana, que atente às anacronias da arte, nota-se como a afirmação do muralista é frágil, passí­vel de crí­ticas e, simultaneamente, abre espaço para uma reflexão acerca do lugar do próprio Rivera na construção dessa narrativa. Para auxiliar nessa tarefa, valemo-nos dos escritos de Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin, Gertrud Bing e Georges Didi-Huberman.

Copyright of Bitacora: Revista de Arquitectura is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Facultad de Arquitectura and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper I will analyse the links between the revisionist historiography of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20 and the revisionist literature on the Mexican murals produced in the period immediately afterwards, as well as the theoretical arguments that underpin both, before making a call for a "post-revisionist" reading of the art. I will then finish by making a post-revisionist iconographical analysis of Diego Rivera's History of Mexico mural produced between 1929-35 as a counterpoint to revisionist ones that instead read it as government propaganda pure and simple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frida Kahlo once wrote that her husband, the great muralist Diego Rivera, was 'fundamentally a constructor, an investigator and above all, an architect'. Delving into this unexplored aspect of his artistic production, this article reassesses Rivera's muralism in light of his contribution to post-revolutionary architectural discourses and his relationship with the architect Juan O'Gorman to demonstrate how concepts of building design influenced his approach to visual composition. In 1931, O'Gorman constructed a house-studio for Kahlo and Rivera which exemplified the functionalist style that rose to prominence in public architecture during that decade. Drawing attention to the anatomical analogies employed by O'Gorman to articulate his utilitarian architectural vision, the author examines how Rivera's contemporary architecturally themed mural The Making of a Fresco (1931) integrates functionalist principles to establish a parallel between the discipline of built spaces and the bodies inhabiting them. Although both O'Gorman and Rivera later rejected functionalism in favour of an organic style, they continued to rely on physiological metaphors to conceptualise the relationship between architectural form and function. By following their shifting theorisations of the organic in modern architecture, the author traces the development of their shared thinking and an evolution in post-revolutionary building design from functionalism to a post-Taylorist organicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I murales eseguiti da Diego Rivera (1886–1957) al Rockefeller Center di New York nel 1933 sono fra le più note opere d’arte scomparse. Ad aver reso celebre il dipinto non è stato il successo di pubblico, data la rimozione del lavoro ancora in corso d’opera, ma il ricchissimo dibattito alimentato dalla stampa intorno alla concezione dell’immagine, considerata negli Stati Uniti totalmente rivoluzionaria per la particolare tecnica dell’affresco utilizzata da Rivera, per i riferimenti all’arte precolombiana e per le idee politiche esposte. Un’occasione di riflessione è offerta in questa sede dall’attenzione che uno dei principali organi di stampa americani, il New York Times, ha dedicato all’argomento: dalla lettura dei numerosi interventi emerge, da una parte, la capacità di Rivera di entrare in comunicazione con un vasto pubblico, e dall’altra il ruolo avuto dalla stampa nella diffusione - quasi involontaria - del suo messaggio. Rivera è riuscito a raggiungere in tal modo, almeno parzialmente, il suo scopo: l’opera non è stata accessibile al grande pubblico, ma la conoscenza dei principi che voleva celebrare si è diffusa in maniera ancor più capillare.

Este ensayo rastrea las estrategias vanguardistas que Amauta emplea para su constitución. Se distingue un movimiento dialéctico que se inicia con la reactualización de una estética precolombina, continúa con una abierta propuesta socialista y desemboca en la siguiente confluencia: la revolución que busca la instauración de un sistema socialista de raíz indígena. El ensayo también intentará desprender el discurso económico de Amauta con relación a su espíritu vanguardista. Se prestará especial atención a la minería como base de un modelo económico nacional y a la manera en que ésta es representada en los trabajos de Mariátegui y César Falcón.

This brief essay uses Pandurang Khankhoje, an Indian scientist and political refugee in Mexico, as an example of the value of using a largo dislocare approach to write histories of science. Largo dislocare is an invitation to dislocate known histories not just geographically but also chronologically to better understand the motion of people, ideas and objects. By examining the largo (long) trajectory of science in spaces that do not conform to traditional history of science markers we acknowledge that our established chronologies are in need of expansion. For the where with which we begin these histories is as essential as when we begin them. In addition, this approach challenges us to consciously and constantly search for evidence to write about how those on the fringes of society - migrants, refugees, members of ostracized ethnic groups, etc. - in the so-called global margins produce science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores English artists’ support for socially engaged public mural painting during the 1930s in relation to international developments, particularly those in the United States.

En el presente trabajo se estudia la representación del arquetipo femenino en la obra mural de Diego Rivera que el artista entretejió en sus amplios y complejos programas iconográficos con una extraordinaria imaginación poética. Se postula aquí que por una parte, dicha representación arquetípica partió de su erudita utilización de símbolos alegóricos y de alusiones a divinidades femeninas de distintas épocas y lugares, como medio para asegurar la universalidad del contenido histórico de su pintura, y que por otra parte, y de forma esencial, el origen de sus poderosas imágenes femeninas, se remonta a algunas de las experiencias vitales del artista, en particular a aquellas relacionadas con el amor filial, con la maternidad/paternidad, y con las heterodoxas relaciones amorosas que Rivera mantuvo a lo largo de su vida con sobresalientes mujeres de su época a quienes admiró y reconoció a través de sus impactantes retratos y homenajes pictóricos. Se concluye así que el arte mural fue para Rivera no sólo un instrumento de acción política, tal y como es normalmente reconocido por la crítica especializada, sino también, una oportunidad para elaborar temas de carácter subjetivo, en los que paradójicamente alcanza un mayor grado de generalidad y trascendencia que el que caracteriza a su pintura histórica. Particularmente la expresión simbólica del arquetipo femenino plasmada por Rivera en algunos de sus principales aspectos como la Buena Madre, la Madre Terrible y, la Gran Madre, tal y como los fue viviendo, construyendo y modificando a través de algunas de sus experiencias vitales más significativas y profundas de su vida personal, constituye uno de los logros artísticos más eminentes del artista y uno de sus principales aportes iconográficos al arte universal. Sus excelsas imágenes de diosas y madres nos permiten re-conectarnos con el inconciente colectivo, y particularmente con el poder tradicionalmente asociado con el arquetipo femenino, lamentablemente desatendido y denigrado en gran parte del arte contemporáneo. In this paper I examine the representation of the feminine archetype in Diego Rivera´s murals, considering not just his learned use of traditional allegorical symbols, but also, his personal experiences, in particular those in regard to filial love, maternity/paternity, and his very complex amorous relationships with some outstanding women of his time, which in a more or less conscious way, the artist intertwined with extraordinary lyrical imagination in his ample and complex iconographic programs. I conclude that for Rivera, muralism was not only an instrument of political action, such as it is normally recognized by specialized literature, but also, an opportunity to elaborate personal themes, in which paradoxically he reaches a greater degree of universality and transcendence that the one which characterizes his history paintings.

This essay continues the investigation of an earlier article, also published in this journal, by examining artistic representations of Cuauhtémoc in the post-revolutionary period, and especially after 1940, when the figure of the last Aztec king became widely and variously deployed as a political and cultural emblem. The essay will describe how in the post-revolutionary era internal contradictions, which were latent within the imagery, broke into the open and ignited controversy over the meaning and use of the Cuauhtémoc symbol.Este ensayo continúa la investigación realizada en un artículo anterior también publicado en esta revista, examinando las representaciones artísticas de Cuauhtémoc en el periodo posrevolucionario, especialmente después de 1940, cuando la imagen del último emperador azteca fue concebida como un símbolo nacional. Muestra la manera en la que en este periodo las contradicciones internas, que eran latentes dentro del imaginario, llevaron a una controversia abierta y encendida sobre el significado y el empleo del símbolo de Cuauhtémoc.

Este artigo pretende analisar como o socialismo, a ideologia de Marx, Lenin e outros, influenciaram na vida e obra do muralista mexicano Diego Rivera. A perspectiva de análise de nosso objeto de estudo tem por base o materialismo histórico-dialético. Constatamos assim, que Diego Rivera foi influenciado profundamente pela participação política, pelo socialismo e comunismo e que estas ideologias estão presentes ao longo de toda sua vida e obra.

Mid-twentieth century Mexican hospitals – the buildings themselves and their interior and exterior walls – became stages that depicted national hopes and aspirations. Hospitals and clinics became ideal spaces that married science and medicine with the state’s version of a triumphant social revolution. Visitors and patients to hospital waiting rooms, lobbies and auditoriums would see, indeed be surrounded by, depictions of the complicated hopes placed on science and medicine as interpreted by politicians, architects, and artists. Hospital walls became contested spaces where art depicted Mexico’s embrace of modern technology and medical practices while also showcasing, in vivid color, citizens challenging the government’s broken revolutionary promises, especially the right of all to health and social security. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The critical discourse on Carlos Chávez's music is full of contradictions regarding the presence within it of signifiers of the Mexican, the pre-Columbian, and the indigenous. Between 1918 and 1928 Chávez in fact developed, from stylistic preferences that appeared early in his compositions, a polysemic language that he could use equally well to address the very modern or the primitive, the pre-Columbian or the contemporary mestizo, in and only in those works in which he chose to do so. Chávez's referents emerged in dialogue with the cultural and political contexts in which he worked, those of post-revolutionary Mexico and modern New York. But he was attracted above all to modernism and modernity, and was impacted by cosmopolitan forces at home and abroad. By the end of the decade he had earned a position within the modern musical field's network of social relations, and had drawn the attention of agents of recognition such as Edgard Varèse, Paul Rosenfeld, Aaron Copland, and Henry Cowell. These composers and critics added Chávez's constructed difference to their much-sought collective difference as Americans within a European art. Chávez's own use of explicit Mexican referents in some of his works shaped the early reception of his music as quintessentially American/Mexican, eventually influencing the way we understand it today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]