Celebrating the Mexican people’s potential to craft the nation’s history was a key theme in Mexican muralism.
c. 1920 - 1960
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Diego Rivera, Stairwell and Third Floor “Court of Labor” at the SEP
Artists in Mexico believed that art had a unique role to play in restructuring their society after ten years of civil war.
Diego Rivera, first and second floor murals of the Secretaría de Educación Pública
Diego Rivera's enormous mural cycle at the Ministry of Public Education celebrates Mexico: its festivals, its industries, and its people in over 100 panels
Diego Rivera’s Sugar Cane
A brutal history told for a modern American city, Mexican muralism in New York
Diego Rivera, Calla Lilly Vendor (Vendedora de Alcatraces)
Rivera celebrates Indigenous culture, but also points to poverty in this melancholy painting of a flower seller.
Diego Rivera, Man Controller of the Universe
Why was the original version of this mural at New York’s Rockefeller Center destroyed within months of its creation?
Diego Rivera, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park
Rivera includes 400 years of history here, and guarantees that the stories normally edited out are included.
Diego Rivera, Man at the Crossroads
Why was the original version of this mural at New York’s Rockefeller Center destroyed within months of its creation?
Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry Murals
Rivera’s controversial murals were made at the height of Depression-era instability in auto-manufacturing Detroit.
Mexican Muralism: Los Tres Grandes—David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco
Epic murals in highly visible, public buildings were commissioned by the Mexican government to teach history.
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