Types of views in art

2/19/2014

• Aerial view of Lazaro Cardenas dam (from downstream), Durango 1964
• the image demonstrated a Mexican historical dam in which the SRH (Secretaria de Recursos Hidraulicos) is emphasized.
• Images/Photographs like the aerial view of the Lazaro Cardenas dam were taken in this particular way to emphasize the content of the image. 
• The image was made to catch the SRH's attention.
• (*When looking at photographs and analyzing them, it is important to look at the type of shot the photograph is; is it vertical? horizontal? a landscape image? aerial view?) This can help the viewer notice different aspects about the image such as:
• To whom is the photograph meant to catch interest?
• What is being emphasized?
• What visuals tell something to the viewer?

• Regarding research questions:
• Research questions will be broad but will have a pin-point at the end. (like a martini glass)
• By starting with a broader question, I can analyze different aspects of the question such as the chronology of it.
• This helps the researcher gather more information that will lead to a pin-point question.

• Troka el Poderoso
• Estridentismo (1921-1940)
• government passed propaganda to have children interested in technology.
• government and artists wanted aesthetic evolution influenced by futurism and avant-garde
• Julio Prieto was one of the artists who used Troka (the giant robot)
• Troka used as a metaphor for connectivity 
• analysis of technology, radio programs
• 1934 Troka stopped being used as propaganda
• The image of Troka can be used as an analysis:
• who was the specific target audience of the print?
• Who was it aimed for?

UAMA Visit #2 Looking Deeper into Rivera's: Zapata Print

Diego Rivera, Zapata, (1934)

• Emiliano Zapata, a champion of agrarian reform and a key protagonist in the Mexican Revolution.
• Dressed in white like the other agricultural workers (campesinos). This style was highly used by the peasants in Mexico during the revolution.
• Emiliano Zapata's supporters had no uniform compared to Villa's army. Zapata's men only wore what they had. They also had no weapons unlike Villa's army. 
• The campesinos used what they worked with on the farms as weapons: machetes and other tools. 
• The Mexican Revolution lasted from 1910-1919.

Observations made and questions:

• Did Rivera used religious references when creating the print?
• Ex: Fallen man (clearly upper class or an hacienda owner) is touching Zapata's foot similar to Christ getting his feet touched or washed as a symbol of respect, humility or submission. 
• Hats worn by Zapata's men could be representing halos similar to angels. 
• Can be emphasized as the angels of the revolution
• The fallen man was also wearing a uniform. Could it be one of Villa's army men? (Villa had support from the US so they had uniformity and weaponry unlike Zapata's army).

Was Rivera's print made due to high-demand art interest in the USA during 1932?

Tierra y Libertadad

2/12/2014

• Calles: manipulative + opportunistic, raised the agrarian reform to tame the beast (the revolution).
• passed labor reforms so workers could stay united and calm for now.
• CROM (Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana) 
• was a corrupt group of politicians
• they wouldn't do anything for the workers like they said they would.
• Albaro Obregon gets re-elected but he is killed like Carranza.
• Calles wants to get re-elected but cannot serve another term because he just served the presidency. 
• instead, he gets puppet presidents to do the job for him.
• He is also called el Jefe Maximo

Rise of Lazaro Cardenas

• PNR (Partido Nacional Revolucionario)
• Wins presidency and Mexico celebrates.
• names key military leaders
• key leaders 
• frees himself from the Maximato

(Tierra y Libertadad)
Calles believes he is presidential and has power (Jefe Maximo)

• was kicked out of Mexico
• general goes into his room at night and makes him take a plane to Austin Texas
• Calles was very surprised he was even alive

Cardenas gave peasants money & labor they didn't have 

• he looked at oil and focused on petroleum workers
• Nationalized oil (oil expropriation)
• wants to make Mexico belong to itself.

Rivera, Sugar Mill, 1923-24

• clarity of activities
• communal process
• design
• presentation of labor practices; highly idealized work practices such as making tortillas, working a mill.
• there is a sense of community and unity of the people

• Diego Rivera's painting of mine workers emphasized religious metaphors such as the crucifixion
• Mining industry emphasized the importance of the earth and nature
• Rivera uses the same oppositions such as: enter & exit, etc.
• Rivera keeps the scene compact
• Scenes of mine workers:
• coming in and out of the mine: we never see an end, there is no end to the labor
• tied labor issues
• the room is organized
• ideas of Christ and carrying the cross are emphasized (their labor is their own burden)
• the man is being searched highlights the practices the workers had to go through on routine.

• Day of the Dead - traditional practice.
• use of vertical space
• organized chaos
• consuming 
• buying & selling
• pulque and cervesa (beer)
• distribution of land: idea of the revolution; it did not happen until Lazaro Cardenas took charge.
• Court of Fiestas: regional and local practices
• tightly composed, colorful, idealized
• perspective here is reverse

example of Rivera's lilies

• depth to flat

Rivera, Flower Day at Santa Anita

• formal conventions, perspective spatial organization
• landscape 
• flowers (alcatrazez)
• traditional practices
• contrast of race/status/ etc
• new figures where introduced
• dark figures contrasting with light figures
• well-fed vs natives
• 
  

Liberation of the Peon & The Rural School Teacher

Liberation of the Peon

Rural School Teacher (The New School)

• Diego  Rivera and a team of artists worked to create a mural around framework and doors. 
• The mural spanned between windows, offices, doors and many other boundaries found in the building. 
• Many visual information was painted in a balanced manner. 

(Telluric: relationship between culture and the landscape/nature.)

• gold sands where emphasized in both murals as well as sharp mountains. 

• In Liberation of the Peon: the peon has been liberated through death.
• Rivera used the same symbols as in the Deposition of Christ in the mural. 
• It was organized by Rivera by adding religious context. 
• It emphasizes the same concept as in the Deposition of Christ. 
• The pose constructs the peon as a martyr. 
• The painting has simplified figures. 
• The straw hats emphasize halos as in the deposition of Christ. 
• Makes the figures in the mural look like angels or holy beings pertinent to Mexico.
• Horses taken from Renaissance perspective & carefully arranged and completed.
• The meaning in the Liberation of the Peon is intensified by the mural's perspective. 
• idea of crucified Christ by all the wound marks on the body.
• the figures are emphasized as NOT religious martyrs but revolutionary ones. 

Rivera used the same theme for a mural at the MOMA. 

The Rural School Teacher (La Maestra Rural)

• Diego Rivera's conception of land and earth.
• image represents what was seen in photographs.
• figure on horse- a rural worker
• female figure teacher sitting and lecturing the agricultural workers: women + children.
• emphasized as the importance of literacy & education

Diego Rivera's style was emphasized in the murals because of the figure's round shapes, well trained landscape representation and obvious knowledge in art history. 

Rivera, Weavers, 1923-24

• rhythm of threads
• careful arrangement of what we might see in a photograph
• communal activity/process
• painting emphasizes clarity of activities 

Colegio de San Ildefonso

2/5/2014

Siqueiros & Orozco

 

Orozco, Maternity, (1923) Fresco

 

• Orozco used a fiery red. The mural emphasizes maternity, adolescence, beauty, intelligent and virginity.
  
  
   
  

 

....................... (Notes in progress)



Chaos & The Cosmos + La Decena Trágica

Diego Rivera, Creation, (1922)

• One of Rivera's first mural located at the Bolívar Amphitheater at the University of Mexico.
• Rivera's murals can be discussed as an integration of "primary shapes"  with added mathematical proportions. 
• Creation emphasizes the primordial sphere. Females are very monumental emphasizing fertility and the story of Adam & Eve... thus the beginning of times. 

                                     Birth -----> Present

• Rivera's mural includes:
• allegorical images representing culture
• symmetry and balance
• subjects in his murals were usually Rivera's friends.

  

  Photograph of Guadalupe Marin & Frida Kahlo

•  Rivera incorporated people in his life into his murals by adding their face. Everyone could distinguish a Rivera mural because of the people in it. Frida seems to be represented a vast amount of times. She was an important individual in Rivera's life as well as his second wife.



Guadalupe Marin in Rivera's work.

• Dark-skinned individuals emphasized "la gente de Mexico"
• The animals represented in his murals were Mexican such as ox. 

Pancho Villa

• Commander of the Division del Norte (most feared unit in all of Mexico).
• Gained support of the south from 1913-1914 & gained North American support by being neutral in Mexico and not taking sides. 
• America gave him weapons in return
• Villa printed his own currency
• Villa was also a gambler and his revolution strategies demonstrate his gambling actions. He made moves "al azar" meaning that he didn't know what the result might be but he was willing to take the risk. 

Victoriano Huerta



• Huerta was the son of a Mestizo and hated the fact that he was one. This caused him great anger and used his hate for his past as a weapon. He was ashamed of his past.
• He hated the Zapatistas because they reminded him of his past.

La Decena Trágica

• Madero and Pinos Juarez were assasinated. Huerta becomes president as a result. 
• Villa wants to avenge Madero's death and will continue to fight were the revolution left off but with a different strategy...