Research Week 2

4/7/2014

• 1922 Rivera's First murals in Mexico; worked with Orozco and Siqueiros; joined Mexican Communist party.
• For what purpose did he make prints?
• "Despite rejection of easel painting in their manifesto of 1924, the muralists relied on the sale of portable paintings and prints to supplement the meager wages they earned on the scaffolds." (246, Oles) 



Zapata was made in 1934 by Diego Rivera.

Rivera made Zapata's print to support himself and the high demand there was for his art. 
• Another purpose for the print was for Rivera's shaping image of Mexico.
• Rivera made works that depicted Mexico's history "mainly in terms of Mexico City" .
• His works were made to "impact visitors with a totalizing and awe-inspiring visual display: fireworks more than a textbook" (269, Oles)

Emerging question based on quote:

"Hennessy (1999) claims that a distinctive characteristic of the reconstruction of society after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) was the way that artists as opposed to writers came forward as the intellectual vanguard" (Picot, 30)

Vanguard: a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas

Other clues that Rivera did indeed utilized Western Art inspiration:

"In 1921, Rivera expresses his long-term aspiration to engage with the people's art: in Paris in Madrid, in Rome, in all of the countries I have visited, it was my wish to study popular art, the runs of our great past, with the purpose of crystalizing certain idas about art those that will give new and broad sense to my work" (Rivera quoted in Folgarait 1998)

• In Rivera's print Zapata we observe his idea to crystalize certain ideas about art. He clearly wanted to use Western influence because it added essence to his work. 
• What type of ideas did he want to crystalize?
• Maybe he had his own personal opinions about the great masters that he studied from. Rivera must have observed those masters with great inspiration if he decided to use some composition values seen in their art to his own work.
• Other ideas:
• the Zapata print has a character on the ground. This seems to be an hacienda owner. Rivera referred his print to the Hacienda System. Zapata is seen standing tall and about to start a revolt now that the hacienda owner is on the ground.
• (the hacienda system absorbed local lands in big estates, there was a widespread exploitation of estate workers which reached near-slavery. This led to impoverishment and landlessness amongst the indigenous as well as the breaking of ancient traditions - Picot)