Mexican Muralism: Racial Ideologies and Official Art

Science Center K209

The purpose of this research project is to analyze the relationships between national mestizo identity and official art using two of Diego Rivera’s murals from the 1920’s as a case study. From the 1920s to the 1940s, the post-revolutionary Mexican government commissioned mural paintings with social and political messages in attempts to reunify the country under the new government. The artists employed were tasked with the promotion of a national mestizo identity – a hybrid of contemporary Mexico’s indigenous and European origins. While the state’s mural program and the individual artists themselves claimed to celebrate indigenous cultures, their adoption and promotion of official mestizaje contributed to the stigmatization of indigenous peoples that continues to exist today. Utilizing visual analysis of some of these murals, supplemented by a social history of art approach, I will explore the implications of mestizaje in the context of 1920’s Mexican art.