"American Tropical (review)"

BAR INTERNATIONAL SERIES, 1999

The Getty Conservation Institute, in collaboration with El Pueblo Historic Park in Los Angeles, is carrying out the conservation of David Alfaro Siqueiros' mural, America Tropical, in downtown Los Angeles. The mural, painted in 1932, is located on an exterior second story wall of the Italian Hall on Olvera Street, El Pueblo Historic Park, in downtown Los Angeles and measures 5.4 meters high by 24 meters wide. It depicts a crucified Indian figure on a double cross, surmounted by the American eagle, with guerrero figures pointing guns at the eagle, in a tropical landscape with pre-Columbian ruins. At the time the content was considered politically controversial and the mural was whitewashed and left exposed to the elements for several decades. Since the 1970's, there has been an interest in the mural's preservation, and it is now protected by a temporary shelter. However, due to long neglect, overpainting, and the damages of time, today the mural is a faded image of the past and presents an appearance similar to that of a wall painting in an archaeological context. (...)

MRS Proceedings, 1995

While living in Los Angeles in political exile in 1932, Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros painted Amirica Tropical. The mural, 24 meters long and five meters high, is painted on the exterior south-facing wall of the Italian Hall building on Olvera Street, part of the historic monument of El Pueblo de Los Angeles. For this mural, Siqueiros used an experimentalfresco technique in which he painted on fresh cement using an airbrush. Shortly after its execution, the mural was covered with white paint because of its controversial political message. The mural's exposure to harsh environmental conditions, under direct sunlight and heat as well as the painting technique used, resulted in its deterioration. Since the late 1980s, the Getty Conservation Institute has been involved in a project to conserve the only surviving public mural by Siqueiros in the United States. In order to develop an appropriate conservation treatment it was necessary to understand the causes of its deterioration through the study of the original materials and the painting technique used, and the history of the mural. In this article, historical information and scientific evidences are combined to discuss Siqueiros' innovative technique-fresco on cement-and the mural's deterioration. Contemporary and historical sources provide information on the materials and the technique used in this mural; but give also contradictory evidences regarding the type of paint used. Scientific investigation was carried out on samples of the mural to identify the materials used to paint America Tropical. The pigments were identified using polarized light microscopy and x-ray fluorescence analysis. The identification of the binder was carried out using Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy, organic elemental analysis and gas chromatography. Scientific investigation, in particular infrared analysis, seems to suggest that cellulose nitrate was the principal component of the binder. The deterioration of the mural is discussed in the light of these results.

Academia Letters, 2022

Guston completed a monumental mural in the city of Morelia, Mexico, on the timely topic of the struggle against fascism. By working in a relatively remote location, Guston and Kadish were able to realize a certain amount of artistic autonomy in Morelia that led to a mural which still astonishes in its originality. Now residing in the rear patio of the Museo Michoacano, the former summer palace of Emperor Maximilian which became part of the city university in the 1930s, the mural has been variously titled Workers' Struggle for Liberty, The Struggle Against Terrorism, The Inquisition, and The Struggle Against War and Fascism [Fig. 1].[1] Devoid of any overt references to Mexican culture or history, and rooted in western archetypes of modernism and surrealism, Guston and Kadish's foreign mural commission has been overwhelmingly identified as an 'American' mural in Mexico. As art historian Ellen Landau has written, the location in Mexico at a museum of indigenous and Hispanic artifacts combined with the American artists' Jewish émigré background makes the work appear at first "jarringly out of context."[2] Yet the artists' inclination to head south mixed with their use of the large-scale format and candid syntax of Mexican muralism underscores the significance of the Mexican context that led to this striking public work. Though it is unclear how many Mexican people viewed The Struggle Against Terrorism (the most commonly used titled), it was contentious enough to be covered in the 1940s and was lost to the world until air conditioning repairmen rediscovered it hidden behind a fake wall in 1973.[3] The artists, who had witnessed the highly publicized presence of David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera in California in the early 1930s, were optimistic about the possibilities offered by the foreign context of Mexico after experiencing extreme censorship and racial discord in Los Angeles (where they had attempted to portray the racism experienced by African Americans). Despite their desire to travel to Europe to see "the old

This essay examines the murals of the Chicano movement, which flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s, through the lens of colonial Latin American iconography. Murals were a powerful means of communication as Chicano artists sought to address the marginalization and political isolation of Mexican-Americans in society. Much of the scholarship regarding murals completed in the late 1960’s through the 1980’s decodes the use of indigenous icons and Mesoamerican modes of representation. While this emphasis on the pre-colonial era has been made clear, there are indisputable instances of colonial visual remnants in Chicano murals, and their function serves as an artistic form of resistance against past or present injustices. Examining these murals through the lens of colonial Latin American art and identity allows audiences to come to terms with a complex history, and find instances of beauty in an oppressive past.

Choice Reviews Online, 2010

Alejandro Anreus, Robin Adele Greeley, Leonard Folgarait, eds., Mexican Muralism: A Critical History (University of California Press, 2012)

In this comprehensive collection of essays, three generations of international scholars examine Mexican muralism in its broad artistic and historical contexts, from its iconic figures—Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siquieros—to their successors in Mexico, the United States, and across Latin America. These muralists conceived of their art as a political weapon in popular struggles over revolution and resistance, state modernization and civic participation, artistic freedom and cultural imperialism. The contributors to this volume show how these artists’ murals transcended borders to engage major issues raised by the many different forms of modernity that emerged throughout the Americas during the twentieth century.

2011

Studies in Conservation, 2018