Los Tres Grandes
Name
Institutional Affiliation
In the 20th century, there existed three Mexican muralists; Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente and David Alfaro who were prominently referred to as the Los Tres Grandes. These muralists created murals that played a vital role in provision of monumental visions of struggle and oppressions by popular powers at the time. In 1920, a mexicam muralist movement began when the government commissioned artists to participate in making of arts that would facilitate in educating the illiterate persons about the history of the country as well as to present a strong vision of the future. The Los Tres Grande believed that these arts were the greatest representation of human expression and also a key to social revolution. Their murals defined this movement and in turn created a mythology regarding the Mexican revolution which then promoted Marxist ideals that are influential that are up to date.
The Los Tres Grande captured the imagination of American artists with their unique epic mural arts. The American artists who were influenced by los tres grandes included Charles White and Jacob Lawrence. Due to the great depression in their country, the muralists relocated to the United States. They provided a sense of encouragement to American artists who were oppressed and a vision for an art that would be connected to the society. Jose Clemente was the first muralist to go to the U.S. He was the most complex among the Mexican muralist and most of his works displayed the themes of human suffering. In addition, he was fascinated by machines like Rivera and his arts were less realistic. His arts are famously known to have promoted the political causes of the low-income earners. An example of his art work was ‘Prometheus, 1930’ which is appealing and addresses the status of the world. There is wonder on why he painted this mural of the great deity of Greek as he was considered to be an angry visionary.
Diego Rivera developed his own native style that was based on use of simplified, huge figures and bold colors. In his ‘Detroit industry mural, 1932-1933’, there are twenty-seven panels that depict the Detroit and the ford motor company while the rest of the panels show future advances in various scientific fields such as in technology. He was fascinated by machines and in this mural, he expressed his ideas of the Detroit spirit. Lastly David Alfaro who was a supporter of Soviet Union, produced numerous arts with the theme on pilitics. His murals had different perspectives when viewed from different angles. Alfaro developed a technique which involved first tracing of images into a wall with an electric projector, capturing images of early sketches to improve perspectives and the use of new paints and spray guns to work on the surfaces of outdoor buildings. In his murals proletarian mother,1929 a woman who seems to be sad and hopeless has three children confronting her. On another angle a different perspective is that the four are locked up in a small room probably as an expression of human oppression.
The differences among the three muralists is attributed to their individual experience in the Mexican revolution. Rivera did not experience the tragedies of the war as he was in Europe and due to this his art is based on his perceptions on social benefits from the revolution. Jose and Alfaro on the other hand, fought in the revolution which in turn led to a pessimistic approach when depicting the war. Their arts are radical and focused on inventions of scientic fields in the future.
References
Museum, W. (2020). Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945. Retrieved 21 April 2020, from https://whitney.org/exhibitions/vida-americana