In this free course, Art and the Mexican Revolution, you will explore one of Diego Rivera’s key murals which was commissioned by the Mexican government in the period after the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. These monumental public artworks, designed to win over the Mexican peasantry and working-class to the new post-revolutionary state, brought Mexican mural artists international acclaim and Rivera was subsequently awarded important commissions in the United States. Yet, due to his commitment to a figurative form of propaganda, Rivera’s reputation suffered during the Cold War period and these Mexican murals are now largely left out of dominant accounts of twentieth-century United States art.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
situate a key example of Mexican muralism within the post-revolutionary context in which it was made
explore recent debates around the interpretation of Mexican muralism
examine the concepts of 'realism' and 'modernism' in relation to Mexican muralism
address the relevance of social and cultural contexts for interpreting works of art
analyse works of art in terms of different ideas and approaches.
Interesting but quite frustrating. I hoped there would be more about Mexican history, and better pictures/film (though at least these are available elswhere on the internet). One of the films stopped working part-way. However, I did learn a fair bit about Rivera's murals and the odd choice of US industrialists to commission his work.