David Alfaro Siqueiros

David Alfaro Siqueiros (December 29, 1896 - January 6, 1974) was a Mexican painter and muralist. He was known for his social realism work, particularly his many murals depicting Mexican history, and was a prolific art theorist. He was also a political activist and Communist politician.

His notable projects in Mexico City include his collaborative mural at the Mexican Electricians' Union (1939-40), "From Porfiriato to the Revolution" at the Museum of National History (1957-55), "March of Humanity" and the Siqueiros Polyforum on Avenida Insurgentes (1965-71), and his role in procuring mural commissions for artists on the University City campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1950s Mexico City.

Siquerios was one of several well-known Mexican muralists working at the time, including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo. His art directly reflected the time period in which he flourished as an artist. His art was deeply rooted in the Mexican Revolution, a violent and chaotic period in Mexican history in which various social and political factions fought for recognition and power. The period from the 1920s to the 1950s is known as the Mexican Renaissance, and Siqueiros was active in the attempt to create an art that was at once Mexican and universal.

Political activism was an important piece of Siqueiros' life, and frequently inspired him to set aside his artistic career. In 1911, when he was only fifteen years old, Siqueiros attended the Academy of San Carlos and was involved in a student strike that protested the academy's method of teaching and urged the impeachment of the school's director. One year later, when he was just sixteen years old, he conspired against Victoriano Huerta's dictatorship. At the age of eighteen, he participated in the Constitutionalist Army fighting against the forces of General Victoriano Huerta. He briefly gave up painting to focus on organizing miners in Jalisco. Between 1937 and 1938 he fought in the Spanish Civil War alongside the Spanish Republican forces, in opposition to Francisco Franco's military coup. He was exiled twice from Mexico because of his political activism, once in 1932 and again in 1940, following his assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky.

From 1919 to 1922 he traveled to Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain to study art. Throughout his career he traveled internationally, promoting his version of muralism in the United States, South America (including Uruguay, Argentina and Chile), Cuba, Europe, and the Soviet Union

The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from the existing paintings.h

Sitemap
Painter sitemap
Techniques sitemap
Materials sitemap