By: Abed Abdi
In this 1974 article, Palestinian artist Abed Abdi reflects on the life and work of David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of the leading figures of Mexican muralism. Abdi examines Siqueiros’s revolutionary commitment, his approach to mural painting, his use of modern techniques, and his vision of art as a collective expression belonging to the people.
The local and international newspapers and radio stations announced to us the death of the mural painter Siqueiros, at the age of seventy-five, in Mexico City. As for the local newspapers, they reported his death in a few lines and in an obscure corner, mentioning that he was communist in inclination and one of Mexico’s great painters, together with his colleagues Diego and Clemente Orozco, who laid the foundations of the school of “muralism” and later realism.
There is nothing surprising in the “modesty” of those newspapers in recounting the life of an artist such as Siqueiros, in a cold contrivance characteristic of the enemies of socialist realism. The great artist knew the enemies of realism throughout his life as a militant and an artist. As though the hundreds of square metres of walls, encrusted and spread with his Mexican-geometric lines and colours, so enchanting, which speak of the emergence of a new human being who has begun his journey toward meeting the rosy setting sun, mean nothing to those people.
With Siqueiros
Modernity will always be associated with Siqueiros, as will the colour material and the compositional and theoretical principles that he constantly emphasized in his artistic work. He is one of the luminous figures of modern Mexican art, and he made the connection between idea and technique an essential factor in the painting.
Like Rivera, Siqueiros made the cause of progress an important weapon in his struggle for his Mexican people. Many may not agree with his theoretical views, but there will be no person who does not agree with his authentic artistic creation.
When we speak about modern Mexican art, we must mention Rivera (1886–1957), Clemente Orozco (1883–1949), Alf Siqueiros (1898–1974), Medrado and Tamayo.
Orozco completed what Rivera had begun in the early 1920s: making Mexican art a means in the hands of the working masses and other sections of the people. He added expression to it. He produced his mural paintings (frescoes), and his first subject was the human being, in his details and his particular boundaries, and his profound capacity to arouse emotion, together with a return to the authenticity of colour that distinguished ancient Mexico in its ancient Indo-American civilization.
From the beginning, the name of Siqueiros was associated with the Mexican Revolution, which overthrew the semi-feudal dictatorial regime that had dominated the country and turned it into a playground for American capitalist monopolies. These had seized the lands of the peasants, maintained illiteracy, and spread poverty and hardship among the impoverished peasants.
This uprising continued for decades and bore fruit when workers, peasants and intellectuals joined in the struggle for democracy and intellectual liberation, and when the national charter contained a provision calling for assistance to artists and the development of Mexican traditions, in which mural painting played a major role.
With Siqueiros as he speaks about himself
When I was a student at the College of Art in Dresden, I was fortunate enough to see Siqueiros and listen to his words about the ancient and modern history of Mexican art and about the future. We followed his words with passion and interest, and I remember him saying about himself:
“Our artistic movement in general was directly influenced by the political pedagogical situation, and when we went to Europe, we had to realize the dreams for which we had struggled for so long — namely, a new Mexico.
In 1913 there was an attempt to strike at the revolutionary gains. A number of painters, myself among them, joined the struggle. Thus our direct contact with the Mexican people began, and through getting to know our people we were guided toward the human being, history and civilization — the civilization of our ancient homeland.”
The Beginning of the Artistic Work
The ancient civilization left by the indigenous inhabitants of the country — the Maya and the Inca — and above all the pyramids, the monumental statues and the paintings on the walls… remained firmly established and influenced aesthetic concepts in the arts. Rivera and Orozco focused in their mural paintings on the class concept of the bourgeoisie’s exploitation of the Red Indian people. In Siqueiros’s works, however, the general cause of the Mexican people emerged — the cause of the people in both its white and red sections alike.
Mural painting itself was not new in Siqueiros’s work. What was new was his penetrating vision and his effort to introduce modern elements, and to solve engineering problems centred on the distribution of geometric angles across the presented unit and dealing with the question of technique.
“In the matter of mural painting, man cannot obtain a better solution than through the many distributed angles. If there are ten angles, or twenty viewing angles, at a place opposite the mural, the geometric structures assume a position that is easy on the eye.”
Siqueiros: A Brief Biography
Upon his return from Paris to Mexico City, he became involved in artistic work and mural painting, and the state offered him many proposals for decorating government buildings and public institutions.
He was imprisoned several times. In 1940 he was thrown into prison on charges of attempting to assassinate Trotsky, and was subsequently released on condition that he leave the country. He left for Chile, where he worked on designing murals, and emigrated to the United States, where he lived for several years.
In 1936 he participated in the Spanish Civil War as a soldier in the Republican Army.
In addition to his fame as a painter, he became known as a revolutionary militant. He worked among the workers and organized demonstrations of workers and students. He was imprisoned for this and turned his prison into a museum of mural paintings. He was released after a worldwide wave of protests.
Speaking about the future in the German Democratic Republic, he said that he was preparing a mural that would take several years to complete and would extend for hundreds of metres, through which Siqueiros would recount the history of the Mexican people through generations of their struggle for a better life.
Mural painting is the highest of conclusions, in terms of purity and the power of expression in the forms of painting.
It is not within one’s personal possession… because it is not a personal commodity to be monopolized… rather, it belongs to the people… it is for everyone.
Siqueiros: The March of Humanity
It is one of Siqueiros’s magnificent murals. It is made of coloured sculpture, accompanied by a light-and-sound programme filmed by Don Manuel Suárez.
The March of Humanity depicts people clinging to the earth; a woman with a child whom she carries on her back, in the edge of her garment; children begging for bread, the eldest of them bent beneath a bundle of firewood, walking in search of his livelihood…
And women running about frantically, pushing one another to obtain a piece of bread thrown by others…
The great artist brings forward the masses of humanity, at times in a theatrical form and at times through the intensity of colour.
He depicts them as spirals, turning over one another as they try to obtain what cannot be obtained.
In the midst of the crowds, two active figures appear, driving before them a whole group of the miserable, and dragging the hesitant behind them. They represent the demagogues and false prophets in their reckless assault, seeking to provoke disturbance and chaos.
Another aspect of this magnificent painting is the injustices and inequities of life: Black people executed without trial (in the manner of lynching), fanatical witch-hunting, and black magic swallowing the minds of the ignorant, together with drugs, ignorance and death.
And before this challenge, the march begins along a new pattern of life… science, technology and industrialization. The woman represents civilization; her two open, outstretched palms offer the new hope of a civilized society founded on peace and harmony.
published in Al Ittihad newspaper (Haifa) on 18 January 1974
David Alfaro Siqueiros · Abed Abdi · Mexican Muralism · Mexican Art · Modern Art · Social Realism · Socialist Realism · Diego Rivera · José Clemente Orozco · Revolutionary Art · Political Art · Mural Painting · The March of Humanity · Art and Society · 197
