Mexican Muralist Works on Paper: from the Blanton Museum of Art
Included in the exhibition are the leading muralists, Diego Rivera, José Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros as well as José Guadalupe Posada, Leopoldo Méndez, Carlos Mérida, Rufino Tamayo, William Spratling, and Olin Dows.
The artists who participated in the Muralist movement in Mexico believed that art played a social role and should help the people understand their history. David Alfaro Siqueiros published a somewhat Marxist manifesto that stated "We repudiate...every kind of art favored by ultra-intellectual circles, because it is aristocratic, and we praise monumental art in all its forms, because it is public property...art must no longer be the expression of individual satisfaction (which) it is today, but should aim to become a fighting educative art for all." This sentiment was expressed through government-commissioned murals that covered the walls of Mexican schools, churches, government offices, and other public buildings. In addition, the movement was spread through American artists such as William Spratling and Olin Dows who traveled to Mexico and became participants in the Mexican artistic movements of the 1920s-1930s. The movement's influence subsequently spread to the United States and was the main inspiration for the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) art movement of the 1940s, which employed artists through government commissions. Orozco, Siqueiros and Diego Rivera all were commissioned by private investors in the United States such as Ford Motor Company in Detroit and Rockefeller in New York City.