Identify and analyse the political ideals present in

one major work of Mexican Muralist art.

In this essay, I am going to identify and analyse the political ideals present in Man,

Controller of the Universe, in spanish called El hombre controlador del universo, a

mural made by Diego Rivera.

Diego Rivera was born in Guajanato in 1886. He moved to Ciudad de Mexico when he

was six, later on he spent fifteen years (1907-1922) studying all over Europe (France,

Spain and Italy) it was at this moment when he first got interested in vanguardian art.

When we take a look at his works in this particular time, we see that Diego had his

eyes on synthetic cubism specially on Juan Gris, he also admired another Italian artist

called Giotto, which made Diego walk away from the influences of the cubism. He

would not have been as successful as he is and as an icon as we know him today if it

was not because of that distance he decided to put between him and cubism. People

in Latin America received him like a breeze of fresh air. And this is exactly how the

Mexican Muralist School gained so much prestigious, because it was not only an

artistic wave, but a social and political movement that represented identity in topics

like class wars, the Revolution and more. Between 1930 and 1934 Rivera lived in the

United States. Among the works he did during this period, the mural he painted in the

inner courtyard of the Detroit Institute of the Arts deserves to be highlighted.

Comprehensive and supporter of the revolutionary’s ideas of his nation, Rivera came

back from Italy to México in 1922, in a moment where revolution seemed to had

gained a lot of strenght. In the same year, him and José Clemente Ángel Flores and

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David Alfaro Siquieros formed the Painters and Sculptor’s union, trying to take back

the mural art under the power of the government. They also form triad of the highest

representatives of Mexican muralism In 1934 he did the big mural called Man,

Controller of the Universe. During the 20’s decade he served to his country with

numerous works ordered by the government, in pretty much all of them, Diego left the

artistic waves that were popular at that moment to create a national style that was

able to explain the history of the Mexican citizens since the pre-Columbian era until

the Revolution, with vivid colors, similar to some of the works of Hernán Cortés. Diego

Rivera's work reached its artistic maturity between 1923 and 1928, when he made the

frescoes of the Secretariat of Public Education, in Mexico City, and those of the

National School of Agriculture of Chapingo. He always reaffirmed his status as a

politically committed artist, and was one of the founders of the Mexican Communist

Party.

Why is muralism so important in this work? The Mexican muralists movement that

developed in the first decades of the 20th century owed its training to the fusion of

various historical, cultural, and artistic components.and social. It was the Mexican

revolutionary process and the need to create an image national artistic representative

other than traditionally established, which produced that main artists of the

movement would incorporate the concepts during their passage through Europe main

vanguards there.

Mexican muralism is a pictorial movement initiated in the 1920s, as part of the

modernization policies of the State of Mexico after the 1910 revolution. It is a

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movement inspired by a purpose: to build a national identity to bring together the

different sectors of Mexican society, given the deep social inequalities of the time,

especially educational and cultural. A movement that begins in 1910 and ends with the

dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, but even in the case of a new workers' and anti-colonial

state, it will nevertheless allow private property and capitalism. In this new era, art

plays a main role to divulge the new ideology between citizens. The artists wanted to

break with the european’s customs when cultural field was talked about. The artists

had a priority, which was the desire of doing public art. In Mexico a socio- political

renewal and in the field of arts a new culture began to separate Mexican-based culture

away from bourgeois painting. Mexican muralism has helped today’s public art, it

broke the connection between art and art market, making it free for all the people to

enjoy.

During the following years the historical context in Mexico was marked by numerous

of battles, which were created by the abuse of the popular and agrarian society. This

happened until the members representatives of arts reunited in Querétaro to sign the

1917 Constitution, which enshrined individual guarantees, the sovereignty over the

nation's resources and peasant and worker rights. In the year 1922, artists were called

by Secretary of Public Education to collaborate in a new cultural Project, and this is the

exact moment that the artists played such an important role, in that exact year the

Union of Painters Sculptors and Engravers of Mexico was created, and it was

integrated by José Ángel Flores Orozco, Siqueiros, Jean Charlot, Xavier Guerrero and

some others. The great opportunity that was given to artists was that they were

murals to paint, which in a way was what they needed and that was part of the

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educational and reconstructive program of the then Secretary of Public Education, José

Vasconcelos.

There is one big characteristic of the mexican muralis,; monumentality. Artist had to

get to the public in some way or another to catch their attention. Thus, the essential

support of Mexican muralism was obviously the wall, which would give the artistic

concept monumentality. These walls were arranged in state buildings, in schools,

universities or churches. Other characteristic about muralism is that it rejects the

autonomy of the art, the artists focus on having on goal, it is to educate people. The

political and social vocation with which the Mexican muralism was born was the frame

of reference for the selection of themes, which were at the service of the State.

The work, Man, Controller of the Universe, which at first was going to be placed in the

Rockefeller Center, but because of its political charge was not carried out. When

Rockefeller commissioned the work, he did not expect Rivera to represent in it a

celebration of communism. Seeing the meaning of Rivera's work, Rockefeller asked the

artist to withdraw references on May 1, the day of the worker. Rivera, with the

intention of provoking it, shaped the figure of Vladimir Lenin in the set. After seeing

this incitement, Rockefeller had the mural destroyed immediately. Being finally

presented in the following year at the Palace national, it carries out a narration of what

the muralist movement saw as problematic modern. The theme of the mural revolves

around what for Rivera was a crossroads of humanity, whose social crisis led to the

debate between capitalism and communism. Somehow it seems like an announcement

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of the Second World War (1939-1945) and the future polarization of the Cold War

(1945-1989).

The current mural Man, Controller of the Universe was held at the Palace of Fine Arts

in Mexico City in 1934. It measures 4.80 meters high by 11.45 meters long. This mural

refers to the role of the worker with the axis of the conflict between the two poles of

the world capitalist. Rivera described a clearly and strongly narrative, the position of

the bourgeoisie controller on the left side of the work, known as Capitalism, and the

revolutionary masses that rose in the right part (Communism). Within the work figures

appear of the contemporary reality of that moment, such as Lenin, Trotsky, Marx and

Engels, emblems of revolutionary socialism; and in the other extreme coexists the high

bourgeoisie, the industrial machinery, the oppressive army’s fascist and also Darwin's

presence as an example of scientific reasoning. The division of the mural into two

blocks is made from a working man who stars in the central scene. He seems to

operate the universe. It is surrounded by four elliptical shapes reminiscent of an atom,

symbol of the crossroads of life and humanity. The elliptical shapes alternately show

the microcosm (through cells) and the macrocosm (through images of the universe,

with the sun and the moon as protagonists). On the left side, which represents

capitalism as I have explanied before, the cells represented within the ellipse are sick,

a clear sign of criticism of the economic model. On the right side, the cells reflected in

the ellipse are healthy, which invokes communism as the solution of the Western

socio-economic crisis. In the mural there are two marble sculptures. On the far left is

an allegorical statue to the religious order, since it is both an image of Zeus, or what

seems like a god of Greek mythology, and on the other hand, an allegory of the

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Christian religion. This is achieved through the representation of attributes of different

religions. The statue holds a lightning bolt, despite having no hands. He has a rosary on

his neck in allusion to Catholicism. Thus, it represents in a single figure the order of

Western religion. Under the statue of Zeus, you can see the Charles Darwin (1809-

1882), father of the theory of evolution. It is recognized because it carries a kind of x-

ray of the human skull. It shows the replacement of superstition by the scientific

domain of nature, but it is also a sign of the inherent tension between science and

religion in the capitalist world. On the right end of the mural, a traditional sculpture of

a Caesar appears holding an object with a swastika. The piece has been beheaded and

its head has become a seat for workers attending the revolution. It is a symbol of

absolute power dethroned by workers power. Next to this statue, you see the

emblematic characters of the socialist movement that Diego Rivera admired in life, as I

have mentioned before, especially for his contributions in the class struggle and

against repression and fascism. Starring communist leader Vladimir Lenin, who, framed

in the central group, holds the hands of workers of multiple races. To the side you can

recognize Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Leon Trotsky and Bertram D. Wolfe. Both

statues, located at the ends, propose a critical vision of art and the symbols of

traditional thinking. They are an expression of Rivera's harsh criticism of religion and

politics, a fact that is evidente is that the statues do not have arms or heads. The

working man who controls the universe can also be interpreted as an allegory of the

era of the machine that, in fact, operates. Under the central worker, as opposed to

Lenin, who holds the hand of the workers, four women hold a "hand" of letters, a

symbol of the vices and corruption of the capitalist system. Likewise, the artist

contributes national indigenous elements, as in the case of flora and fauna and the

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moon and stars, characteristic symbols within aboriginal culture. It is in this way that

through the mural he exhibited the workers' problem, and encouraged the workers to

reveal themselves and collaborate together with communism. In the stylistic field,

Rivera captured resources used in futurism, as observed in both upper parts of the

work, in which the superposition of the figures provides an effect of dynamism to the

masses. In addition, despite having renounced Cubism before joining the movement,

both the multiplicity of views and the use of the broken palette, give the feeling of a

hint at that European style.

The aim of this work has been to analyze politically one of the major works of Mexican

Muralism Work. I have chosen Diego Rivera and his Man, Controller of the Universe. He

not only helped to the spread of knowledge in his country, but he always compromised

with politics, and because of this he formulated a story with a modern vision of history,

explaining the social system prevailing in the past, the revolutionary activities of life

independent that would lead to the present, and the expectation of the triumph of the

proletariat for the future. The idea of the mural was to represent humanity, in this

case, the protagonist, which is the industrial worker who dominates the center of the

composition. As I have explained before, politics appears all over the work, and it is

easy to find out what political tendencies Diego Rivera agreed with. The building

element for the political interpretation is the national and international history that

developed in the century of revolutions. Rivera did not only use the communist icons

to carry the message to the peasantry and to the worker of how they should organize

against capitalist exploitation, but he also included religious topics, taking the well-

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known elements of the Christianity that are instilled in the Mexican people for

indoctrination suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church in the countries of the

American continent and criticized these elements. Their ideological fluctuations must

be understood as an element enriching his work, since without his trips to Spain,

France, USSR and the United States, his pictorial production could not have been

developed. It is important to remember that the effectiveness of Mexican muralism is

that the cause of the construction of collective memory depends on the strength and

durability of its supports, and an action capable of renewing its impact on the public

spirit. The mural painting was coming in the artistic activity of Mexico since the

beginning of century, but it was the triumph of the Revolution, when it became a

government, that made the emergence posible and the splendor of this art. Mexican

citizens, with their history, their struggles and their ideals, are is the main protagonist

and inspirer of muralism, a peculiar phenomenon of history and culture from Mexico.

An appropriation was achieved in this way of modernity for the creation of an artistic

and revolutionary movement, which expanded by Latin America that transformed the

different societies and promoted this expresión artistic, ideological and public.

“As an artist I have always tried to be faithful

to my vision of life, and I have frequently been in

conflict with those who wanted me to paint not wha

t I saw but what they wished me to see.”

― Diego Rivera, My Art, My Life: An Autobibliography

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Diego Rivas. My Art, My Life: An Autobiography. New York: Dover Publications,

1992.

 Harris, James C. "Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads” Arch Gen Psychiatry.

69, 4 (2012): 337-338.

 "Man At The Crossroads By Deigo Rivera". 2020. Diegorivera.Org.

https://www.diegorivera.org/man-at-the-crossroads.jsp.

 Muralism, Mexican. 2020. "Mexican Muralism Movement Overview". The Art

Story. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/mexican-muralism/#nav

 Salcman, Michael M.D. "MAN, CONTROLLER OF THE UNIVERSE BY DIEGO

RIVERA (1886-1957)." Neurosurgery 62, 2 (2008): 552-524.

 Smith, Stephanie J. The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico.

CHAPEL HILL: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Accessed March 4, 2020.
www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469635699_smith.