David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896 -1973) was one of the "
Big Three" of the
Mexican Mural Movement of the early 1900s. While little is said of his work from this era (compared with the amount that has been said of
Diego Rivera or
Jose Clemente Orozco -- the other two of the Three), Siqueiros has been seen as one of the
ideological leaders of the movement as well as of a number of other politically fueled
mural movements to come.
His most notable
contribution to the development of murals in this era is an
article he wrote for
El Machete, an influential
newspaper produced for the
Mexican artists'
union. In this article, he tied art to the
socialist cause, deploring "
easel painting" and other forms of "
elitist" art that served the sole purpose of creating
luxury items for the enjoyment of a
bourgeoisie upper class, effectively promoting the
class divide. Instead, he insisted that art should be meaningful and
monumental and speak to the people at large. As a result, he proposed that
public art such as
government-funded murals represented the purest art form.
These ideas were so
influential as to spread to the
Nicaraguan revolution of
1979. In the wake of this (once again, largely socialist)
revolution, the people again turned to mural
painting as a way of binding formerly
disenfranchised Nicaraguans together and helping to create a new
national identity. One of the first major mural groups to pop up in
Nicaragua was founded under the title of the "
David Siqueiros National School of Monumental and Public Art" which looked to spread Siqueiros'
ideals as a
model for Nicaraguan muralism.
Siqueiros completed significant mural projects in the Mexican
Colegio Chico and the
Electricians' Syndicate, as well as in
Los Angeles and
New York.