Throughout history, various artistic movements have characterized their countries of origin, just as Impressionism is French and the Renaissance is Italian, the amount of talent and creativity that characterizes Mexicans would also make them create their own movements that they would call international attention. Of course, the most famous of these is muralism, however, there were other art proposals before and after this.
Stridentism
In the 1920s, Stridentism emerged from a manifesto, this being the first avant-garde movement in Mexico, and it occurred thanks to the fact that the urbanization of the cities in the center of the country began to be highly noticeable. Strongly inspired by Futurism, this current that began as literary expanded to the territories of the visual arts, and it was then that plastic artists became part of this avant-garde. In paintings, engravings and poems, artists expressed their interest in the progress of these advances of civilization, as well as the importance and beauty of machines. They sought to represent the good of modernity, so in Estridentismo there are many works that show the attractiveness of nightlife, large cities with tall buildings and incredible machines at work. Among the artists who were part of the movement are Fermín Revueltas, Ramón Alba de la Canal, Leopoldo Méndez and Gerardo Cueto.
Muralism
President Álvaro Obregón had the intention of creating a feeling of unity in the country, since the wounds of the Mexican revolution were still open, thus in the same decade in which Estridentismo emerged, Muralism was born from the efforts of Dr. Atl and the work of the then secretary of public education José Vasconcelos, who among his purposes had the development of a collective identity and memory. The triad of most famous Mexican muralists - Siqueiros, Orozco and Rivera - were students of Dr. Atl, who sought to transmit pride in their roots, the diversity and importance of culture in Mexico and its pre-Hispanic past, as political propaganda, republican values and nationalism. The characteristics of muralism could only be executed by excellent masters of the art, since the large format in which it was worked was not the only challenge, but also the techniques with which it was carried out - encaustic and fresco - are difficult to achieve. dominate due to the speed with which they require to be worked and the level of skill required in the muralism format is even greater. This movement became highly famous internationally, but in Mexico a group known for disagreeing with the themes and reasons of Muralism would later emerge.
The Rupture
After decades of great influence of muralism in Mexico, José Luis Cuevas arrived with the Generation of Rupture to change the visual arts scene in the country. In the middle of the 20th century, this generation set out to make art with themes and interests very different from those of muralism, from materials to style and discourses, La Ruptura was characterized by its influences from the European avant-garde and its search for a unique visual language to Each member of the group, they themselves claimed not to have a manifesto that dictated their purposes, nor to be a group with a defined structure. However, what united them was the common goal of giving Mexico new and different visual proposals after several years of muralist supremacy. The Rupture artists worked not only in painting, but also in sculpture and installation, and among the main characters are Pedro Coronel, Manuel Felguérez, Lilia Carrillo, Beatriz Zamora and José Luis Cuevas, among others.
Recent years to present
At the end of the 20th century, a group of visual artists and photographers considered the need for visibility spaces for the art of photography in Yucatán. Made up of Víctor Rendón, Humberto Suaste, Andrew Rasmussen and Eduardo Arco, the “Plano Focal” collective was part of the International Festival “April, Month of Photography”, the cycle of these festivals spanned the years from 1985 to 2000, at that time the collective changed its name to “Imagen Alterna” and members such as Socorro Chablé, Eduardo Cervantes, Ygnacio Rivero and Ariel Guzmán joined. The collective organized these events and photography exhibitions, in which more than 300 artists, both national and foreign, participated. Achieving not only the presence of the photo in Yucatán, but also national and international recognition for its initiative.
In more recent years, the presence and importance of the arts among cultural promotion activities in Oaxaca has made this state stand out as one of the main exponents of the visual arts; numerous artists are originally from there or completed their training in their schools, in turn, the exposure and visibility that has been given to the arts is evident in the number of museums and galleries active in the state, as well as organizations and groups that are concerned with the dissemination of the production of their artists. It is still too early to be able to objectively analyze the artistic production and outbreaks of Oaxaca. If a trend were to be created or a great character emerged who would go down in history, only time will tell. In the meantime, we can closely follow the development and the progress of its artists.
Sources: Industria Magazine, Palacio de Bellas Artes Museum, Cultura Genial, ELEM, Sipse.