Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950

From the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 to the aftermath of World War II, artists in Mexico were at the center of a great debate about their country’s destiny. The exhibition tells the story of this exhilarating period through a remarkable range of images, from masterpieces by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frida Kahlo, and Rufino Tamayo to transfixing works by their contemporaries Dr. Atl, María Izquierdo, Roberto Montenegro, Carlos Mérida, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, and many others.

Paint the Revolution offers a deep look at the forces that shaped modern art in Mexico, the progress of which was closely watched around the world. The exhibition takes its name from an impassioned essay by American novelist John Dos Passos, who saw Mexico’s revolutionary murals during a visit to Mexico City in 1926–27.

In addition to featuring portable murals, easel paintings, photographs, prints, books, and broadsheets, the exhibition will display murals by the tres grandes (Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros) in digital form.

This is the most comprehensive exhibition of Mexican modernism to be shown in the United States in more than seven decades.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Whether you go or not, the exhibition catalog, Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950,  includes full-color reproductions of the works in the exhibition as well as essays by Mexican and US scholars. In the wake of the 1910–20 Revolution, Mexico emerged as a center of modern art, closely watched around the world. Highlighted in this publication are the achievements of the tres grandes (three greats)—José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros—and other renowned figures such as Rufino Tamayo and Frida Kahlo, but the book goes beyond these well-known names to present a fuller picture of the period from 1910 to 1950. 

Select Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950 to place this book in your Amazon shopping cart.