Robert Capa
Women in truck with banners supporting presidential candidacy of General Manuel Avila Camacho, Mexico City
June–July 1940.
Gelatin silver print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm.
International Center of Photography, The Robert Capa and Cornell Capa Archive, Gift of Cornell and Edith Capa, 1992 (2852.1992). Robert Capa © International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos
Diego Rivera
Dance in Tehuantepec (Baile in Tehuantepec), 1928.
Oil on canvas, 200.7 x 163.8 cm.
Collection of Clarissa and Edgar Brontman Jr. Photo Collection of Clarissa and Edgar Brontman Jr., courtesy of Sotheby’s, New York
© 2013 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / DACS.
Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910–1940. Royal Academy ‘Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910 – 1940’, examines the intense thirty year period of artistic creativity that took place in Mexico at the beginning of the twentieth century. Royal Academy of Arts, 6 July – 29 September 2013.]]>
Source: Royal Academy of Arts
Comprising over 120 paintings and photographs, “Mexico: A Revolution in Art, 1910 – 1940” brings together works from both public and private collections across the Americas and Europe. The exhibition highlights an extraordinarily productive and diverseperiod in the history of Mexico; a time when Mexico attracted large numbers of significantinternational artists and intellectuals who engaged with the political changes taking place, andresponded to the rich and varied country they found on arrival there. For many, Mexico was anunspoilt land rich with history, stunning scenery and a diverse population; it heralded a sense ofdiscovery and a promise of adventure.
In 1910 the outbreak of revolution brought to an end the long reign of Porfirio Díaz who had held thepresidency since 1876. Once the turmoil had settled, the subsequent political change ushered in aperiod often referred to as a cultural renaissance. Under state-sponsored schemes, artists wereemployed by the Ministry of Education to further the political aims of the revolution; art was embracedas symbolic of the inherent creativity and industry of the nation and was, therefore, seen asrepresentative of the principles of the revolution. Figures such as Diego Rivera, José ClementeOrozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros (los tres grandes) were at the vanguard of this movement.
The exhibition concludes in 1940, a momentous year in Mexican cultural and political life. “20Centuries of Mexican Art” opened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, an important exhibitionthat demonstrated the elevated position that Mexican art had attained in the US by this time. In thesame year André Breton organised the International Surrealist Exhibition at the Galería de ArteMexicano in Mexico City. Robert Capa, who was commissioned by Life to cover the presidentialelections, also reported on the death of Leon Trotsky who, having sought political asylum in Mexicoin 1937, was assassinated.
Highlights of the exhibition includes Roberto Montenegro’s “Mayan Woman”, 1926 (Museum of Modern Art, New York); Diego Rivera’s “Dance in Tehuantepec”, 1928 (Collection of Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman Jr.); José Clemente Orozco’s “Barricade”, 1931 (Museum of Modern Art, New York); Robert Capa’s, “Women in truck with banners supporting presidential candidacy of General Manuel Avila Camacho, Mexico City, June–July 1940” (International Center of Photography) and a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo (Courtesy Sotheby’s).
Related content
“Degas and the Ballet”: Picturing Movement at the Royal Academy (exhibition, 2011)
Follow us on:
