Undoubtedly, graffiti has become a more popular and accepted art style through its appearance in clothing, commercials, music covers, computers. The HUE Mural Festival puts the city on the map as an urban art destination. The Mexican mural movement, or Mexican muralism, began as a form of public art funded by the government, specifically large scale wall paintings in civic buildings in the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20). The Revolution was a massive civil war led by a series of factions with charismatic leaders (Francisco Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, to name a few), all of whom had very specific political and social agendas.
After the Revolution, then, the government undertook the very difficult project of transforming a Mexico divided by loggers, carrancistas, villista, Zapatistas, etc., into a coherent nation of Mexicans. To do this, it needed to create an official history of Mexico in which its citizens would be found, and it needed a medium that could spread it to a population that was mostly poor and illiterate. While the myriad of data included in Man at the Crossroads could be brought to light (and, as is the case with many of these murals, a full lecture could easily be given on this painting), its importance today may lie more in its censorship for political reasons and in the contact it has with critical issues related to the commission and exhibition of works of public art. Tags: Aerosol Warfare Final Four Gonzo 247 Graffiti art Houston graffiti art March Madness NCAA NCAA painting.
Another approach to large scale mural composition is seen in the work of Siqueiros, who was perhaps the most technically, compositionally and politically radical of the three. Both Rivera and Orozco also showed their knowledge of the precedent of Italian Renaissance murals, and Rivera's taste for Giotto was reflected in the two-dimensionality of his figures and in the heavenly sky that recalls the ceiling of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. The Bigger Change project is a collaboration between an inner-city economic development organization, a global non-profit arts organization, an energy company, and a Harris County commissioner. While the mural project employed a large number of artists from all over the country, the influence and prominence of Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros were so great that it makes sense to limit the discussion of muralism largely to them for an introductory conference on the subject.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office, founded in 1837, is the largest sheriff's office in Texas and the third largest in the country. Siqueiros, for example, would argue that the laws for composing a mural differed drastically from those that govern a small easel work, and that most of the mural failures were due to inadequate planning carried out by artists who treated a mural simply as they would with a much larger easel painting. The HCSO has nearly 5,100 employees and 200 volunteer reservists dedicated to ensuring the safety of more than 4.1 million residents who call Harris County home. Thus, Siqueiros and his team of murals painted images that indicated the connections between money, oppression, imperialism, war and mass manipulation, with an armed figure of resistance that emerged (in particular, following the same path as the spectator climbing stairs) to put an end to these injustices.
After notable murals at Pomona College in California and at the New School for Social Research in New York City, Orozco painted his Epic of American Civilization cycle in the Baker Memorial Library of Dartmouth College. Each one had a different personality, ideology, style and sphere of influence, and through their works a well-developed study of Mexican muralism can be taught. The HCSO graffiti reduction program is designed to remove unwanted graffiti marks from communities in Harris County. It was in this momentary refuge, under the specter of fascism, that he created the smaller, non-mural works, Collective Suicide and Echo of a Scream, and both show his ongoing commitment to modern technology in art.
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