David Alfaro Siqueiros

Mexican Social Realist painter David Alfaro Siqueiros was a key figure in the establishment of Mexican Muralism, which he championed alongside Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco. A political organizer too, Siqueiros was active as a member of the Communist party, and his large-scale frescos depict events and changes in the social, political, and industrial arenas from a decidedly leftist angle.

Siqueiros’s activism dates back to his collegiate experience during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 when he participated in and led student strikes. During the ensuing decades of the ’20s and ’30s, he was jailed often for his political participation and often painted the suffering of prison life. For Siqueiros, art and politics were innately intertwined, and he continued to paint politically charged murals throughout this time, including his most well known, Los Mitos (The Myths), at the National Preparatory School.

Following this era of upheaval in Mexico, Siqueiros spent time in both New York and Spain, where he not only fought against Fascism (anti-Fascist themes are present throughout Siqueiros’s oeuvre), but where he also encountered the disturbing imagery of Spanish master Francisco Goya, who had a profound influence on Siqueiros’s artistic vision. In 1940, motivated by Communist sympathies and a deep devotion to Stalin, Siqueiros headed up an attack on the Mexican home of Leon Trotsky, who had been granted asylum in the country. Later, during the Vietnam War, Siqueiros was vocal about his opposition to American involvement in the situation, and he was also vehement in his support for Fidel Castro’s Cuban government. Siqueiros died in the Mexican city of Cuernavaca in 1974.