The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
Vicente Fé Álvarez interviews David Alfaro Siqueiros, who speaks his mind about the current state of mural painting and talks about how he (Siqueiros) has tried to change it. The artist says that mural painting is like cinematography, explaining that there is an overall unity involved that should be expressed on several planes connected by a curvilinear perspective. Easel painting, on the other hand is, in his opinion, like photography. It consists of a composition that tricks the eye which is viewed from a traditional perspective that treats the viewer like a stationary statue. Based on this “revolutionary” theory, Siqueiros thinks that Diego Rivera is stagnating and Rufino Tamayo is a fraud for the masses.
The journalist Vicente Fe Álvarez outlines his discussions with the different generations of mural painters: David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974), Diego Rivera (1886-1957), Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991), and Juan O’Gorman (1905-82). The most relevant portion of the article, however, concerns Siqueiros and his new concept of the mural, based on his analysis of the space itself and how the viewer looks at the work. As a result of his projects in Chillán, southern Chile, and Havana, Cuba, Siqueiros developed a concept of “all-round visual art” that takes into account the nature of the space and the viewer’s gaze. This is made in order to achieve a form of multi-angle perception. In other words, regardless of the angle from which the viewer looks at the mural, real space vanishes, leading to a continuous perception of the image that eliminates the various angles over which it has been painted. The mural painting that Siqueiros proposed at that time was far removed from the traditional frontal painting of the early years of the genre. What he proposed was a “dynamic” mural painting that could be viewed from any angle, thereby offering a variety of readings.