Museo del Barrio Visit

I went to the newly reopened Museo del Barrio this weekend and came across a whole section of Communist and Spanish Civil War works of art. Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and others took a stand against Fascism in their art. Rivera's 1933 painting "Opponent of Fascism" depicts a strong workman restraining a Fascist hand holding a bloody knife with the Communist hammer and sickle in the background. This clearly and brazenly denounces Fascism before the Spanish Civil War, when Mussolini has power and Hitler has just achieved it. Another of Rivera's paintings, "Man at the Crossroads", shows a robotic army wearing gas masks in contrast with an army led by a women's choir which represents the army of the people. Also in the picture appear rich people having a dinner party, and a representation of Lenin and his followers. The mural was commisioned by Rockefeller, but when Rockefeller saw Lenin in the mural, he had the painting destroyed and forced Rivera to repaint without the important figure of Lenin present.

Another Communist artist, Siqueiros, came to the US as a Mexican government official in the mid 1930s. He had served as a captain in the 1910 Mexican Revolution. From April 1936 to January of 1937, Siqueiros led the Experimental Workshop as he taught his style of mural painting and collaborated with American artists. In 1937 Siqueiros left to fight in Spain for Mexico. Much later in his life, he admitted having attempted to assasinate Trotsky in his Mexico City home in 1940 after returning from Spain, but his admission came too long after his trial to merit arrest.

In Siqueiros' Tamiment vertical file are articles concerning his 1960 arrest and 8 year imprisonment for inciting student demonstrations against the Mexican government. The Artists Committee to Free Siqueiros included Georgia O'Keeffe among others. He painted from jail, and his paintings still sold and were popular.