After the Mexican Revolution, the country was left fragmented and impoverished. In this context, the construction of a new national identity based on revolutionary ideals—such as social justice and inclusion—was necessary to unify the country and legitimize the ruling party, which positioned itself as the revolution’s rightful heir. Mural art played an essential role, serving as a visual medium to spread revolutionary history and values in public spaces. Ultimately, Mexican muralism also asserted its own voice, adopting ideological stances that went beyond state-sanctioned propaganda.
Muralism as a State Project
In the 1920s, Secretary of Education José Vasconcelos defined the first cultural program of the post-revolutionary Mexican state by institutionally promoting education through art and advocating for education as a driver of progress. This ambitious project took shape in a country where over 90% of the population was illiterate.
Mural art emerged as a powerful tool for literacy and visual education. To make it accessible to all, a realistic and narrative style was adopted, reminiscent of Renaissance frescoes in which church and building murals served as “printed books,” making reality accessible while embedding it in a larger narrative that promoted values and built a sense of identity.
The muralists drew inspiration from European avant-garde movements, especially Expressionism, to infuse their work with a dramatic and emotional tone that fostered clear, direct communication with the viewer. Critically, however, they adapted these styles to a visual language that met Mexico’s social and political needs in the post-revolutionary era.
As anti-academic art, muralism broke away from abstract and conceptual styles, which were seen as elitist and disconnected from the people. Seeking to create genuinely Mexican art, the muralists drew on pre-Hispanic cultures, popular art, and Mexican folklore to build a visual aesthetic that spoke directly to the Mexican people. This technical and conceptual freedom allowed muralism to establish itself as an experimental and revolutionary art form with a symbolic language unique to its time.
Mexican muralism established itself as the ultimate form of public art, with the primary aim of legitimizing the new Revolutionary State and constructing a unified Mexican identity. As both didactic and monumental art, it presented the masses with a vision of the nation’s past, the revolutionary present, and a hopeful future, visually representing the struggles of popular groups and embodying a conception of the Mexican nation. The murals incorporated familiar symbols like corn or the eagle and crafted new ones like the armed campesino or the worker, encapsulating ideals of resistance and revolutionary strength.
The state recognized muralism’s pedagogical value to bring society closer to art and revolutionary ideals, commissioning artists to paint these monumental works in public buildings like hospitals, schools, and government offices. This wide accessibility created an alliance where the state provided resources and space while artists, enjoying a degree of creative freedom, shaped a distinctly Mexican visual language. Through this partnership, muralism became both a platform for state messages and an experimental, expressive medium for artists committed to revolutionary ideals.
The First Murals: Exalting Indigenous and Rural Mexico
Early murals, very much in line with revolutionary values, sought to construct a more cohesive national identity, especially through the exaltation of Indigenous and rural Mexico. This was evident in the nearly 300 murals created in the Ministry of Public Education, more than 190 of which were painted by Diego Rivera between 1923 and 1928. One of his earliest murals, La Maestra Rural (1923), with its warm, earthy tones, illustrates how education is integrated into rural life and aims to reclaim and dignify Indigenous and campesino identity. The teacher, depicted almost as a heroic figure, is responsible for bringing knowledge to marginalized communities. In the background, an armed horseman and other peasants are visible, highlighting the link between revolution, education, and social transformation. Through realism, scenes of daily life, and popular allegories and symbols, the mural is accessible to everyone.
The dialogue among these murals in the Ministry of Public Education shows how each contributes to a broader narrative: the story of Mexico. The clarity of the figures and the sequence of scenes creates a complete, educational narrative, an illustrated story. There are references to the Indigenous, colonial, Porfirian, and Mexican Revolutionary periods. However, this story is not linear, as it also depicts the country in the process of transformation, including agrarian reform and foundational elements like festivals, traditions, heroes, and martyrs.
Through popular festivals, a unified national identity is formed, incorporating symbols that reflect the cultural syncretism between pre-Hispanic roots and Spanish influence. For instance, the celebration of the Day of the Dead and the figure of La Catrina embody this blend. The mural not only depicts the traditional celebration but also makes a statement of national unity centered around symbols shared by the collective imagination of a Mexico that embraces its Indigenous past and modern transformations.
The union of Spanish and Indigenous heritages through the concept of mestizaje became essential to the new post-revolutionary nationalist identity. This idea provided historical cohesion for Mexicans by presenting a continuous narrative that lent legitimacy to modern Mexico and the revolutionary regime, as well as reconciling historical issues of Indigenous exclusion and disregard. Thus, muralism became a vehicle for democratizing art, bringing it into public spaces and facilitating a dialogue on Mexico’s identity and history.
Toward the Politicization of Muralism
While the earliest murals tended to promote a nationalistic and idealized vision of the past and the Revolution, with its stereotypes and myths, muralists soon began to break away from the official discourse, using their art as a tool for critiquing the power structures and political and social issues of Mexico.
As the movement grew, muralism diversified into multiple styles, themes, and techniques; some works glorified the revolution, while others criticized it. The three great muralists—Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco—increasingly sought freedom to express their ideas, leading to a radicalization of their works, especially with a focus on class struggle and a somewhat Marxist perspective. Though they shared deep social concerns, their approaches varied: Siqueiros was the most radical and active in Communism, Rivera was more inconsistent yet openly Communist, and Orozco was critical of all ideological movements.
These conflicts were not purely artistic but reflected an ideological questioning of what modernity should mean in post-revolutionary Mexico and which social transformation projects should be pursued, as well as the trend toward modernization, the reliance on the Western model of progress, and a glimpse of a socialist utopia.
This quest for artistic and ideological freedom, clashing with official expectations, placed the muralists in an uncomfortable position with the State and conservative sectors of society. The government began to withdraw its support, imposing more limits and censorship.
José Clemente Orozco, with a skeptical and critical stance, quickly distanced himself from the optimistic and romanticized vision of the Revolution from the early murals. In Katharsis (1934), he critiques ideological extremes, war, machinery, and mass politics in the modern era. Speaking to the disillusionment with modernity and the broken promises of the revolution, it presents a very dark and negative view of the future.
The central scene depicts a violent struggle between two men and alludes to a class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. This struggle spirals open and merges with high-caliber weapons, monstrous machines, riddled bodies, and a protesting crowd, all set against an apocalyptic landscape. Moral decay is represented through three prostitutes, referring to hygienist policies and the hypocrisy of their application during the Maximato. The intense flames at the top symbolize the purifying fire that will give rise to a new society.
Instead of employing a linear and pedagogical narrative with an optimistic tone, Katharsis, through its fragmented and chaotic style, expresses the disorder and incoherence of the modern world, leaning toward the dramatic and sinister to convey a message of alarm. One can observe how it breaks with the ideal of muralism as a “painted book” that should be clear and understandable, showing how it evolved toward its own agenda with more complex and subjective forms.
Another emblematic example is Diego Rivera’s mural in the lobby of Rockefeller Center, an icon of the capitalist world. On one side, Rivera painted Lenin and a Communist utopia symbolizing the international union of the working classes; on the other, a somewhat grim path toward capitalism, marked by technology and the horrors of war. When asked to remove Lenin from the mural, Rivera refused, and ultimately the mural was destroyed. This symbolic act revealed the tensions between art, politics, and ideology in the context of the Great Depression and the rise of leftist ideologies in the world. While it led to Rivera being applauded by Communist circles, it also marked a rupture between the muralist and certain institutions of power.
Mexican Identity in the 20th Century
Muralism was essential in forming the post-revolutionary Mexican identity. Drawing from foreign currents quickly adapted to the Mexican context with its own symbols and analogies, an art form focused on political action rather than purely aesthetic considerations began to consolidate. It served as a central piece of the State’s rhetoric but also as a critique of power structures and inequalities. Its strong political and social discourse occupied, to some extent, the space that would have corresponded to the emerging public sphere. Ultimately, muralism played a significant role in placing the arts before a larger audience than that of museums, building a novel citizens’ space for learning and discussion.
