Indigenism and Social Realism

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Indigenism and Social Realism

• Indigenismo in Mexico the official attitude of
  praising and fostering native values

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José Sabogal (Peru, 1888-1956),The Indian Major
of Chincheros Varayoc, oil, 1925 Emphasis is
on ethnic pride connection to pre-Spanish rulers
of PeruCompare (right) Francisco Laso
(Peru,1823-1869) The Indian Potter (or Dweller in
the Cordillera), 1855, and Rest in the
Mountains, 1859, oil, 54 in H
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Rivera, Flower Day, 1925, encaustic on canvas
(LACMA)a solemn celebration of contemporary
native/mestizo life
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Rivera, National Palace Mural, The Great City of
Tenochtitlán, 1929-35, daily life with flower
seller and (below center) Flower Vender, oil on
canvas, c. 1941
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Diego Rivera, Flower Day, 1925 compared with
Picasso, Three Women at the Spring, 1921
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Siqueiros, Peasant Mother, 1929, o/cVictory for
the working classes will bring with it a
unanimous flowering of ethnic art, cosmologically
and historically transcendent in the life of our
race, comparable to that of our wonderful
autochthonous civilization
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Siqueiros, Proletarian Mother, 1930 (INBA, Mexico
City)
You, the peasant on the land, fertilize the soil
so that the fruit it bears is swallowed by the
greed of profiteers and politicians, while you
starveyou, worker in the city, keep the
factories going, weave the cloth, and create with
your own hands modern comforts to service
prostitutes and drones while your bones
shiver with cold Siqueiros
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Amauta, Peruvian vanguard review, Lima, September
1926, coverThe assumption that the Indian
question is an ethnic one is fostered by the most
antiquated collection of imperialist ideas. The
concept of racial inferiority served the white
Wests program of conquest and expansion. To
expect the emancipation of our indigenous peoples
through the active hybridization of aboriginals
and white immigrants is a piece of
anti-sociological naïveté, conceivable only in
the simple mind of an importer of merino sheep
Mariátegui
José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930) Peruvian
journalist, Marxist political Philosopher and
activist. Read The Indian Question (Ades
appendix 9.1)
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Mario Urteaga (Peru, 1875-1957), Burial
Procession, 1936, o/c (NYC MoMA)
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Jesus Guerrero Galvan (Mexican, 1910-1973), I and
My Future, 1951, o/c
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Roberto Montenegro (Mexican, 1887-1968), Maya
Women, 1926, o/c (NYC MOMA) (right) La Primera
Dama, 1942, Oil on cardboard, 27.3 x 36 cm
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Rivera in studio, 1956 with Mexican folk art
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Rivera, The Mansions of Xibalba, watercolor,
Plate XV from Popol Vuh(right) Page from the
Laud Codex (Toltec pictographs)
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Diego Rivera, The hero twins are summoned by bat
messengers to play the ball game with the lords
of the underworld, watercolor, Plate IX from
Popol Vuh
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Jose Antonio da Silva (Brazil, 1909 -1996), The
Cotton Harvest, 1948 o/c(below, left) Cotton
Farming, 1950 (right) Self- Portrait, 1955
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Candido Portinari (Brazil, 1903-1963), Coffee,
1936, oil(right) The Mestizo, 1934, oil
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Emiliano di Cavalcanti (called Di Calvalcanti,
Brazil, 1897-1976) (left) Samba 1925, o/c, 70 x
61(right) The Letter, lithograph, 1925