Siqueiros, Muralism, and Photography

 

The 2017 exhibition Leo Matiz: The Muralist of the Lens. Siquerios in Perspective in Mexico City at the Palacio de Bellas Artes highlights the relationship between muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros and photographer Leo Matiz. Siqueiros was especially sensitive to the relationship between murals and photography. He not only used photos as source material and compositional models but was also acutely aware of how it could shape space and viewer/object relationships. You can find out more about Siqueiros’s experimentation with photography in the catalogue for the 2010 exhibition, Siqueiros, Landscape Painter, Mexico: Editorial RM, 2010. You can read the text in English or Spanish. Finally, read the work of art historian, Jennifer Jolly. She analyzes the impact of photography (as well as film) on Siqueiros’s very dense “narrative” and visually overwhelming structure in the mural for the Electrician’s Syndicate Building in Mexico City. Take a look at  her University of Ithaca CV with a list of publications on this mural.

Siqueiros (left) and Matiz

(Photo credit: Art Nexos blog; Weekly News, August 7 to August 13, 2017)