After the Revolution: Modern Mexican Prints

Featuring rarely seen work from HoMA’s collection, After the Revolution focuses on some of the most significant figures of Mexican Modernism, the so-called Tres Grandes (Three Greats): Diego Rivera (1886–1957), José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949), and David Alfaro Siqueiros (1898–1974). Together, they helped define post-revolution Mexican identity.

The Mexican Revolution (1910–1917) was a decisive moment in the history and arts of Mexico. In its aftermath, the new government commissioned arts and education projects that redefined how the modern Mexican nation and its history were represented. Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros produced public murals in line with this endeavor. The three artists followed different styles and somewhat distinct political philosophies. Blending Renaissance and modernist techniques, Rivera’s prints express his Marxist ideology by highlighting the dignity of Indigenous and campesino peoples. Orozco, who was more ambiguous in his feelings towards the Revolution, focused on the human cost of the almost decade-long war. In his late prints, Siqueiros—the most experimental (and politically erratic) of the three—depicted Mexican themes in an expressionistic and sometimes violent manner.  

Alternately emphasizing Pre-Hispanic, Mestizo, and modern values, the three artists in After the Revolution helped create an ideal of 20th-century national identity known as Mexicanidad. 
 

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Jose Clemente Orozco (Mexican, 1883–1949). The Flag, 1929. Lithograph. Purchase, 1932 (9760)