Self-study
P1
The contemporary Mexican artistic movement known as muralism, a movement of public art that began with images painted on walls in an effort to represent Mexican national culture, is closely linked ideologically with its main sponsor, the new Mexican government elected in 1920 following the Mexican Revolution. ████ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ █████████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████████ ███ ████████████ ███
Intro topic ·
Muralism (Mexican art movement involving images representing Mexican culture)
Linked to Mexican government following Mexican Revolution, which called on artists to show good things about Mexico.
Theoretical foundation of Muralism ·
Idea that art should incorporate images and familiar ideas while commenting on contemporary historical period
Major muralist artists brought in customs, myths, and history of local communities that form the basis of Mexican national culture.
P2
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Clarification about Muralism ·
Not just formulaic government-sponsored art; reflects innovations in art world
Muralists used a realist style, but were freer in their expression than other realist artists.
P3
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Style of Muralists ·
Muralists developed own distinct styles
Rivera incorporated elements of pre-Columbian sculpture and Italian Renaissance. Orozco had more expressionist style. Siquieros was similar to Orozco, but had some stylistic differences. (Need to come back for the details of the style differences if questions ask about this; not worth trying to remember.)
P4
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Cause of stylistic experimentation ·
Moving to new medium (large walls) led to experimentation
Muralists moved from small easel paintings to large compositions on walls. Muralists had to use larger brush gestures. They also had to make their work viewable from many different angles.
Passage Style
Single position
Spotlight
6.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████████
a
The major figures ██ ████████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
This is the best answer. (A) shows that muralists created murals that didn’t involve political issues. This helps the author downplay the government/political aspect of the muralist movement.
b
Not all muralist ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██████
This indicates that some muralist painters weren’t familiar with the innovations in art at that time. If anything, this might undermine the author’s position by showing that some muralists didn’t have art that reflected important artistic innovations.
c
The changes taking █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████
This doesn’t strengthen, because it’s not clear whether revivals of earlier movements represent artistic innovations.
d
Officials in the ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██████
This doesn’t strengthen, because even if officials weren’t familiar with artistic innovations, that doesn’t help establish that muralist work contained artistic innovations or wasn’t mainly a result of political/cultural issues.
e
Only those muralist █████ ████ █████████ ███████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███████
If anything, this might undermine the author’s position by connecting muralist work even more to government approval. The author wants to de-emphasize the government-connection aspect of muralism.