Women artists in mexican muralism (1933-1978)

• Grant number: 21/04631-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2021
• End date: July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: Mariana Martins Villaça
• Grantee: Leticia Marcolino Pires
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present project is based on the objective of analyzing the presence of female artists in Mexican muralism, as the artistic movement is strongly marked by the contribution of male artists, such as, for example, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco, who was consecrated in the history of mural art. In this sense, it is intended to analyze, through a broad bibliographic survey on muralism, as well as research on other materials made available on the internet (museum websites, entries, reviews, etc.), the trajectories of the artists and the space they occupied in Mexican muralism. We selected for our research the following mural artists: Marion Greenwood (1909-1970), Grace Greenwood (1905-1979), Aurora Reyes (1908-1985), María Izquierdo (1902-1955), and Rina Lazo (1923-2019). Marion and Grace Greenwood are sisters, American, considered the first women to paint murals in Mexico, starting their careers in the 1930s. Aurora Reyes is considered the first Mexican woman to join the movement, being her first job in 1936. María Izquierdo is a Mexican painter - mainly linked to surrealism - who started her career in art in the late 1920s, and is considered the first Mexican woman to exhibit in the United States; his first involvement with muralism was in 1945. Finally, the artist Rina Lazo is of Guatemalan origin, arrived in Mexico in 1946 with a scholarship to study painting, and thus became an assistant to Rivera. Thus, with this research, we intend to illuminate the contribution of these artists - much less studied than the aforementioned painters - also addressing the possible difficulties they faced professionally and the importance of foreign participation in a movement known for celebrating supposed Mexicanity. (AU)