What is Mexican art?

The Mexican art is the art that developed by the Indians who were linking to art as the most important classes and religion therefore could not make a distinction between writing, art or architecture. Some time later it was the Spanish conquest who associated his art with the decoration and construction of different churches. For this reason, during the centuries following the Spanish conquest, this type of art was developed by other countries in Europe, although the main one was Spain.

The  Mexican art begins with Mesoamerican art, created by sedentary cultures that built cities, and often dominios.Una independence over time, Mexican art is characterized by having a very European style and continued his preferences until the twentieth century, but This time muralism appeared in Mexico. Therefore, this artistic style was growing and developing into other types of art styles such as crafts or photography and it was not until 1950 when it completely broke with the muralist style and elements of other types of art were integrated as it could be Asian art.

Origin of Mexican art

In order to talk about the origin of this type of art we have to differentiate in different stages.

Pre-Hispanic Stage: Pre- Hispanic art in Mexico belongs to a cultural region known as Mesoamerica, in central Mexico in Central America and covers three thousand years from 1500 BC to 1500 AD, this stage has been divided into three eras: Pre- Classic, Classic and Post-Classic.  The first dominant culture of Mesoamerica was that of the Olmedas, it was the creator of many of the elements associated with Mesoamerica, such as the writing system, calendars, advances in astronomy, monumental sculptures being the creators of other cultures such as that of Teotihuacan, the Zapotec people and the Mayan culture.

This Olmeda culture created ceramic figures that were produced in small sizes, but large-scale sculptures reached 55 cm. The art of this culture was related to religious and political needs, that is, they basically dealt with the reality of what was politics and divine force. The ways of representation were varied among which were architecture, ceramics, amate paper, among others.

The Mexican art is expressed in a variety of media, such as ceramics, jonote and architecture. Pottery dates back to before the Mesoamerican period, it started creating kitchen and storage vessels and later it was adapted to use for rituals or decoration. The pottery was decorated by the shape, the painting and the different cooking methods, the subjects used were the majority of women, who were associated with fertility rites, due to their large hips and thighs, as well as figures that carried babies or nurses and the figures of men are mostly representations of soldiers.

The oldest known was the purely artistic one, with which small ceramic figures were produced that appeared in the Tehuacán area around 1500 BC. Regarding Mesoamerican paintings, they were expressed in various forms, such as murals, pre-Hispanic codices of Mesoamerica and paintings in ceramic objects, with themes such as human figures of men, women or asexuals, you can be naked or elegantly dressed, depicting social status, scenes of war, sacrifices, to the gods or to the nobles or scenes from the daily life of ordinary people and current

Colonial stage : this stage emerged in the Spanish conquest until the end of it. For this reason, Mexican art was always a very complex and constant interaction between native materials and visions and European materials and visions. Long after the conquest the representations that were made were with evangelical themes and with church buildings. During the colonial period artists worked in groups, and each of these groups had their own rules, precepts, mandates, and techniques of innovation for their works of art.

The first monasteries built in Mexico City, which did not have much decoration, had elements of Renaissance, Plateresque and Gothic architecture, although the dominant style of art and architecture during the colonial period was the Baroque, which developed throughout Mexico causing sub-styles and techniques to be created, such as the stucco baroque, which was purely decorative, the Talavera baroque, which used hand-painted ceramic tiles, the Mexican churriguerismo style, extending to sculpture and carved furniture.

The religious art colonial was sponsored by church authorities and private sponsors. The building of churches had large decorations and many religious works would be characteristic of the colonial era. Colonial art was kept in a completely European style with the characteristic of using muted colors. One of the first works carried out was called “Tequitqui”.

19th century stage: Mexican art had a great influence with neoclassical artFor this reason, many of the works that we can observe of Mexican art look different and diverse characteristics of neoclassicism. Although after a few years, the themes of the ancient natives reappeared and were represented with Neoclassical influences. There were two reasons why the modification of the themes was developed: the first is that the Mexican population began a discredit to the colonial culture, the second reason was an artistic movement that originated in 1830 and that affected not only Mexico but to the whole world.In the first half of the 19th century, the romantic style of the paintings was introduced in Mexico and Latin America by foreign travelers who felt interested in the new independent country.

During this time some artists followed the European romantic painters, in their desire to document the diverse cultures of Mexico, following the style of the Customs derived from the word “custom”. The style of these painters was not only Renaissance, they also used others. In the mid and late 19th century, the Academies of Latin America began to convert from strong neoclassicism to the realistic Academy, with more realistic representations, with special emphasis on details. The main themes were portraits of the upper classes, biblical scenes and battles, especially those of the independence era.

The art of the nineteenth century, began to decline independence, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which was a period known as the Porfiriato, and during this time, painting, sculpture and decorative arts were limited the majority to imitations of the European style, especially in religious subjects.

Stage of the 20th century:   the Mexican revolution from 1910 to 1920 had dramatic changes in Mexican art, creating an art production in relation to political propaganda, known as the Mexican Mural Movement, which redefined Mexican art, with José Vasconcelos being the initiator of the Muralist movement in Mexico. The first protagonist in the production of modern murals in Mexico was Gerard Murillo, followed by Diego Rivera, David Alfareo Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Fernando Leal, artists trained in classical European techniques and many of his early paintings are imitations of the paintings. in Europe. The Muralist movement reached its peak in the 1930s.

The first important movement after the muralist was that of the Rupture Genaration, which began in the 1950s and 1960s, with painters such as José Luis Cuevas, Gilberto Aceves Navarro and Rafele Coronel, who rejected social realism and nationalism and incorporated the surrealism, visual paradoxes, and elements and styles of old world painting. From the 1960s and 1980s, neo-expressionist art was represented in Mexico by Manuel Felguérez, Teresa Cito, Alejandro Pinatado and Jan Hendrix, performing abstract works, with non-figurative works, full of color and contrast. 

In the mid-1980s, the next major movement in Mexico was Neomexicanismo , a somewhat surreal, somewhat kitsch, and postmodern version of social realism that focused on popular culture rather than history. The Mexican art from the 1990s to the present day is classified as Postmodern, with important artists such as Betsabeé Romero, Monica Castillo, Francisco Larios, Martha Chapa and Diego Toledo. The Mexican art again reached its peak in the 1990s, thanks to the biennial international art fairs and exhibitions outside Mexico.

Main characteristics of this type of art

There are different characteristics with which this art class can be differentiated, among them we can highlight:

  • Representation of everyday objects. An example of this could be animals, food, objects, among other things.
  • This type of art is made up of beliefs, superstitions and traditions.
  • Manual manufacturing of artisanal productions.
  • The ornate objects were characterized by poetic, functional, artistic, aesthetic and playful themes.
  • This art stood out above all in crafts, film and photography, although it can also be seen in architecture and painting.
  • His paintings were very colorful, as they used striking colors for them.

 

by Abdullah Sam
I’m a teacher, researcher and writer. I write about study subjects to improve the learning of college and university students. I write top Quality study notes Mostly, Tech, Games, Education, And Solutions/Tips and Tricks. I am a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue.

Leave a Comment