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- Title
Art of the Collective: David Alfaro Siqueiros, Josep Renau and their Collaboration at the Mexican Electricians' Syndicate.
- Authors
Jolly, Jennifer
- Abstract
This essay discusses the ideal of collective artistic production in the work and writings of Mexican Muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros in light of the discovery of an unpublished 1949 document by Spaniard Josep Renau, describing the conflicted production of the Portrait of the Bourgeoisie at the Mexican Electricians' Syndicate, 1939-1940. As part of Siqueiros's larger critique of Muralism, the two founded a painting collective and looked to communist ideals to guide both the ideological content and actual production of their mural. To this end, Siqueiros developed an approach inspired by industrial production: he organized the team as a collective of workers who used industrial materials and tools, divided their tasks by specialization, and adopted a mechanical basis for stylistic objectivity: photography. However this vision of a disciplined communist collective, which aspired to democratic decision-making but regularly demurred to its leader, was largely a idealized mirage created by the artists and reinforced by art historians. Examining the realities of this collaboration - largely minimized in the current literature, but newly exposed by Renau's 1949 letter - provides insight into the broader functioning of communism by considering ideology in relationship to practice and emphasizing the role of leader and followers within a collective.
- Subjects
MURAL art; PHOTOGRAPHY; COMMUNISM &; art; IDEOLOGY in art; RENAU, Josep; SIQUEIROS, David Alfaro, 1898-1974
- Publication
Oxford Art Journal, 2008, Vol 31, Issue 1, p129
- ISSN
0142-6540
- Publication type
Article