Chapel of the Chapingo Autonomous University (murals)
| Murals in the Chapingo Autonomous University | |
|---|---|
| Artist | Diego Rivera |
| Year | 1923 |
| Medium | Murals |
| Movement | Mexican muralist |
| Location | Chapingo |
Murals in the Chapingo Autonomous University
Introduction
The murals in the Chapel of the Chapingo Autonomous University of Agriculture (UACh) were executed by Diego Rivera between 1923-1927. Rivera painted 41 separate panels that cover the walls and ceiling of the room. The murals contain imagery relating to the revolutionary struggles of the peasants and working class of Mexico and the fertility and cycles of nature.[1]
The most prominent panel at the front of the room is titled Tierra Fecunda (translated Abundant Earth) and features a nude woman reclining in a landscape accompanied by the personifications of the natural forces of wind, water, and fire. Three smaller figures represent humanity who have created machines to harness natural energy.[2] The murals on the south wall continue the theme of nature, showing cycles of germination, growth, and flowering. The murals on the north wall are devoted to images of revolution, suggesting that revolution follows similar natural cycles of germination, growth, and fruition. On both sides, Rivera included images of death--buried seeds and buried revolutionary martyrs.[3]
Background
University of Chapingo (Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo), former Chapingo Ranch, is located in a small town called Chapingo. In 1699, Jesuits purchased several tracts of land and combined them into a ranch that was known as Our Lady of the Conception of Chapingo (Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Chapingo)[1]. After the expulsion of Jesuits, the ranch was purchased by Antonio de Vivanco, for most of the 19th century[1]. In 1904, the Chapingo Ranch was sold to Manuel González, a former president of Mexico[1]. After the Mexican Revolution, the ranch was confiscated by president Venustiano Carranza and assigned to the newly formed National School of Agriculture in 1914[1].
Diego Rivera was approached by Ramón Denigri, President Álvaro Obregón’s Minister of Agriculture, when the former was visiting the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública murals)[1]. Rivera, at the moment, was working on The embrace (aka Union of peasant and worker) and Peasants (aka Awaiting the harvest), hence why one might see contextual connections between those two artworks[1].
Rivera painted the murals in Chapingo in two stages[1]. The first stage was painted between 1923 and 1924 and it consisted of murals in lobbies, staircases, and the management wing in a part of the school that housed classrooms and administrative facilities[1]. In the second stage, which was painted between 1925 and 1927, Rivera worked in the former chapel[1]. The murals in the Chapel later would become one of his best works, even referred to as the Sistine Chapel in Mexico[1].
One of the critiques of Rivera was that he was painting ideologies that the government paid him to paint.[1]. And even though it might be true that the commissioners of Chapingo murals, Ramón Denigri and Marte Gómez who was the Director of National School of Agriculture, requested to emphasize the ideology, Rivera truly believed in the good effects of the revolution, which can be seen from his murals in the former Chapel[1]. For Rivera, art always came before politics[1]
Description of Murals
First Stage
During the first stage of Rivera’s work in Chapingo, he painted six murals in the lobbies, staircases, and the management wing of the school[1]. On the first level of the lobby, Rivera painted Sun and Earth (Sol y tierra) and Air and water (El aire y el agua)[1]. These murals resemble Rivera’s works from a year earlier in Patio del Trabajo in the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública murals)[1]. On the second level, Rivera painted four panels Here the lesson is to exploit the land, not the men (Aqui se enseña a explotar la tierra, no a los hombres), Diving the land (Reparto de tierras), Bad government (Mal gobierno), and Good government (Buen gobierno)[1].
When going up the stairs, people see Here the lesson is to exploit the land, not the men first, hence why Rivera decided to paint what he thought was the most important work there[1]. On both sides of the second level, Rivera painted two different landscapes that metaphorically show two possible outcomes after the revolution – Bad government and Good government[1]. It is important to note that these two landscapes were on opposite walls facing each other[1]. While Good government shows stability and progress and people living in peace and harmony, Bad government, in contrast, shows desolation, pillaging, and destruction of natural resources[1]. Lastly, on the fourth wall that faces Here the lesson is to exploit the land, not the men, Rivera painted Dividing the land which shows the process of redistribution of the land[1].
It is said that Rivera’s inspiration for Good government and Bad government were from the quattrocento frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Siena’s Palazzo Publico.[1]. In addition, by putting these two murals on opposite sides, Rivera might have been thinking about how native people were treated in Mexico[1]. He observed the indigenous people who were with him on the train he used to take from Mexico City to Chapingo[1]. Seeing the state that those people were on, Rivera was motivated to find the right solution to their problems[1]. Rivera also attended a lot of ceremonies of land redistribution. In his diaries, he specifically recalled the ceremony he attended in San Juan de Aragón, near Villa de Guadalupe, which he said was the main inspiration for Dividing the land[1].
Second Stage - The Chapel
Rivera started working on murals in the former chapel after completing the first stage in 1925[1]. In the chapel, Rivera painted not only the four walls around but also the ceiling which made the murals one of Rivera’s high points in his career[1]. Rivera started from painting the apse, the vault, and the coro alto first and completed them in 1926[1]. By 1927, Rivera already started working on the sidewalls, and they were completed in the fall of the same year[1].
Rivera painted the vault such that it tells a linear story in three parts in Seeking the path, The path revealed, and The generous earth, legitimately possessed[1]. In the center of the first part, there are two young and nude men in conflict who are surrounded by beardless natives[1]. Here, the men in conflict represent the prophets and the natives represent the slaves or the proletarians who are trying to escape[1]. In the pendentives, Rivera painted two large male figures who are looking away and carrying a hammer and a sickle-shaped machete[1]. These figures are also described as the silent guardians of truth[1]. In the second part, the men in conflict find harmony around a red star, the natives around become burning flames, and the guardians take a defensive pose with a hammer and a sickle-shaped machete[1]. In the culmination, The generous earth, legitimately possessed, the prophets cross a hammer and a sickle to form the Communist emblem, the proletariat who seem stronger carry plants and seeds, and the guardians oversee water and wheat and put aside their hammers and machetes[1].
Next, Rivera worked on Fertile earth (the apse)[1]. When coming into the room, the apse is the first thing that the viewer sees[1]. The main function of this panel is to integrate the discourse painted in the vault and the narrative of the sidewalls[1]. Rivera painted a nude woman, for which his wife Guadalupe Marín was the model, surrounded by natural forces of wind, water, and fire which are controlled by a nude Mexican family consisting of the father, wife, and son[1]. The nudity of the family depicts being one with the essence of the land[1]. The nude woman is the depiction of the motherland that the Revolution strives towards[1]. When the conflict is over, she wakes up. With one hand, she shows her palm as a sign of peace, and with the other, she germinates a plant[1].
Then Rivera painted a narrative of four panels on each side of the room[1]. The western side consists of The exploiters, The blood of the martyrs, Revolution-germination, and Revolution-fructification, while the eastern side has The subterranean forces, Germination, Fertilization, and Fruits in season[1]. The western side of the room tells a story of the proletariat rising against the oppressors and being triumphant at the end[1]. With these panels, Rivera also emphasized that sacrifices are inevitable by painting a peasant pointing to the ground[1]. However, Rivera also painted a fruitful tree in the background, indicating that the sacrifices will be paid off[1]. On the opposite side of the room, Rivera paints the fertilization of earth in parallel to the events happening on the western panels[1]. He used nude female bodies to show this process of fertilization[1]. In the Fertilization, Rivera painted women in a fetus pose, depicting the new generation of Mexicans waiting to be fertilized[1].
Interpretation
First Stage
One can find similarities between Rivera’s murals in Chapingo and murals in the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública murals), since Rivera was painting those murals at the same time and the content of the murals seems to be the same[1]. However, it is important to distinguish those sets of murals because, for Rivera, he was painting two different points of Mexican history[1]. The Chapingo murals show the post-revolutionary life, while the murals in the Ministry of Public Education show the ideals of the Mexican Revolution[1].
Since Here the lesson is to exploit the land, not the men is the panel that a viewer sees the first when coming up the stairs and is the most important panel on the floor, it determines the interpretation of other panels, leading the viewer towards his ideology[1]. Rivera split this panel into three parts[1]. A peasant and a laborer are shaking hands in the foreground, while eight women who are holding attributes of science in the upper background and redistributed land that is being farmed in the lower background[1]. The obvious reading of this panel is that peasants received redistributed land and that they will be able to ‘exploit’ the land more productively through sciences[1]. Nevertheless, there is more to the interpretation of this panel[1]. Eight women who seem to hold attributes of sciences are holding emblems of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, which Rivera joined in 1924[1].
Second Stage - The Chapel
The overall theme of the murals in the former Chapel, according to Rivera, is that the earth’s natural processes and social practices of humanity ‘naturally correspond to a revolutionary mentality’.[1] . In other words, these things are natural processes and are inevitable[1]. All three series of murals, the sidewalls, and the vault, tell parallel stories and culminate at the apse[1]. It all begins with The exploiters when a peasant realizes the situation that they are in – they are being exploited and the land belongs to a foreign force[1]. At the same time, on the ceiling, rain, wind, and light germinate the land, while on the eastern wall, the natural forces become awake and the land starts getting ready for fertilization[1]. When the peasants start the revolution, the prophets start looking for the path[1]. In the end, once the revolution is successful, the prophets find their path and the land is ready to be fertilized[1]. With the culmination, the motherland is awake and shows an open palm which symbolized peace, and the new Mexican family is ready to utilize the natural forces to work the land[1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 1.39 1.40 1.41 1.42 1.43 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.47 1.48 1.49 1.50 1.51 1.52 1.53 1.54 1.55 1.56 1.57 1.58 1.59 1.60 1.61 1.62 1.63 1.64 1.65 1.66 1.67 1.68 1.69 1.70 Lozano, Luis-Martín (2008). Diego Rivera: The Complete Murals. Los Angeles: Taschen. ISBN 9783822849439. Search this book on
- ↑ Mirkin, Dina Comisarenco (2008). "Women, Agriculture, and Civilization in Diego Rivera's Murals of Chapingo". Aurora: The Journal of the History of Art. 9: 105–115.
- ↑ Craven, David (2002). Art and Revolution in Latin America. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780393326933 Check
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Chapingo Autonomous University Murals
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