Artist Siqueiros Jose David Alfaro: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Jose David Alfaro Siqueiros is an artist with a very peculiar style of execution, who made previously lifeless walls speak. This restless man was not limited to art and showed himself in a completely different field - a revolutionary and a communist. Even his involvement in the assassination of Trotsky is known. Politics and creativity for Siqueiros are inseparable, therefore, in his works, the motives of the struggle for social equality are observed. The biography of Siqueiros is very rich and full of intense struggle.

They say that in childhood the artist's name was not quite David. The boy's name was Jose. However, he later chose a middle name for himself. Perhaps it was symbolic. Of course, it was not the meekness of King David, which became proverbial, that attracted him. This biblical hero who, as a shepherd, fought a giant, was a symbol of a challenge to something huge. Siqueiros felt like the same fighterwho is ready to fight with superior forces.

Burning down at work

Siqueiros was said to be very passionate about his work. He could not eat or sleep, not looking up from the creative process for 20 hours. His actions were more like a battle than a peaceful painting - he used a spray gun, not a brush, and also covered huge spaces. Usually the artist did not make sketches. Every time he came up to the wall, he boldly improvised.

Walls come to life

Siqueiros is a muralist. Who is that? This is an artist who paints the walls. Fresco painting has been known for a long time. Its heyday came in the Middle Ages. Then fresco painting carried the Word of God to the illiterate population. In revolutionary times, it began to perform the same function, but with different goals. Propaganda took the place of preaching. Just as in the Soviet Union, in Mexico, where there are many poorly educated peasant population, artistic images have become a means of educating the people.

A natural fighter

He was not only not afraid of failures and hatred, but he himself went to meet them, provoking society and the authorities. “The vicious howl of my opponents is dearer to me than all praise!” the artist said. This explains his great confidence in himself, and above all in his beliefs. Typical for him were situations similar to the case with the painting of the school. In Mexico, local authorities asked the artist to paint the wall of an educational institution facing the street. The muralist depicted a group of protestersworkers, among whom was a black woman with a child. Such liberty greatly angered the people. Equality was not yet in honor. At the opening ceremony, clods of earth flew into the wall. Someone even tried to shoot.

The artist is said to have had a fiery, unbridled temper. He was very fond of arguing. Any arguments against did not embarrass, but only turned him on. He skillfully operated with logic and convincingly refuted everything. True, he knew how to be cold-blooded, especially in a situation of danger. His wife Angelica wrote a lot about his character and details of his personal life in her memoirs. By the way, he also painted it with enlarged hands, thanks to the "exit from the picture" - this was one of the artist's favorite tricks.

Revolutionary from youth

In 1911, the future celebrity entered the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos in Mexico City and already there he took part in the first uprising. The striking students were not satisfied with the order that prevailed in the academy. In the same year, Siqueiros took part in the Civil War on the side of the constitutionalists.

In 1919-1922 he lived in Spain and France. In 1921, he published the Manifesto of Revolutionary Art in Barcelona.

In 1930, he was exiled to the small town of Taxco for his revolutionary activities. Like many creative people, exile and seclusion turned out to be a productive period for him. Several dozen works were created here.

Siqueiros and Gershwin

In the 30s the artist lived in the USA - in Los Angeles and New York. He repeatedly carried out the orders of the magnates, but at the same time he firmly followed the revolutionary ideas. It didn't always go smoothly. Sometimes the frescoes were destroyed by the police. All this did not prevent the artist from communicating with Hollywood stars, as well as living in the homes of famous American cultural figures. For example, one of them was the composer and pianist George Gershwin. This famous musician Siqueiros depicted in one of the paintings. It is difficult to call it a portrait - the figure of the playing pianist is small, and the whole hall enters the picture. Concentrated George Gershwin, the piano, the rhythmic rows of people, the curved lines of the theater balconies seem to merge into a single sound of music.

Attempt on Trotsky

The artist Siqueiros was a staunch Stalinist. On the instructions of the NKVD, he participated in the group of militants "Horse". In 1940 they made an attempt on Trotsky's life. Bursting into his house, the attackers opened fire. But the assassination failed: Trotsky and his wife hid under the bed. But the next attempt, organized by other people, succeeded. Together with accomplices, Ramon Mercader hit the politician on the head with an ice pick. Trotsky soon fell into a coma and ultimately did not survive. And Siqueiros admitted to participating in the first assassination attempt. The artist spent a year in prison, and after that he was expelled from the country. By the way, he had to be in prison or exile more than once. Of course, in such a situation, the artist was limited in creativity. But even there he found an opportunity to create. But, breaking free, he took up the matter with a special scope.

Siqueiros Style

The paintings of the artist Siqueiros are diverse and unlikeon top of each other and at the same time united by a common spirit and style. They feel either ethnic motifs, or even features of surrealism. The artist did not strive for a realistic depiction of the world. The form expressed, first of all, the content, and it was expressive and emotional. Almost all figures are full of movement. He deliberately coarsened images and lines in order to achieve expressiveness. The lines are very often sloppy. The colors that dominate Siqueiros' paintings are brown, red, yellow, sometimes gray and green. That is, on the face there is a noticeable preponderance towards the warm part of the color scheme, but the language will not turn to call these colors warm. They are rather hot, ebullient, which is emphasized by the sharp contrast of light and dark.

Working hands

One of the most common images in his works is the huge hands of the heroes, stretched out to the viewer right from the walls. They are also found in the composition “Social security for workers under capitalism and socialism”, and even in the artist’s self-portrait of 1945. Hands become symbols of the struggling proletariat, labor, action. Their disproportionate, exaggerated proximity to the viewer, as it were, leads to contact. Most often they are wiry and rough.

Brave experimenter

Siqueiros loved to experiment in creativity. We can say that in it he was the same revolutionary as in painting. The Mexican artist actively used new artistic materials - synthetic paints, ceramic relief mosaics. played into his hands andexpressiveness of the structure of the walls. Siqueiros adhered to the idea that convex and concave walls, as well as perspective, would enliven and make the painting dynamic. The artist turned to this in the 40s.

In the 50s, his works become concrete. The artist more and more clearly touches on political topics.

March of Humanity

The March of Humanity is one of the largest frescoes in the world. It covers the surface of a building of complex shape. More than 8 thousand square meters inside and outside the building was painted by the artist and his group, which included artists and sculptors from different countries. Without stopping experimenting, Siqueiros introduced mosaics, stained-glass windows, and sculpture into this monumental composition. This grandiose work was created in 1971 and became, perhaps, the brightest, but also the last of his major creations - in 1974 (at the age of 77), the artist passed away.

Siqueiros and the USSR

The question arises: as a communist, did the artist deal with the communist country itself? Yes. Siqueiros repeatedly came to Moscow - from 1927 to 1972 he was in the Soviet capital 4 times. In addition, the artist became an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Arts. And traces of the artist's stay in our Motherland and interest in it remained in St. Petersburg in the form of a street name.