“Their work doesn’t remain on the canvas, it goes much further than that. They try to envision a new reality.”

— Laura Matute Gonzalez (Art Historian)

Following the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican government supported the development of a new school of art to break with the dominance of the European tradition. This new movement sought to create a “real” Mexican art that would strengthen and reaffirm Mexican identity and the values of the Revolution. The Mexican Muralist movement was born as a means to provide a visual narrative of the post-Revolutionary vision of Mexican history and was driven by the ideal that art should be “by the public, for the public.” In this lesson, students will examine the use of art as historical narrative and social commentary, and create a mural inspired by the Mexican Muralist movement.