Mexican art

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  Olmec Head No.1, 1200–900 BCE
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  Olmec jadeite mask, 1000 to 600 BCE
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  Las Limas Monument 1, 1000 to 600 BCE
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  Chupicuaro statuette at the Louvre, 600 to 200 BCE
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  Jars from Casas Grandes, 12th to 15th century
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  Tripod vessel from Teotihuacán, 250 to 600 AD
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  Detail of a mural in Tepantitla, Teotihuacán, 100 BCE to 700 AD
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  Mural in Portic A of Cacaxtla.
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  Sculpture of Chaac, part of the facade of a building in Labna, 600 to 900 AD
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  Stucco head of K'inich Janaab Pakal I (603-683 AD), ruler of Palenque.
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  Zapotec mask of the bat God
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  Shield of Yanhuitlan
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  Detail from the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, 14th to 15th century
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  The Aztec Sun Stone, early 16th century, on display at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City
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  Chīmalli (Shield) belonging to the Aztec king Ahuizotl currently Museum of Ethnology of Vienna, Austria.
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  Ceremonial māhuizzoh Chīmalli (shield) with mosaic decoration. Aztec or Mixtec, AD 1400-1521. In the British Museum
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  Mask, Mexico, State of Veracruz, 900-500 B.C. Dallas Museum of Art
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  Tlāloc effigy vessel; 1440–1469; painted earthenware; height: 35 cm (13⁄4 in.); Museo del Templo Mayor (Mexico City). Templo Mayor, dedicated to Tlāloc.
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  Mimbres Bowl with Bighorn Sheep and Geometrical Design, New Mexico, c. 1000-1150 A.D. Dallas Museum of Art

Interior of the Convent of Tzintzuntzan.

Since the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Mexican art has been an ongoing and complex interaction between the traditions of Europe and native perspectives.[6]

Mural in which Cortes appears greeting the first 12 Franciscans of Mexico in the old monastery of Ozumba.

Church construction After the conquest, Spaniards' first efforts were directed at evangelization and the related task of building churches, which needed indigenous labor for basic construction, but they Nahuas elaborated stonework exteriors and decorated church interiors. Indigenous craftsmen were taught European motifs, designs and techniques, but very early work, called tequitqui (Nahuatl for "vassal"), includes elements such as flattened faces and high-stiff relief.[25][26] The Spanish friars directing construction were not trained architects or engineers. They relied on indigenous stonemasons and sculptors to build churches and other Christian structures, often in the same places as temples and shrines of the traditional religion. "Although some Indians complained about the burden such labor represented, most communities considered a large and impressive church to be a reflection of their town's importance and took justifiable pride in creating a sacred place for divine worship."[27] The fact that so many colonial-era churches have survived centuries it testament to their general good construction.

The first monasteries built in and around Mexico City, such as the monasteries on the slopes of Popocatepetl, had Renaissance, Plateresque, Gothic or Moorish elements, or some combination. They were relatively undecorated, with building efforts going more towards high walls and fortress features to ward off attacks.[28] The construction of more elaborate churches with large quantities of religious artwork would define much of the artistic output of the colonial period. Most of the production was related to the teaching and reinforcement of Church doctrine, just as in Europe. Religious art set the rationale for Spanish domination over the indigenous. Today, colonial-era structures and other works exist all over the country, with a concentration in the central highlands around Mexico City.[29]

The Mass of St. Gregory, feathers on wood panel, the oldest dated feather work with a Christian subject. Made by or for Diego Huanutzin, nephew and son-in-law of Moctezuma II to present to Pope Paul III, dated 1539

Feather work was a highly valued skill of prehispanic central Mexico that continued into the early colonial era. Spaniards were fascinated by this form of art, and indigenous feather workers (amanteca) produced religious images in this medium, mainly small "paintings", as well as religious vestments.[30][31]

Indigenous writings Indians continued production of written manuscripts in the early colonial era, especially codices in the Nahua area of central Mexico. An important early manuscript that was commissioned for the Spanish crown was Codex Mendoza, named after the first viceroy of Mexico, Don Antonio de Mendoza, which shows the tribute delivered to the Aztec ruler from individual towns as well as descriptions of proper comportment for the common people. A far more elaborate project utilizing indigenous scribes illustration is the project resulting in the Florentine Codex directed by Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún. Other indigenous manuscripts in the colonial era include the Huexotzinco Codex and Codex Osuna.

An important type of manuscript from the early period were pictorial and textual histories of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs from the indigenous viewpoint. The early Lienzo de Tlaxcala illustrated the contributions the Spaniards' Tlaxcalan allies made to the defeat of the Aztec Empire, as well the Hernán Cortés and his cultural translator Doña Marina (Malinche).

Painting Most Nahua artists producing this visual art are anonymous. An exception is the work of Juan Gerson, who ca. 1560 decorated the vault of the Franciscan church in the Nahua town of Tecamachalco,(Puebla state), with individual scenes from the Old Testament.[32]

While colonial art remained almost completely European in style, with muted colors and no indication of movement—the addition of native elements, which began with the tequitqui, continued. They were never the center of the works, but decorative motifs and filler, such as native foliage, pineapples, corn, and cacao.[33] Much of this can be seen on portals as well as large frescoes that often decorated the interior of churches and the walls of monastery areas closed to the public.[34]

The earliest of Mexico's colonial artists were Spanish-born who came to Mexico in the middle of their careers. This included mendicant friars, such as Fray Alonso López de Herrera. Later, most artists were born in Mexico, but trained in European techniques, often from imported engravings. This dependence on imported copies meant that Mexican works preserved styles after they had gone out of fashion in Europe.[6] In the colonial period, artists worked in guilds, not independently. Each guild had its own rules, precepts, and mandates in technique—which did not encourage innovation.[35]

Important museum collections include those of the Museo Soumaya and Museo Nacional de San Carlos, both in Mexico City.

• 
  Representation of Mary as a feather picture, Juan Baptista Cuiris, 1550/1580
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  Founding of Tenochtitlan in Codex Mendoza ca. 1541.
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  Towns owing tribute to the Aztec Empire shown in Codex Mendoza ca. 1541
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  Image of Cortés and Malinche in the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, chronicling the conquest of central Mexico from the Tlaxcalans' viewpoint.
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  Native illustration of Diego Durán's history of ancient Mexico, showing the founding of Tenochtitlan
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  Codex Azcatitlan, page depicting Spanish conquerors, with Hernán Cortés and Malinche
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  Codex Ramirez, A depiction of a tzompantli, or skull rack, associated with the depiction of a temple dedicated to Huitzilopochtli from Juan de Tovar's manuscript.
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  Feather work artists as depicted in the Florentine Codex (ca. 1576).
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  Nezahualpilli, tlatoani of Texcoco. Codex Ixtlilxochitl ca. 1582.
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  A page of the Badinus Herbal, 16th c.
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  Huexotzinco Codex; the panel contains an image of the Virgin and Child and symbolic representations of tribute paid to the administrators
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  Conquistador Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán as depicted in Codex Telleriano Remensis, a 16th c. pictorial annal/history
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  Codex Aubin
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  Juan Gerson's religious paintings in the Franciscan church of Tecamachalco, Puebla, 1562.
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  An atrium cross in Acolman, an anthropomorphized stone cross with Jesus at its center.

Juan Rodríguez Juárez (1675-1728), painter. Self-portrait

Baroque painting became firmly established in Mexico by the middle of the 17th century with the work of Spaniard Sebastián López de Arteaga. His painting is exemplified by the canvas called Doubting Thomas from 1643. In this work, the Apostle Thomas is shown inserting his finger in the wound in Christ's side to emphasize Christ's suffering. The caption below reads "the Word made flesh" and is an example of Baroque's didactic purpose.[34]

One difference between painters in Mexico and their European counterparts is that they preferred realistic directness and clarity over fantastic colors, elongated proportions and extreme spatial relationships. The goal was to create a realistic scene in which the viewer could imagine himself a part of. This was a style created by Caravaggio in Italy, which became popular with artists in Seville, from which many migrants came to New Spain came.[34] Similarly, Baroque free standing sculptures feature life-size scales, realistic skin tones and the simulation of gold-threaded garments through a technique called estofado, the application of paint over gold leaf.[34]

Church of San Francisco Acatepec with Baroque Talavera tiling

The most important later influence to Mexican and other painters in Latin America was the work of Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, known through copies made from engravings and mezzotint techniques. His paintings were copied and reworked and became the standard for both religious and secular art.[34] Later Baroque paintings moved from the confines of altarpieces to colossal freestanding canvases on church interiors. One of the best known Mexican painters of this kind of work was Cristóbal de Villalpando. His work can be seen in the sacristy of the Mexico City Cathedral, which was done between 1684 and 1686. These canvases were glued directly onto the walls with arched frames to stabilize them, and placed just under the vaults of the ceiling. Even the fresco work of the 16th century was not usually this large.[34] Another one of Villalpando's works is the cupola of the Puebla Cathedral in 1688. He used Rubens' brush techniques and the shape of the structure to create a composition of clouds with angels and saints, from which a dove descends to represent the Holy Spirit. The light from the cupola's windows is meant to symbolize God's grace.[34] Juan Rodríguez Juárez (1675–1728) and mulatto artist Juan Correa (1646–1716) were also prominent painters of the baroque era. Correa's most famous student, José de Ibarra (1685–1756), was also mixed-race. One of Mexico's finest painters, Miguel Cabrera (1695–1768), was likely mixed race.[36]

The Church produced the most important works of the seventeenth century. Among the important painters were Baltasar de Echave Ibia and his son Baltasar Echave Rioja, also Luis Juárez and his son José Juárez, Juan Correa, Cristóbal de Villalpando, Rodrigo de la Piedra, Antonio de Santander, Polo Bernardino, Juan de Villalobos, Juan Salguero and Juan de Herrera. Juan Correa, worked from 1671 to 1716 and reached great prestige and reputation for the quality of its design and scale of some of his works. Among the best known: 'Apocalypse in the Cathedral of Mexico', 'Conversion of St. Mary Magdalene', now in the 'Pinacoteca Virreinal' and 'Santa Catarina and Adam and Eve casting out of paradise', the latter located in the National Museum of Viceroyalty of Tepotzotlán.[37]

Colonial religious art was sponsored by Church authorities and private patrons. Sponsoring the rich ornamentation of churches was a way for the wealthy to gain prestige.[29] In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Mexico City was one of the wealthiest in the world, mostly due to mining and agriculture, and was able to support a large art scene.[38]

• 
  The Lactación de Santo Domingo, by Cristóbal de Villalpando painted near the end of the 17th century.
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  Cristóbal de Villalpando, Woman of the Apocalypse (Mujer del Apocalipsis), 1686
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  Cristóbal de Villalpando, Saint Rose tempted by the devil (Santa rosa tentada por el demonio), ca. 1695/1697
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  Juan Correa La Pascua de María, 1698.
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  Inmaculada del Apocalipsis, Pinacoteca de La Profesa, México, by José de Ibarra
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  Mexico, circa 1720 Paintings Oil on canvas, Latin American Art Currently on public view: Art of the Americas Building, floor 4
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  The Visitation by Miguel Cabrera. 18th Century. New Spain (Mexico). Oil on canvas, Arocena Museum Collection.

Starting in the seventeenth century, the Virgin of Guadalupe was increasingly a subject for religious painters. Juan Correa and his atelier produced many such images. Increasingly there was an emphasis on the accuracy of the image to the original, and Correa created a wax template to ensure that every detail was correct.Guadalupe became the focus of Criollo patriotism, with her intervention being called upon in catastrophic events and then rendered in art.[39]

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  Manuel Arellano, Inauguration of the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico city (Traslado de la imagen y dedicación del santuario de Guadalupe en la Ciudad de México), 1709
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  Painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, including scenes of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego by Josefus De Ribera Argomanis. (1778)
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  18th-century painting of God the Father fashioning the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe
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  Virgin of Guadalupe intervenes in a Mexico City disastrous plague, ca. 1743.
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  Virgin of Guadalupe, 1 September 1824. Oil on canvas by Isidro Escamilla. Brooklyn Museum.
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  The altar image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with St. John the Baptist, Juan de Zumárraga and St. Juan Diego. Miguel Cabrera.
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  The Virgin of Guadalupe, Ferdinand VII of Spain, royal officials, and indigenous caciques, showing the legitimate conveyance of power. Anon. Museo Nacional de Historia, Mexico City.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Miguel Cabrera 1750.

In New Spain, as in the rest of the New World, since the seventeenth century, particularly during the eighteenth century, the portrait became an important part of the artistic repertoire. In a society characterized by a deep religious feeling which was imbued, it is not surprising that many portraits reflected the moral virtues and piety of the model.[40]

While most commissioned art was for churches, secular works were commissioned as well. Portrait painting was known relatively early in the colonial period, mostly of viceroys and archbishops, as well as the conqueror Hernán Cortés. Portraits of royal and ecclesiastical officials were an approximation of the sitter's appearance, and were displayed in their official settings. They often included their coats of arms. In the sixteenth-century portrait of Cortés, the conqueror is portrayed with a baton, sword, and armor "symbolize political and military might, but the discarded glove helmet and glove reveal that his warring activities are completed."[41] Portraits of viceroys and ecclesiastics were often portrayed in rich clothing and writing implements, along with their coats of arms indicating their genealogy and high standing as well as books and writing implements. In Mexico, there are few exemplars of royal officials from before the eighteenth century, perhaps because the 1696 riot destroyed the portrait gallery in the viceregal palace.[42]

Beginning in the late seventeenth century, portrait painting of local elites became a significant genre. Especially important is that women were portrayed for the first time, starting in the eighteenth century. These works followed European models, with symbols of rank and titles either displayed unattached in the outer portions or worked into another element of the paintings such as curtains.[34] Elite women were dressed in rich embroidered and embellished dresses, usually of silk and lace, with jewelry and other adornment. Many were painted with fans in their hands. Unlike their male counterparts in elite society showing their status and authority, portraits of women were idealized images of womanhood with symbols of femininity.[43] A subset of their genre were portraits of nuns when they first professed, dressed in elaborate clothing appropriate for the solemn step they were taking in entering the convent. A notable example is by José de Alcíbar of Sor (sister) María Ignacia de la Sangre de Cristo, with a ceremonial crown, embroidered robes, and other accoutrements. Miguel Cabrera's posthumous portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, famous in her own time, in her convent cell surrounded by books, is different from most nun's portraits, painted from life or immediately postmortem. There are also a number of postmortem portraits of nuns.

There are quite a number of family group portraits with a religious devotional theme, commissioned to show the family's piety, but also as way to display the family's wealth. Josep Antonio de Ayala was a prominent artist, who is known for painting "The family of the Valley at the foot of Our Lady of Loreto" (c. 1769). This devotional painting was commissioned for the children of the del Valle family in memory of his parents and is characteristic of the painting of this century.[44] The Virgin of Loreto is central to the composition, with the stiff figures of the family members are finely dressed. The men are in fashionable clothing of the era, with the matriarch of the family wearing an embroidered and lace dress, along with pearls. The daughters are shown in the habit of Conceptionist nuns, with escudos de monjas, religious paintings worn on their chests. The painting is inscribed with in information about its commission and the parents, and the fact that it hung in chapel of the family's hacienda. The painting is a display of piety and wealth. There are such group paintings with different central religious figures.[45]

Two notable portrait painters are brothers in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century are Juan Rodríguez Juárez and Nicolás. Some other prominent painters of this period are: Cristóbal de Villalpando, Juan Correa, José de Ibarra, Joseph Mora, Francisco Martinez, Miguel Cabrera, Andrés López, and Nicolás Enríquez.

In the 18th century, artists increasingly included the Latin phrase pinxit Mexici (painted in Mexico) on works bound for the European market as a sign of pride in their artistic tradition.[46]

• 
  Hernán Cortés, with his coat of arms on the upper right corner. 17th c.
• 
  Official Portrait of Don Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain. Unknown artist. 1535.
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  Official Portrait of Don Pedro Moya de Contreras, first secular cleric to be archbishop of Mexico and first cleric to serve as viceroy. Unknown artist.
• 
  Juan Rodríguez Juárez Portrait of Viceroy Fernando de Alencastre Noroña y Silva, duque de Linares y marqués de Valdefuentes, ca. 1717
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  Josep Antonio de Ayala, The del Valle family at the feet the Virgin of Loreto, 1769. In the collections of the Museo Soumaya
• 
  Portrait of family Fagoaga Arozqueta 1730
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  Miguel Cabrera (1695–1768). Doña María de la Luz Padilla y Gómez de Cervantes, ca. 1760. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum
• 
  Sor (sister) María Ignacia de la Sangre de Cristo. José de Alcíbar. 18th c.
• 
  Sor María Anna Josefa

Starting in the seventeenth century, painters began to produce canvases and biombos with historical themes, including the conquest of Mexico and imagined scenes of events involving Mexico's Nahua population. Also important was a history painting of the destruction of the Franciscan mission of San Sabá by Comanches, by José de Páez.

Paintings of Mexico City sites appeared beginning in the seventeenth century, most famously a painting by Cristóbal de Villalpando of the Plaza Mayor in Mexico City, ca. 1696, showing the damage to the viceregal palace from the 1692 corn riot. It also shows the Parián market, where luxury goods were sold. The Parián market was also the subject of at least one other painting.

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  History painting of the Spanish Conquest of Tenochtitlan, 17th century
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  The consecration of pagan temples and the first mass in Mexico-Tenochtitlan by José Vivar y Valderrama, ca. 1752. Oil on canvas.
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  Baptism of Ixtlilxochitl by José Vivar y Valderrama, 18th century.
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  The destruction of the mission of San Sabá in the province of Texas, ca. 1765. José de Páez
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  Cristóbal de Villalpando, View of the Plaza Mayor of Mexico city, 1695
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  Paseo de la Viga 1706
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  The Parian (El Parián), ca. 1770

Another type of secular colonial genre is called casta paintings referring to the depiction of racial hierarchy racially in eighteenth-century New Spain. Some were likely commissioned by Spanish functionaries as souvenirs of Mexico. A number of artists of the era created casta paintings, including Miguel Cabrera, José de Ibarra, Juan Patricio Morlete Ruiz, Francisco Clapera, and Luis de Mena, but most casta paintings are unsigned. Ibarra, Morlete, and possibly Cabrera were of mixed race and born outside Mexico City.[47] Mena's only known casta painting links the Virgin of Guadalupe and the casta system, as well as depictions of fruits and vegetables and scenes of everyday life in mideighteenth-century Mexico. It is one of the most-reproduced examples of casta paintings, one of the small number that show the casta system on a single canvas rather than up to 16 separate paintings. It is unique in uniting the thoroughly secular genre of casta painting with a depiction of the Virgin of Guadalupe.[48] Production of these paintings stopped after the 1821 conclusion of the Mexican War of Independence, when legal racial categories were repudiated in independent Mexico. Until the run-up to the 500th anniversary of the Columbus's 1492 voyage, casta paintings were of little or no interest, even to art historians, but scholars began systematically studying them as a genre.[49][50] A set of casta paintings was included in Pedro Alonso O'Crouley's A Description of the Kingdom of New Spain, published in translation in 1972.[51] and were then included in the first major catalog of casta paintings published in 1989.[52]

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  Luis de Mena, Virgin of Guadalupe and castas, 1750.
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  Las castas. Anonymous, 18th century, Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Tepotzotlán, Mexico.
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  From Spaniard and Indian woman, Mestiza. Miguel Cabrera, 1763
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  Spanish (español) father, Mestiza (mixed Spanish-Indian) mother, and their Castiza daughter. Miguel Cabrera, 1763.
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  Spaniard + Mulata, Morisca. Miguel Cabrera, 1763
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  Spanish father and Albina mother, Torna atrás. Miguel Cabrera, eighteenth century Mexico.
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  Casta Painting, No. 15. From Mestizo and from Indian; Coyote.

Biombos or folding screens became popular among elites in the seventeenth century. Large and meant for display in public and private rooms of elite homes, they had a variety of subject matter, ranging from paintings of historical events, real or imagined, allegorical presentations, and scenes from everyday life in Mexico. Mexico was a crossroads of trade in the colonial period, with goods from Asia and Europe mixing with those locally produced. This convergence is most evident in the decorative arts of New Spain.[38] It was popular among the upper classes to have a main public room, called a salon de estrado, to be covered in rugs and cushions for women to recline in Moorish fashion. Stools and later chairs and settees were added for men. Starting in the seventeenth century when the Manila Galleon sailed regularly from the Philippines to the Pacific port of Acapulco, folding screens or biombos (from the Japanese byo-bu or "protection from wind") were among the luxury goods brought from Asia. They are known to have been brought by 1610 and were subsequently produced by Mexican artists and artisans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were fashionable Mexican elites at the highest level and some were shipped to Europe. Most appear to have been produced locally in Mexico.

Juan Correa produced several in the late seventeenth century, one of the 1519 meeting of Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma, which might have depicted more current events of a traditional Indian dance (mitote) performed on feast of Corpus Christi, symbolizing indigenous submission to Spanish rule and Christianity. Cortés is presented as "both a secular and religious hero" while Moctezuma on a ceremonial litter has "the trappings of a Roman emperor," depicting a meeting of equals.[53] Another was allegorical, entitled The Four Continents (ca. 1683), showing Europe, America, Asia and Africa with Europe and Asia at the center, and America and Africa at either end.[54][55] The earliest of these Mexican made screens had oriental designs but later ones had European and Mexican themes. One example of this is a screen by an anonymous artist with the conquest of Mexico one side and an aerial view of central Mexico City's streets and buildings, but no people, on the other, now at the Franz Mayer Museum.[38] Another is a local scene of an Indian wedding, with voladores ("flyers") suspended by ropes on their feet.

• 
  Large screen of the Palace of the Viceroys of Mexico, ca. 1676-1700, Mexico City, Museum of the Americas
• 
  A Biombo screen with a depiction of the Spanish conquest of Mexico at the Franz Mayer Museum
• 
  Juan Correa, The liberal arts and the four elements (Las artes liberales y los cuatro elementos). 1670
• 
  Folding Screen with Indian Wedding and Voladores, ca. 1690
• 
  One of the display areas in the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City
• 
  One of the display areas in the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City

Portrait of Manuel Tolsá, architect and director of the Academy of San Carlos by Rafael Ximeno y Planes, director of painting at the Academy

The last colonial era art institution established was the Academy of San Carlos in 1783.[56] While the depiction of saints consumed most artistic efforts, they were not without political effects. The most important of these was the rise of the cult of the Virgin of Guadalupe as an American rather than European saint, representative of a distinct identity.[57]

The Crown promoted the establishment in Mexico of the Neoclassical style of art and architecture, which had become popular in Spain. This style was a reinterpretation of Greco-Roman references and its use was a way to reinforce European dominance in the Spain's colonies. One Neoclassical artist from the Academy at the end of the colonial period was Manuel Tolsá. He first taught sculpture at the Academy of San Carlos and then became its second director. Tolsá designed a number of Neoclassical buildings in Mexico but his best known work is an equestrian status of King Charles IV in bronze cast in 1803 and originally placed in the Zócalo. As of 2011 it can be seen at the Museo Nacional de Arte.[56]

By the late 18th century, Spain's colonies were becoming culturally independent from Spain, including its arts. The Academy was established by the Spanish Crown to regain control of artistic expression and the messages it disseminated. This school was staffed by Spanish artists in each of the major disciplines, with the first director being Antonio Gil.[56] The school became home to a number of plaster casts of classic statues from the San Fernando Fine Arts Academy in Spain, brought there for teaching purposes. These casts are on display in the Academy's central patio.[58] The Academy of San Carlos survived into post-independence Mexico.

Hero of Independence, Father José María Morelos, painted from life, artist unknown, likely not academically trained. ca. 1812.

The Mexican flag during most of the nineteenth century. The flag with the eagle wearing a gold crown was designed by Agustín de Iturbide, emperor of Mexico 1821–22.

Artists of the independence era in Mexico (1810–21) produced works showing the insurgency's heroes. A portrait of secular cleric José María Morelos in his military uniform was painted by an unknown artist, traditionally ascribed to be indigenous.[59] The portrait is typical of those from the late eighteenth century, with framing elements, a formal caption, and new elements being iconography of the emerging Mexican nationalism, including the eagle atop the nopal cactus, which became the central image for the Mexican flag.[60] Morelos was the subject of a commissioned statue, with Pedro Patiño Ixtolinque, who trained at the Academy of San Carlos and remained an important sculptor through the era of era independence.[61]

The Academy of San Carlos remained the center of academic painting and the most prestigious art institution in Mexico until the Mexican War of Independence, during which it was closed.[62] Despite its association with the Spanish Crown and European painting tradition, the Academy was reopened by the new government after Mexico gained full independence in 1821. Its former Spanish faculty and students either died during the war or returned to Spain, but when it reopened it attracted the best art students of the country, and continued to emphasize classical European traditions until the early 20th century.[62][63] The academy was renamed to the National Academy of San Carlos. The new government continued to favor Neoclassical as it considered the Baroque a symbol of colonialism. The Neoclassical style continued in favor through the reign of Maximilian I although President Benito Juárez supported it only reluctantly, considering its European focus a vestige of colonialism.[58]

Tlahuicole (1852), Tlaxcala.

Despite Neoclassicism's association with European domination, it remained favored by the Mexican government after Independence and was used in major government commissions at the end of the century. However, indigenous themes appeared in paintings and sculptures. One indigenous figure depicted in Neoclassical style is Tlahuicole, done by Catalan artist Manuel Vilar in 1851.

There were two reasons for this shift in preferred subject. The first was that Mexican society denigrated colonial culture—the indigenous past was seen as more truly Mexican.[38] The other factor was a worldwide movement among artists to confront society, which began around 1830. In Mexico, this anti-establishment sentiment was directed at the Academy of San Carlos and its European focus.[64]

In the first half of the 19th century, the Romantic style of painting was introduced into Mexico and the rest of Latin America by foreign travelers interested in the newly independent country. One of these was Bavarian artist Johann Moritz Rugendas, who lived in the country from 1831 to 1834. He painted scenes with dynamic composition and bright colors in accordance with Romantic style, looking for striking, sublime, and beautiful images in Mexico as well as other areas of Latin America. However much of Rugendas's works are sketches for major canvases, many of which were never executed. Others include Englishman Daniel Egerton, who painted landscapes in the British Romantic tradition, and German Carl Nebel, who primarily created lithographs of the various social and ethnic populations of the country.[65]

A number of native-born artists at the time followed the European Romantic painters in their desire to document the various cultures of Mexico. These painters were called costumbristas, a word deriving from costumbre (custom). The styles of these painters were not always strictly Romantic, involving other styles as well. Most of these painters were from the upper classes and educated in Europe. While the European painters viewed subjects as exotic, the costumbristas had a more nationalistic sense of their home countries. One of these painters was Agustín Arrieta from Puebla, who applied realistic techniques to scenes from his home city, capturing its brightly painted tiles and ceramics. His scenes often involved everyday life such as women working in kitchen and depicted black and Afro-Mexican vendors.[66]

• 
  Entrance of Agustín de Iturbide to Mexico City in 1821. Unknown artist, no date.
• 
  Claudio Linati, Mexican Water carrier
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  Claudio Linati Militia of Guazacualco
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  Claudio Linati Apache chief
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  Carl Nebel Las Tortilleras, one of 50 plates in his Voyage pittoresque et archéologique dans la partie la plus intéressante du Mexique
• 
  Carl Nebel's depiction of Sierra Indians.
• 
  The Plaza de la Constitución during the Mexican–American War. Carl Nebel
• 
  Christopher Columbus at the Court of the Catholic Monarchs (painted in Italy, 1850/1) by Juan Cordero
• 
  Agustín Arrieta, Tertulia de pulquería, 1851
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  Agustín Arrieta, Cuadro de comedor, pintado entre 1857 y 1859, oleo sobre tela
• 
  Still-life, oil on canvas painting by José Agustín Arrieta (Mexican), c. 1870, San Diego Museum of Art
• 
  Girl with flowers by José Salomé Pina
• 
  Frederick Catherwood, Main temple at Tulum, from Views of Ancient Monuments.
• 
  Frederick Catherwood Lithograph of Stela D. Copan (1844), from Views of Ancient Monuments.
• 
  Pedro Gualdi, Gran Teatro Nacional de México/Teatro Santa Anna, Mexico City
• 
  Pedro Gualdi, Interior of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico
• 
  Juan Cordero, Portrait of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's wife, Doña Dolores Tosta de Santa Anna. (1855)
• 
  The hacienda owner and his mayordomo (painting by Carl Nebel, litografía de Lemercier y Lassalle).
• 
  Da. Francisca Valdivia de Chávez and sons. (1862) by Hermenegildo Bustos
• 
  Oaxaca Indians painting by Felipe Santiago Gutiérrez
• 
  Mexicans in a rural scene outside Mexico City (1855) by Casimiro Castro

José María Velasco, El Valle de México.

In the mid-to late 19th century Latin American academies began to shift away from severe Neoclassicism to "academic realism". Idealized and simplified depictions became more realistic, with emphasis on details. Scenes in this style were most often portraits of the upper classes, Biblical scenes, and battles—especially those from the Independence period. When the Academy of San Carlos was reopened after a short closure in 1843, its new Spanish and Italian faculty pushed this realist style. Despite government support and nationalist themes, native artists were generally shorted in favor of Europeans.[67]

The Good Samaritan (1838) by Pelegrí Clavé.

One of the most important painters in Mexico in the mid 19th century was Catalan Pelegrí Clavé, who painted landscapes but was best known for his depictions of the intellectual elite of Mexico City. Realist painters also attempted to portray Aztec culture and people by depicting settings inhabited by indigenous people, using live indigenous models and costumes based on those in Conquest era codices. One of these was Félix Parra, whose depictions of the conquest empathized with the suffering of the indigenous. In 1869, José Obregón painted The Discovery of Pulque; he based his depictions of architecture on Mixtec codices, but misrepresented temples as a setting for a throne.[67]

The art of the 19th century after Independence is considered to have declined, especially during the late 19th century and early 20th, during the regime of Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911). Although during this time, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts were often limited to imitation of European styles,[68] the emergence of young artists, such as Diego Rivera and Saturnino Herrán, increased the focus on Mexican-themed works. This meant that following the military phase of the Mexican Revolution in the 1920s, Mexican artists made huge strides is forging a robust artistic nationalism.

In this century there are examples of murals such as folkloric style created between 1855 and 1867 in La Barca, Jalisco.[69]

Highlights at this time: Pelegrín Clavé, Juan Cordero, Felipe Santiago Gutiérrez and José Agustín Arrieta. In Mexico, in 1846 he was hired to direct Pelegrín Clavé's reopening of the Academy of San Carlos, a body from which he promoted the historical and landscaping themes with a pro-European vision.[70]

• 
  Orizaba desde el Puente de Paso del Toro by Casimiro Castro, from Album of the Mexican Railway (1877)
• 
  José María Jara (1867–1939), Foundation of Mexico City. Museo Nacional de Arte. (1889)
• 
  El Velorio by José María Jara. (1889)
• 
  The Inspiration of Christopher Columbus by José Obregon. (1856)
• 
  The Discovery of Pulque by José Obregón at the Museo Nacional de Arte. (1869)
• 
  Félix Parra, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas (1875) exhibited at the Centennial International Exposition of Philadelphia in 1876.
• 
  Matanza de Cholula, by Félix Parra. (1875)
• 
  Leandro Izaguirre Torture of Cuauhtémoc (1892)
• 
  Patio del Exconvento de San Agustín, José María Velasco
• 
  Oil painting of Vicente Guerrero, leader of independence and president of Mexico. Ramón Sagredo (1865)
• 
  Painting of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, considered the father of Mexican independence, by Antonio Fabrés
• 
  Joaquín Clausell, Countryside with forest and river.
• 
  Saturnino HerránLa cosecha ("The Harvest"), 1909
• 
  Saturnino Herrán La ofrenda ("The Offering"), 1913
• 
  Saturnino Herrán Mujer en Tehuantepec ("Woman of Tehuantepec) 1914
• 
  Julio Ruelas Crítica
• 
  José Guadalupe Posada, 1903, Calavera oaxaqueña. Posada published
• 
  Jesus in the Temple, Juan Cordero
• 
  April 2, 1867. General Porfirio Díaz Entry at Puebla, by Francisco de Paula Mendoza, 1902.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, monuments to historical events were erected in many Mexican cities, most especially in the capital. One of the first was a monument to Christopher Columbus, on the broad Paseo de la Reforma, commissioned by Antonio Escandón, who made a fortune constructing the Mexico City-Veracruz railway. Escandón "decided to commemorate the era of the railroad in Mexico with a monument to an equally epochal event, the Discovery of the New World."[71] During the Porfiriato (1876-1910), the Paseo de la Reforma became a key place to display statues to Mexican heroes, with the traffic round-abouts (glorietas) having a particular place of honor.[72] In 1887, Porfirio Díaz commissioned the statue of the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, which can be seen on Paseo de la Reforma. Cuauhtémoc is depicted with a toga-like cloak with a feathered headdress similar to an Etruscan or Trojan warrior rather than an Aztec emperor. The base has elements reminiscent of Mitla and Roman architecture. This base contains bronze plates depicting scenes from the Spanish conquest, but focusing on the indigenous figures.[63] A modest obelisk commemorating the Niños Héroes, cadets who died defending their post during the U.S. takeover of Mexico City during the Mexican American War (1847), was erected in 1884. A much larger one was built in the mid-twentieth century at the entrance to Chapultepec Park. Arguably the most famous monument of the era is the Monument to Independence, often called "the Angel of independence" for its winged victory. It was commissioned for the centenary of independence in 1910 and inaugurated by Porfirio Díaz during the festivities in September 1910.

• 
  Monument to Columbus, Mexico City, 1877.
• 
  Monument to Cuauhtémoc, Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City. 1887.
• 
  Cuauhtemoc's torture on the Cuauhtémoc monument.Gabriel Guerra (1847–1893).
• 
  A bronze casting (1888–1889) of Nezahualcoyotl, by Jesús F. Contreras at the Garden of the Triple Alliance, Filomeno Mata street, historical center of Mexico City.
• 
  Obelisk to the Niños Héroes. Chapultepec Park. Mexico City. Ramón Rodríguez Arangoity. 1884
• 
  Monument to Independence, "el Ángel". 1910.
• 
  Benito Juárez hemicycle. Mexico City. 1910.

A portion of Alegoría a la Virgen de Guadalupe by Fermín Revueltas located in one of the walls of the San Ildefonso College.

While a shift to more indigenous and Mexican themes appeared in the 19th century, the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920 had a dramatic effect on Mexican art.[58][62] The conflict resulted in the rise of the Partido Revolucionario Nacional (renamed the Partido Revolucionario Institucional), which took the country in a socialist direction. The government became an ally to many of the intellectuals and artists in Mexico City[33][38] and commissioned murals for public buildings to reinforce its political messages including those that emphasized Mexican rather than European themes. These were not created for popular or commercial tastes; however, they gained recognition not only in Mexico, but in the United States.[73] "The great Mexican muralists of the post-revolution developed, with the paint mural, the concept of 'public art', an art to be seen by the masses in major public buildings of the time, and could not be bought and transported easily elsewhere, as with easel painting."[74]

"La fiesta del Señor de Chalma" on one of the walls of the San Ildefonso College by Fernando Leal

This production of art in conjunction with government propaganda is known as the Mexican Modernist School or the Mexican Muralist Movement, and it redefined art in Mexico.[75] Octavio Paz gives José Vasconcelos credit for initiating the Muralist movement in Mexico by commissioning the best-known painters in 1921 to decorate the walls of public buildings. The commissions were politically motivated—they aimed to glorify the Mexican Revolution and redefine the Mexican people vis-à-vis literally "face to face (with)" their indigenous and Spanish past.[76]

The Tree of Life or The Tree of Science painted by Roberto Montenegro at the San Pedro y San Pablo College (Museum of Light)

The first of these commissioned paintings were at San Ildefonso done by Fernando Leal, Fermín Revueltas, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera. The first true fresco in the building was the work of Jean Charlot. However, technical errors were made in the construction of these murals: a number of them began to blister and were covered in wax for preservation.[77] Roberto Montenegro painted the former church and monastery of San Pedro y San Pablo, but the mural in the church was painted in tempera and began to flake. In the monastery area, Montenegro painted the Feast of the Holy Cross, which depicts Vasconcelos as the protector of Muralists. Vasconcelos was later blanked out and a figure of a woman was painted over him.[78]

Detail of mural "Gente y paisaje de Michoacán" at the Palacio de Gobierno in Michoacán (1962).

The first protagonist in the production of modern murals in Mexico was Dr. Atl. Dr Atl was born "Gerard Murillo" in Guadalajara in 1875. He changed his name in order to identify himself as Mexican. Atl worked to promote Mexico's folk art and handcrafts. While he had some success as a painter in Guadalajara, his radical ideas against academia and the government prompted him to move to more liberal Mexico City. In 1910, months before the start of the Mexican Revolution, Atl painted the first modern mural in Mexico. He taught major artists to follow him, including those who came to dominate Mexican mural painting.[68]

The muralist movement reached its height in the 1930s with four main protagonists: Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, and Fernando Leal. It is the most studied part of Mexico's art history.[33][38][79] All were artists trained in classical European techniques and many of their early works are imitations of then-fashionable European paintings styles, some of which were adapted to Mexican themes.[6][75] The political situation in Mexico from the 1920s to 1950s and the influence of Dr. Atl prompted these artists to break with European traditions, using bold indigenous images, much color, and depictions of human activity, especially of the masses, in contrast to the solemn and detached art of Europe.[33]

Preferred mediums generally excluded traditional canvases and church porticos and instead were the large, then-undecorated walls of Mexico's government buildings. The main goal in many of these paintings was the glorification of Mexico's pre-Hispanic past as a definition of Mexican identity.[33] They had success in both Mexico and the United States, which brought them fame and wealth as well as Mexican and American students.[73]

Mural Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central in Mexico City, featuring Rivera and Frida Kahlo standing by La Calavera Catrina.

These muralists revived the fresco technique for their mural work, although Siqueiros moved to industrial techniques and materials such as the application of pyroxilin, a commercial enamel used for airplanes and automobiles.[33] One of Rivera's earliest mural efforts emblazoned the courtyard of the Ministry of Education with a series of dancing tehuanas (natives of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico). This four-year project went on to incorporate other contemporary indigenous themes, and it eventually encompassed 124 frescoes that extended three stories high and two city blocks long.[33] The Abelardo Rodriguez Market was painted in 1933 by students of Diego Rivera, one of whom was Isamu Noguchi.[80]

Detail of a mural by Diego Rivera at the National Palace (Mexico)

Another important figure of this time period was Frida Kahlo, the wife of Diego Rivera. While she painted canvases instead of murals, she is still considered part of the Mexican Modernist School as her work emphasized Mexican folk culture and colors.[33][81] Kahlo's self-portraits during the 1930s and 40s were in stark contrast to the lavish murals artists like her husband were creating at the time. Having suffered a crippling bus accident earlier in her teenage life, she began to challenge Mexico's obsession with the female body. Her portraits, purposefully small, addressed a wide range of topics not being addressed by the mainstream art world at the time. These included motherhood, domestic violence, and male egoism.

Her paintings never had subjects wearing lavish jewelry or fancy clothes like those found in muralist paintings. Instead, she would sparsely dress herself up, and when there were accessories, it added that much more importance to them. She would also depict herself in very surreal, unsettling scenarios like in The Two Fridas where she depicts two versions of herself, one with a broken heart and one with a healthy infusing the broken heart with "hopeful" blood., or Henry Ford Hospital where she depicts herself in having an abortion and the struggle she had in real life coming to terms with it.

Although she was the wife of Diego Rivera, her self-portraits stayed rather obscured from the public eye until well after her passing in 1954. Her art has grown in popularity and she is seen by many to be one of the earliest and most influential feminist artists of the 20th century.[82]

• 
  José Clemente Orozco, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Jalisco Governmental Palace, Guadalajara
• 
  José Clemente Orozco, The Trench San Ildefonso College, Mexico City
• 
  Diego Rivera Tenochtitlan, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City.
• 
  Diego Rivera Mural in the main stairwell of the National Palace
• 
  David Alfaro Siqueiros, Mural at Tecpan
• 
  Jean Charlot, Eagle and snake, San Ildefonso College
• 
  Part of the mural Presencia de América Latina by Jorge González Camarena

Mexico de Hoy by Rufino Tamayo on the first floor of the Palacio de Bellas Artes

The first to break with the nationalistic and political tone of the muralist movement was Rufino Tamayo. For this reason he was first appreciated outside of Mexico.[83] Tamayo was a contemporary to Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco, and trained at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. Like them he explored Mexican identity in his work after the Mexican Revolution. However, he rejected the political Social Realism popularized by the three other artists and was rejected by the new establishment.[84]

He left for New York in 1926 where success allowed him to exhibit in his native Mexico. His lack of support for the post-Revolutionary government was controversial. Because of this he mostly remained in New York, continuing with his success there and later in Europe. His rivalry with the main three Mexican muralists continued both in Mexico and internationally through the 1950s. Even a belated honorific of "The Fourth Great Ones" was controversial.[84]

Despite maintaining an active national art scene, Mexican artists after the muralist period had a difficult time breaking into the international art market. One reason for this is that in the Americas, Mexico City was replaced by New York as the center of the art community, especially for patronage.[85] Within Mexico, government sponsorship of art in the 20th century (dominated until 2000 by the PRI party) meant religious themes and criticism of the government were effectively censored. This was mostly passive, with the government giving grants to artists who conformed to their requirements.[86] In the 1940s, Wolfgang Paalen published the extremely influential DYN magazine in Mexico City, which focused on a transitional movement between surrealism to abstract expressionism. Fumiko Nakashima a Japanese artist lives in Mexico, primarily working on surrealist pieces in watercolor.

In 1953, Museo Experimental El Eco (in Mexico City) opened; it was created by Mathias Goeritz.

A mural and clock sculpture by Manuel Felguerez at Universidad La Salle, Campus central.

The first major movement after the muralists was the Rupture Movement, which began in the 1950s and 1960s with painters such as José Luis Cuevas, Gilberto Navarro, Rafael Coronel, Alfredo Casaneda, and sculptor Juan Soriano. They rejected social realism and nationalism and incorporated surrealism, visual paradoxes, and elements of Old World painting styles.[81][87] This break meant that later Mexican artists were generally not influenced by muralism or by Mexican folk art.[81]

José Luis Cuevas created self-portraits in which he reconstructed scenes from famous paintings by Spanish artists such as Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, and Picasso. Like Kahlo before him, he drew himself but instead of being centered, his image is often to the side, as an observer. The goal was to emphasize the transformation of received visual culture.[88]

Another important figure during this time period was Swiss-Mexican Gunther Gerzso, but his work was a "hard-edged variant" of Abstract Expressionism, based on clearly defined geometric forms as well as colors, with an effect that makes them look like low relief. His work was a mix of European abstraction and Latin American influences, including Mesoamerican ones.[88][89] In the watercolor field we can distinguish Edgardo Coghlan and Ignacio Barrios who were not aligned to a specific artistic movement but were not less important.

"Designed by Mathias Goeritz, a series of sculptures ... [lined] the "Route of Friendship" (Ruta de la Amistad) in celebration of the Olympics ... In contestation to the government-sanctioned artistic exhibition for the Olympics, a group of diverse, independent visual artists organize a counterpresentation entitled Salón Independiente, or Independent Salon; the exhibition signifies a key event in the resistance by artists of state-controlled cultural policies. This show of antigovernment efforts by artists would also be expressed in a mural in support of student movement's protests; the work became known as the Mural Efímero (or Ephemeral Mural)" at UNAM".[90]

The third Independent Salon was staged in 1970. In 1976 "Fernando Gamboa spearheads the organization of an exposition of abstract art entitled El Geometrismo Mexicano Una Tendencia Actual".[91]

"In an attempt to reassess ... post-1968 Mexican art, the Museum of Science and Art at UNAM" organized in 2007, the exhibition La Era de la Discrepancia. Arte y cultura visual en México 1968-1997[92]

In 1990 the exhibition Mexico: Esplendor de Treinta Siglos, started its world tour at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Sculpture called "Siamesas" by Jose Luis Cuevas

From the 1960s to the 1980s Neo-expressionist art was represented in Mexico by Manuel Felguerez, Teresa Cito, Alejandro Pinatado, and Jan Hendrix.[87][93]

Swiss-German artist, Mathias Goeritz, in the 1950s created public sculptures including the Torres Satélite in Ciudad Satélite. In the 1960s, he became central to the development of abstract and other modern art along with José Luis Cuevas and Pedro Friedeberg.[94]

In the mid-1980s, the next major movement in Mexico was Neomexicanismo, a slightly surreal, somewhat kitsch and postmodern version of Social Realism that focused on popular culture rather than history.[33] Works were not necessarily murals: they used other mediums such as collage and often parodied and allegorized cultural icons, mass media, religion, and other aspects of Mexican culture. This generation of artists were interested in traditional Mexican values and exploring their roots—often questioning or subverting them. Another common theme was Mexican culture vis-à-vis globalization.[95]

Art from the 1990s to the present is roughly categorized as Postmodern, although this term has been used to describe works created before the 1990s. Major artists associated with this label include Betsabeé Romero,[96] Monica Castillo, Francisco Larios,[81] Martha Chapa and Diego Toledo.[87]

• 
  Jalisco artist Juan Soriano sculpture
• 
  Tribute to Wirikuta by Betsabeé Romero
• 
  Mexican artist Mauricio García Vega at his workshop in Nezahualcoyotl
• 
  Wholeness by Sandra Pani

The success of Mexican artists is demonstrated by their inclusion in galleries in New York, London, and Zurich.[97]

Ángel Zárraga - Votive Offering Saint Sebastian.

• In 1974 Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (MACG), a gallery and museum, opened.
• Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporáneo opened in Mexico City in 1981. The National Museum of Art (MUNAL) opened in 1982.
• In 1994, the foundation behind Colección Jumex and its collection of contemporary art, was established; it's located in the industrial outskirts of Mexico City.[98]
• Kurimanzutto—a private gallery was founded in 1999.[86]
• In 1994 the Olmedo Museum[99] was opened to the public.
• In 1996 the Gelman collection was donated to Metropolitan Museum of Art (in New York); part of the Gelmans' collection is on display in the Muros Museum in Cuernavaca.
• Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) opened in 2008.
• Private art exhibition is concentrated to major urban centers, in particular Monterrey, Nuevo Léon, Guadalajara, Oaxaca City and Puebla.[99]

Octavio Mercado said in 2012 that the activity of art criticism still can be found in specialized magazines and nationally disseminated newspapers; furthermore, a new generation of art critics include Daniela Wolf, Ana Elena Mallet, Gabriella Gómez-Mont, and Pablo Helguera. [100] (Prior to that, claims were made in 2004, that a deficit of native writing about Mexican art, symbolism, and trends, resulted in modern Mexican art shown abroad having been mislabeled or poorly described, as foreign institutions do not sufficiently understand or appreciate the political and social circumstances behind the pieces.[101])

• José Clemente Orozco
• Diego Rivera
• David Alfaro Siqueiros
• Rufino Tamayo
• Frida Kahlo

Cubes by Javier Marín

Exhibition at the Old College of San Ildefonso.

• 
  Canal de Xochimilco. Joaquín Clausell
• 
  Francisco Goitia's "Zacatecas Landscape with Hanged Men II", circa 1914, oil on canvas, 194 × 109.7 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  Portrait of Belinda Palavicini. 1915. Pastel on paper. 187 × 87 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte by Alfredo Ramos Martínez
• 
  By Gustavo Arias Murueta, "Cosmogonía"
• 
  "Chivo" (Goat)
• 
  Mural en Cerámica II at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas.

Modern interpretation of the portrait of Sor Juana by Mexican artist Mauricio García Vega.

Some of painters in this century are:

• Rafael Cauduro, painter, sculptor, muralist.
• Roberto Cortazar, visual artist, painter.
• Mauricio García Vega, painter
• Eliseo Garza Aguilar, painter and performance artist. Considered among the leading exponents of provocative and thoughtful art of the Third Millennium. In search of a critical response from viewers, combines his paintings in the performances with the theatrical histrionics.
• Jazzamoart, visual artist, Guanajuato.
• Daniel Lezama, visual artist. Works on all major formats oil. Born in 1968 to Mexican American parents.
• Germán Montalvo, Painter.
• Gabriel Orozco, Painter, Sculptor Veracruz.
• Arturo Rivera, Painter.
• Vicente Rojo

• 
  Tunnel and bridge of the Infiernillo Cañon, on the Mexican railway, in the state of Vera Cruz.
• 
  Porfirio Díaz with the Piedra del Sol, photographer not known
• 
  General Emiliano Zapata, leader of revolutionaries in Morelos beginning in 1911 and ending in his assassination in 1919[140]
• 
  Siqueiros by Héctor García Cobo at Lecumberri prison, Mexico City, 1960.
• 
  Boy soldier during the Mexican Revolution, Casasola Archive.[141]
• 
  Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo at the Institute of Graphic Arts of Oaxaca.
• 
  Photo of the Independence Day parade (September 16) in Mexico City at the Museo Archivo de la Fotografía (Museum of the Photographic Archive).
• 
  National Autonomous University, Mexico City. View to Central Library 1974.

• López, Rick. Crafting Mexico: Intellectuals, Artisans, and the State after the Revolution. Durham: Duke University Press 2010.
• McQuade, Margaret Connors. Talavera Poblana: Four Centuries of a Mexican Ceramic Tradition. New York 1999.