Tina Modotti y el muralismo, un lenguaje común

Abstract

Mexican culture from the 1920’s to 1940’s owes a great deal to the work of artists with a common esthetic proposal that embraced socialism, public art and social content as parallels to the creation of innovative languages in which nationalism formed an essential part of discourse. These artists include certain painters, members of the muralist movement and, in the area of photography, artists like Tina Modotti. This work mentions some of the points of contact between the common language of muralists’ artistic expression and the images created by Tina Modotti, including certain symbols (hammer and sickle, cartridge belts, stars), the exaltation of workers and craftsmen, the depiction of popular festivities and customs, the valuation of women and children, etc. Similarly, attention is given to concrete examples from the Tina Modotti photographic collection held by the Institute of Esthetic Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (unam), that reproduces the mural works of Rivera at the Ministry of Public Education and Chapingo, together with those of Orozco at the National Preparatory School in San Ildefonso.