“Mexican Painting Makes no Claims”: Francisco de la Maza Defense and Vision of Muralism

Abstract

The art historian Francisco de la Maza addressed various artistic topics throughout his prolific academic career. Within his wide repertoire Mexican muralism is perhaps the least known aspect of all his written production, yet it was not alien to his own visual education, which took place in the National Preparatory School in the 1930s. Thus, in his miscellaneous writings on muralism—most of them published in the newspaper Excélsior—De la Maza revealed his own affinities, compli-cities (and at times disagreements) with Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. This essay analyzes the perspective on Mexican muralism taken by De la Maza, and the development of his particular academic inclinations that were to determine his scholarly interests and aesthetic thought.