Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes - Mexico City
Construction started in 1904, with numerous delays, it was inaugurated on 1934. Since then, the building has sunk some 4 meters into the soft soil of Mexico City. The exterior is primarily Art Noveau and Neoclassical while the interior is primarily Art Deco with Aztec and Maya motifs.
Note the serpents’ heads on the window arches and the Maya Chaac mask, the deity of water, on the vertical light panels.
The main hall is covered by the Marotti glass and an iron roof.
Man at the Crossroads - Man, Controller of the Universe
Diego Rivera - 1934
Diego was commissioned to paint a large mural in the lobby of the Rockefeller Center in New York. Thru his painting, he expressed views on the evils of capitalism and the positive aspects of socialism. As work progressed, he added a portrait of Lenin and other communist ideologies, figures not presented in his preparatory drawings. He refused to change the mural, he was paid off and released from his obligation. In 1934, it was completely destroyed but in that same year, he received a commission to paint the exact mural at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Atres in Mexico City. Note, if you click on the images, you are able to see if full scale.
In the center of the mural is a workman controlling the machinery. He is holding a giant orb, with four propellers filled with atoms and dividing cells. These "elongated ellipses" represent the discoveries made possible by the telescope and the microscope.
On the left, in between the propellers, wealthy women of high society are shown smoking and playing cards with a group of unemployed to the left looking on. Behind them, it’s a battle between capitalism, as represented by figures including Charles Darwin (the man with a white beard surrounded by animals)…and Communism, depicted on the far right hand side / bottom corner, with Leon Trotsky, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels all making appearances. … Above are soldiers and war machinery. The other side portrays Lenin holding hands with multi-racial workers with a Russian May Day rally with red flags above. Each side has a gigantic statue; an angry Jupiter whose hand holding a thunderbolt had been severed off and a headless seated Caesar. This was Rivera's interpretation of contrasting social visions.
The bottom part shows a field of corn along with a variety of other plants, depicting controlled growth of natural resources.
Liberation or Humanity is released from Misery
Jorge González Camarena - 1963
This is a re-creation of a no-longer-existing mural that had been painted on the Edificio Guardiola, where the Bank of Mexico placed its vaults. This was the last mural commissioned to decorate the walls of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
The first part shows a man tied up in a coffin and a nude tattooed woman to protest agrarian policies after the Mexican Revolution and slavery. The last section to the far right depicts a mestizo woman (someone of indigenous and European blood), a radiant symbol of spiritual liberation. The central part of the mural shows a man from behind who fights against oppression and destroys the cross to which he is tied.
The New Democracy
David Alfaro Siqueiros - 1945
This mural cycle was painted to commemorate the end of World War II and to celebrate the victory of the Allied forces over the Axis powers. The cycle is composed of three monumental panels—initially titled Victims of War, Mexico for Democracy and Independence and Victim of Fascism – and later received the name of New Democracy in 1945. This cycle celebrates the triumph of democracy over totalitarian systems, while showing the violence and the consequences of war over the civilian population through the representation of mutilated and tortured bodies. The dynamic force of this mural was made possible due to two technical innovations: on one hand the polyangular perspective for its composition, on the other, the use of pyroxylin, a cellulose-based industrial compound, often used in the automotive industry.
Catharsis, or Humanity’s Eternal Struggle for a Better World
José Clemente Orozco - 1935
Orozco, like his contemporary Rivera, was no stranger to controversy, as evidenced by this horrific vision of a terrified society. Painted at the same time as Rivera’s Man, Controller of the Universe, Orozco’s Catharsis is a blunt criticism of war, mechanization and mass politics during the modern era. The central scene shows a violent fight between two men and the class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. This struggle opens in a spiral and merges with high-caliber weapons, monstrous machines, riddled bodies, and a protesting mob. The three prostitutes serve as a social commentary on the moral decadence and the hypocritical governmental policies enacted around prostitution. The naked woman, wearing a massive pearl necklace, grins outward and opens her legs to a piece of machinery. She’s known as La Chata (Pug Nose Prostitute) and has the dubious honor of being considered one of the most repulsive images in art. While apocalyptic, the intense flames at the top also symbolize the purifying fire that will give rise to a new society.
I heading back to Puebla and Mexico City next June,
Join me on my next tour, May 7 - 16, 2026.
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