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The painter Manuel Rodríguez Lozano declared in the newspaper Excélsior that Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros were mistaken in believing that an attack on communist painting constituted an attack on Mexican art. Rodríguez Lozano maintained that both painters were promoting an art that favored “socialist realism” theory, which provoked confusion among other artists and unleashed scandals that had nothing to do with art. For him, this attitude amounted to a de-nationalization of Mexican painting by submitting it to Russian norms and sterilizing its own development. He likewise launched severe critiques of the publicity campaigns that portrayed Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros as the only Mexican artists.
In the context of the World War II, many artists distanced themselves from any ideology or political theory that supported global authoritarian systems. In this sense, they opposed a world governed by rules and regulations. Like Rufino Tamayo, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano (1896-1971) rejected political painting and defended artistic freedom of expression. Both painters found an authentic and original expression in native, pre-Hispanic folk art; they were likewise compelled to distance themselves from the anecdotal and the narrative in favor of elements based on the primitive, simplicity of form and symbolic character.