The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
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According to Efraín Pérez Mendoza, the Grupos de “Acción de Arte” [Art Action Groups] exhibition is one of the most interesting, complete and “most tormented that has been mounted by Mexican artists,” because the works express the spiritual awareness of each artist. The critic mentions the work of various artists, including Fermín Revueltas, Ramón Cano and sculptor Carlos Bracho, as well as that of Guillermo Ruíz, Ignacio Asúnsolo and Fidias Elizondo. He emphasizes the works that scream “here I am,” by such artists as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Sóstenes Ortega, Carlos Mérida, Nahui Ollin, Rosario Cabrera, Carlos Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, Martínez Barragán, Francisco Díaz de León and Jean Charlot. He concludes by stating that Dr. Atl and his work are one: a heartbreaking restlessness. He believes that when one maintains a supposed faithfulness to representation, the resulting product is entirely intolerable. This is the case with José Clemente Orozco’s painting, characterized by a “putrid naturalism that is an insult unto itself.” The author prescribes vital enjoyment as an antidote.
The contrast among the languages that were then bursting onto the scene in Mexico at the beginning of the 1920s was reduced by this type of conservative criticism, as well as to exercises in financial speculation and novelty, to “merchandise and surprises.” Despite the fact that a good number of trends had differentiated themselves, they were still portrayed as empty compartments devoid of an interpretative code and the possibility of contact. This Revista de revistas journalist is shocked by the new art proposals that have surfaced in post-revolutionary Mexico; those that confront the traditional aesthetic parameters, particularly with regard to the works of Jean Charlot (1897-1979), Carlos Bracho, David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974), Carlos Mérida (1891-1984), Francisco Díaz de León and José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949).The importance of this article lies precisely in the overt confrontation of both interpretations; just as there were texts that applauded the new trends, there were those that criticized them.