Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism 1910 – 1950 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Exhibition poster featuring a Diego Rivera painting and the exhibition title

The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism 1910-1950, exploring the effects of the Mexican Revolution on the country’s cultural and artistic vision. It will be on view from October 25, 2016 – January 8, 2017.

From the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 to the aftermath of World War II, artists and intellectuals in Mexico were at the center of a great debate about their country’s destiny. The exhibition tells the story of this exhilarating period through a remarkable range of images, from masterpeices by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Frida Kahlo, and Rufino Tamayo to transfixing works by their contemporaries Dr. Atl, María Izquierdo, Roberto Montenegro, Carlos Mérida, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and many others.

Paint the Revolution offers a deep look at the forces that shaped modern art in Mexico, the progress of which was closely watched around the world. The exhibition takes its name from an impassioned essay by American novelist John Dos Passos, who saw Mexico’s revolutionary murals during a visit to Mexico City in 1926-27.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Press Release