Mexican Modern Art 1910 - 1950 (7)


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Source: WTL photograph© at the Special Exhibition of "Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism 1910 - 1950," at the Philadelphia Art Museum, December 13, 2016.
Image: "Sunrise over the Mountains," by Dr. Atl [Gerardo Murillo Conrado] (1875-1964), 1916. Atl color (oil, wax, dry resin, and gasoline) on canvas. For a self-portrait of Dr. Atl from 1926, see: => Mexican Modern Art #7a. Also, see: => Mexican Modern Art #8.
Comments: After briefly studying at Mexico City's Academy of San Carlos, he was given a scholarship to study law in Europe, where he allied himself with socialism. However, in 1902 he was given the name of "Dr. Atl" ("water" in Náhuatl) by Leopoldo Lugones (1874-1938), who was one of the great modernistas, who hailed from Argentina. Dr. Atl returned to Mexico in 1906 and immediately published a manifesto in which he called for a major Mexican public project to create public art: this manifesto was a precursor to the Muralist Movement, which began officially in 1922. From 1911 to 1915 he returned to Europe, but when he got back to Mexico he was named director of the Academy of San Carlos, from which position he supported the budding careers of fellow revolutionary artists and future muralists, Orozco and Siqueiros. In addition to his work as an artist, he was a writer and an accomplished naturalist and vulcanologist.
Humanities Questions: (A) Describe the various artistic elements in this painting, commenting especially on what this work tells you about "a sunrise over the mountains;" (a) for example, which mountians; and (b) what is there especially Mexican about the sun?


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