On the Top Floor

Alejandro and I climbed the stairs to the third floor of the third floor of the Muralism Museum.  (OK, in Mexico, as in Europe, it would be called the second floor.  What we call the first floor is the ground floor here.)  Anyway, whatever you want to call it... third floor, second floor or the top floor... the walls of the courtyards are covered with more of Diego Rivera's murals.  

I visited this building a couple of times back when it was the Secretariat of Public Education, and if you dig back far enough in the blog, you will find that I posted photos of these murals.  Diego Rivera was a member of the Mexican Communist Party, and his paintings on the top floor are the most blatantly political.  The workers and farmers are extolled, while the capitalists are demonized... even though Rivera lived a very comfortable life from the earnings of his artwork.

In this painting workers and farmers united.   The worker carries a hammer in his pocket, and the farmer has a sickle over his shoulder... the symbols of the Communist Party.

  

The capitalist are shown sipping cocktails while they follow the stock market ticker tape.

I had not noticed previously Rivera's signature on this painting with a hammer and sickle beneath his name.

In the most famous painting of this series, Rivera depicts his wife Frida Kahlo handing out weapons for the proletariat revolution.

While we were looking at this mural, a private tour guide was discussing it with a visitor.  The visitor asked if that was Frida Kahlo in the painting, and he said "No."  Alejandro pointed out a nearby sign that clearly stated that it was a portrait of Kahlo.  I don't think the guide was very happy with Alejandro, and it was another example of why I don't always trust tour guides.

Since I had seen these murals before, what I found most interesting were the former offices on the top floor which are now open to the public.  These rooms also contain murals, most of them done by Roberto Montenegro, an important painter who is not as famous as Rivera outside of Mexico.

 In one of the offices, the paintings by Montenegro reflect the culture of India.

Another office contains portraits of Gabriela Mistral, Nobel-prize winning poet from Chile, and Argentinian actress and singer, Berta Singerman, also painted by Montenegro.

"The Rural Family" by Montenegro

The Museum of Muralism, the newest in a city filled with museums, is definitely worth visiting.