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Forgotten American Mural Unveiled In Mexico

February 3, 2025
A black-and-white photograph of Philip Guston

Philip Guston

A 1934 mural by Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish at a regional museum in Mexico has been fully restored.

The Struggle Against Terrorism is a 1000-square-foot mural the two young artists created for the museum. Both the mural itself and its location play together in interesting ways. It is located in the Museo Regional Michoacano, a history museum in the city of Morelia, Michoacán’s capital. The museum was first established in 1886 and moved into an eighteenth-century building previously used as a palace by the emperor Maximilian I. When Guston and Kadish were invited to create something for the museum, muralism was a powerful artistic, social, and political force in Mexico. In the wake of the violence the Mexican Revolution had brought, the new government sought to create a new national identity and educate its people about it through public art. By employing artists like Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco, Mexico saw the birth of a new art form and a new national identity based primarily on the beauty of mestizaje, or the mixture of European and indigenous blood and culture that made Mexico unique. Guston and Kadish were two young, Jewish-American leftist artists who brought much of their experience with prejudice and discrimination to the project.

Additionally, they were no doubt heavily inspired by Mexico’s muralist movement and were recommended to the project by Siqueiros himself, who had met the pair while in Los Angeles. The mural features twisted bodies and figures wearing hoods, recalling imagery associated with both the Inquisition and the Klan. Instruments of torture lay scattered alongside swastikas, hammers, and sickles. However, not long after its creation, the mural soon fell into disrepair. The Mexican Revolution and its aftermath fomented social unrest between devout Catholics and anti-clerical progressives, bubbling over into armed conflict. Conservative forces in the region considered the mural incredibly offensive, particularly the figures’ nudity and the use of the cross. The museum was forced to hide it behind a canvas screen. The mural would remain hidden until the 1970s.

Before the restoration, the mural itself had faded, and much of the plaster on the wall had begun to crumble. Specialists concluded that the room was too humid for the mural to survive. Once they sufficiently renovated the building to control the room’s humidity, they began restoring the mural itself. Luckily for restorers, the original mural was extensively photographed upon completion in 1935. So, restorers were able to replace the missing sections easily. While the efforts to completely restore the mural took about seven years, the actual hands-on restoration took about six months. The Philip Guston Foundation contributed about $150,000 to the project.

Guston and Kadish would return from Mexico to work with the Works Progress Administration, a government organization that found work for people affected by the Great Depression. It employed scores of artists to create murals and other public works of art. Doubtless, many looked to Mexico and its muralist movement for inspiration, like Guston and Kadish had. But the world around them also provided its own inspiration. The two created the Morelia mural in a world where fascism was on the rise. Its renovation comes at a time when similar destructive forces are starting to rear their heads once more. Guston would use the imagery of oppression and resistance throughout his work for the rest of his career until he died in 1980. Sally Radic, executive director of the Guston Foundation, commented on the mural, its restoration, and its relevant message: “Sometimes, the stars align. And, you know, 90 years later, it’s basically the same situation. But that depends upon your political viewpoint.”

The restored mural was unveiled on January 31st.

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