Murals: Fine, Popular, or Folk Art

anthropologists, art historians, and others. This view neglects the historical antecedents of the murals in the Mexican art tradition. However, this expressive form needs to be explained from various perspectives since social, political, and economic factors have dictated the direction taken by this movement. By a movement I mean action by a person or group of people working concertedly toward a particular goal. This action stems from dissatisfaction with popular norms or beliefs that have been universalized and that exclude a particular segment of the population.

The Mexican mural movement of Los Angeles started not solely to beautify a neglected area of the city, but to serve as a voice and a political statement for the Chicanos. The founding artists of the mural movement were immigrants or first- and second-generation U.S. citizens. Each of these groups possessed a different artistic background and training that ranged from the university trained to the self-taught artist. Of paramount importance is the fact that this particular artistic movement is distinguished from other art movements. It originated from a tradition-bound network of affective relationships between individuals or between an individual and a group, as compared to the intellectual relationships of one painting to another—whether the latter relationship be one of political or aesthetic importance.

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