La Nueva Democracia, 1945

El Diablo En La Iglesia, 1947

Echo of a Scream, 1937pyroloxin on board, 121.9 x 91.4 cm

David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974), born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and is joined by Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera as the 20th Century's most influential muralists. They revolutionized mural content and style by portraying Mexico's rich history and contemporary economic conditions in visually bold political terms. Inspired philosophically, influenced by Marxism in his treatment of class struggle, Siqueiros believed that public murals were a powerful medium to make his work accessible to a broad audience traditionally ignored by elitist art institutions. After becoming Secretary of the Mexican Communist Party in 1928 he was frequently jailed or expelled from Mexico and nearly gave up painting. It was during Echo of a Scream, 1937pyroloxin on board, 121.9 x 91.4 cmone of these expulsions that he came to Los Angeles. His most productive artistic period began in 1944, when he returned to Mexico after an exile due to allegations of his role in Leon Trotsky's assassination. This fertile period culminated in 1966 with his dramatic murals at Chalpultapec Castle depicting the overthrow of the Porfirio Diaz regime