Siqueiros came to Los Angeles as a political refugee in 1932. He stayed for six months before being unceremoniously deported after his visa ran out. His arrival in the U.S. came during the great depression when factories closed and thousands were thrown out of work. While in L.A. he painted three important murals. The first, Mitin Obreo ("Worker's Meeting") was created at the prestigious Chouinard School of Art. Siqueiros had been invited by the school to teach a class in mural painting, and what better way to educate his students than to directly involve them in the creation of a mural. The 20 by 30 foot painting was on an outside wall of the school.

Mitin Obrero depicted a militant union organizer and the multi-cultural crowd of workers who had put down their tools to listen to his oration. The authorities almost immediately covered the painting with a tarp to prevent public viewing and within a year it was completely destroyed.

The mural represented a great advancement in art making in the U.S., it was one of the first outdoor murals to create a public space on the street. It was also the very first time in the U.S. that an artist had used a projector to transfer enlarged images to a surface, or to use a mechanized spray gun to apply paint. This was a technique developed by Siqueiros.

The background consisted of ruined Indian pyramids, a reference to the European sacking of indigenous grandeur. To the left and right of this scene, armed peasants were coming out of the jungle to wage a war of liberation.

Once again Siqueiros used a projector to transfer his images to the wall, and a spray gun to paint the mural. Needless to say, conservatives were outraged over the artwork and authorities had it immediately whitewashed. It sat abandoned for decades until the J. Paul Getty Museum decided to restore it.

The artist's third mural in Los Angeles, Portrait of Mexico Today: 1932, had better luck. Film director Dudley Murphy was a great supporter of Siqueiros, and to show his appreciation the artist painted a mural at the director's Pacific Palisades home. Luckily for us all, the 170 square foot work was donated to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 2001.

Situated in a semi-enclosed garden structure, the mural depicts two impoverished peasant women with a partially clothed child standing between them. The trio are placed on the steps of an ancient Indian pyramid surrounded by jungle. To the extreme left of this scene are the bodies of two slain workers, blood trickling from their mouths.

Overlooking the slaughter is a portrait of the American capitalist, J.P. Morgan. Close by and under the gaze of the approving Morgan, sits the Mexican President, Plutarco Elías Calles. Shown as an armed bandit with stolen money bags at his feet, Calles is portrayed as an errand boy to the foreign masters of El Norte. At the opposite end of the mural crouches a communist soldier bearing a rifle, representing the forces that would forever end the oppression of the workers; the soldier bears a striking resemblance to Siqueiros.

For extensive articles on Siqueiros, visit: www.art-for-a-change.com
Santa Barbara Museum of Art : www.sbmuseart.org