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RODRIGO
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MEXICAN MURALISM • 47
PENALBA. NICARA-
GUAN FANTASY. 1946. OIL ON CAN-
VAS, 71.1 X 83.8 CM. COLLECTION
OF THE ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS,
OAS,
WASHINGTON,
D.C.,
U.S.A. GIFT OF IBM, 1969. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ART MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAS ARCHIVE.
These are "narrative murals" in the Mexican manner, but without Mexican fire. Such picture-stories of railroads, mining, agriculture, and communications media are to be found throughout Latin America. The Uruguayan artist with the keenest critical eye and the most highly developed social consciousness was Rafael Barradas (1890-1929). This can be clearly seen from the sketches and caricatures he did in Montevideo before making a definite departure for Europe in 1912. He took up residence in Spain, concentrating on his cycle known as The Magnificent. The strength of these works derives from the magnification of popular types and poetical effects achieved through distortion. Nostalgia for his native city inspired his Scenes of Life in Montevideo, in which his capacity for satire was once again demonstrated. From 1937 to 1941, when he returned to Venezuela, Hector Poleo (b. 1918) (p.35) constituted an exception in the ranks of his contemporaries. He came home to depict types found among the people in paintings suggestive of Mexican influence, though, as the critic Lira Espejo observes, that influence is more apparent than real. The dictatorship exercised off and on by Juan Vicente Gomez from 1908 to 1935 does not explain the lack of interest in social themes exhibited by the country's painters. A more plausible explanation is one of an economic nature. 1909 saw the beginning of the oil boom, and with the granting of large numbers of concessions to foreigners Venezuela found itself overrun by