David Alfaro Siqueiros (December 29, 1896 in Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico - January 6, 1974 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico) was a painter and muralist known for his social realism work.
His notable projects include his collaborative mural at the Mexican Electricians' Union (1939-40), From Porfiriato to the Revolution at the Museum of National History (1957-55), March of Humanity and the Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros on Avenida Insurgentes (1965-71), and his role in procuring mural commissions for artists on the University City campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1950s Mexico City.
Siqueiros was one of several well-known Mexican muralists working at the time, including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo. His art directly reflected the time period in which he flourished as an artist. His art was deeply rooted in the Mexican Revolution, a violent and chaotic period in Mexican history in which various social and political factions fought for recognition and power. The period from the 1920s to the 1950s is known as the Mexican Renaissance, and Siqueiros was active in the attempt to create an art that was at once Mexican and universal.
Political activism was an important piece of Siqueiros' life, and frequently inspired him to set aside his artistic career. In 1911, when he was only fifteen years old, Siqueiros attended the Academy of San Carlos and was involved in a student strike that protested the academy's method of teaching and urged the impeachment of the school's director. One year later, when he was just sixteen years old, he conspired against Victoriano Huerta's dictatorship. At the age of eighteen, he participated in the Constitutionalist Army fighting against the forces of General Victoriano Huerta. He briefly gave up painting to focus on organizing miners in Jalisco. He ran a political art workshop in New York City in preparation for the 1936 General Strike for Peace and May Day parade. The young Jackson Pollock attended the workshop and helped build floats for the parade. Between 1937 and 1938 he fought in the Spanish Civil War alongside the Spanish Republican forces, in opposition to Francisco Franco's military coup. He was exiled twice from Mexico , once in 1932 and again in 1940, following his assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky.
From 1919 to 1922 he traveled to Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain to study art. Throughout his career he traveled internationally, promoting his version of muralism in the United States, South America (including Uruguay, Argentina and Chile), Cuba, Europe, and the Soviet Union.
Siqueiros was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize for the year of 1966. His nephew is filmmaker David Siqueiros.
