Siqueiros mural comes back to life on Olvera Street

Olvera Street (where our tour started) all decked out for El Dia de los Muertos.

David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974) was a Mexican artist known for his large murals portraying social conditions and was a contemporary of Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. In 1932 he completed América Tropical on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles.

The mural enjoyed a glitzy opening night with all the luminaries of LA and Hollywood in attendance. But its welcome was short-lived. Because the theme of the piece seemed to attack the United States as an imperialistic monster—well, Siqueiros was a card carrying member of the Communist Party—it was obliterated with whitewash soon after.

On the 80th birthday of the mural—October 9, 2012—it was once again unveiled to the public thanks mostly to the Getty Conservation Institute.

A few days later I was at Olvera Street with a tour group so I popped into the América Tropical Interpretive Center in the historic Sepulveda House. It is a nice museum with interactive stations and a full-scale photo of the mural. But I didn’t have the time to go upstairs to see the real thing.

But you know I wouldn’t let something like that slide, so on October 27 a friend and I joined the tour of East LA murals, Continuing the Siqueiros Legacy: A Mural Tour of Eastside L.A. led by Los Angeles artist Raoul de la Sota.

Siqueiros America Tropical mural from the viewing station.
Click on the image for a larger view.

We started out at the Interpretive Center with a viewing of the mural. There is a viewing station on the roof of the Sepulveda House directly opposite so you get a full-on look at the restored painting. It isn’t repainted, just cleaned up, conserved and protected. No-one is sure what the original colors were anyway.

Nice view of the Terminal Annex building nearby

Only twenty people are allowed on the roof per session so we had plenty of time to peruse the museum downstairs. Then we all piled on the bus. More about the actual tour in my next posting.

(Photos copyright Roslyn m wilkins).