In 1931, Diego Rivera was the subject of The Museum of Modern Art's second monographic exhibition, which set attendance records in its five-week run. The Museum brought Rivera to New York six weeks before the opening and provided him a studio space in the building. There he produced five portable murals large blocks of frescoed plaster, slaked lime and wood that feature bold images drawn from Mexican subject matter and address themes of revolution and class inequity. After the opening, to great publicity, Rivera added three more murals, taking on New York subjects through monumental images of the urban working class. Published in conjunction with an exhibition that brings together key works from Rivera's 1931 show and related material, this vividly illustrated catalogue casts the artist as a highly cosmopolitan figure who moved between Russia, Mexico and the United States and examines the intersection of art-making and radical politics in the 1930s.

An in-depth look at the transformative influence of Mexican artists on their U.S. counterparts during a period of social change The first half of the 20th century saw prolific cultural exchange between the United States and Mexico, as artists and intellectuals traversed the countries' shared border in both directions. For U.S. artists, Mexico's monumental public murals portraying social and political subject matter offered an alternative aesthetic at a time when artists were seeking to connect with a public deeply affected by the Great Depression. The Mexican influence grew as the artists Jose Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros traveled to the United States to exhibit, sell their work, and make large-scale murals, working side-by-side with local artists, who often served as their assistants, and teaching them the fresco technique. Vida Americana examines the impact of their work on more than 70 artists, including Marion Greenwood, Philip Guston, Isamu Noguchi, Jackson Pollock, and Charles White. It provides a new understanding of art history, one that acknowledges the wide-ranging and profound influence the Mexican muralists had on the style, subject matter, and ideology of art in the United States between 1925 and 1945. Published in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art Exhibition Schedule: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (February 17-May 17, 2020) McNay Art Museum, San Antonio (June 25-October 4, 2020)

Behind the fascinating public artist's practice of collaboration Judith F. Baca is best known for the Great Wall of Los Angeles (1976-83), a vibrant 2,740-foot mural in Los Angeles that presents an alternative history of California-one that focuses on the contributions of marginalized and underrepresented communities. The mural is emblematic of Baca's pioneering approach to creating public art, a process in which members of the community are essential contributors to the conception and realization of the work. Anna Indych-Lopez explores Baca's oeuvre, from early murals painted with local gang members in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles to more recently commissioned works. She looks in depth at the Great Wall and considers the artist's ongoing work with the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, California, a nonprofit group founded by Baca in 1976. Throughout, Indych-Lopez assesses what she calls Baca's "public art of contestation" and discusses how ideas of collaboration and authorship and issues of race, class, and gender have influenced and sustained Baca's art practice.

Behind the fascinating public artist's practice of collaboration Judith F. Baca is best known for the Great Wall of Los Angeles (1976-83), a vibrant 2,740-foot mural in Los Angeles that presents an alternative history of California-one that focuses on the contributions of marginalized and underrepresented communities. The mural is emblematic of Baca's pioneering approach to creating public art, a process in which members of the community are essential contributors to the conception and realization of the work. Anna Indych-Lopez explores Baca's oeuvre, from early murals painted with local gang members in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles to more recently commissioned works. She looks in depth at the Great Wall and considers the artist's ongoing work with the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, California, a nonprofit group founded by Baca in 1976. Throughout, Indych-Lopez assesses what she calls Baca's "public art of contestation" and discusses how ideas of collaboration and authorship and issues of race, class, and gender have influenced and sustained Baca's art practice.