David Alfaro Siqueiros painted only three murals in the United States, one in a private home and two in public spaces in Los Angeles. The public murals were highly political--protesting American imperialism and labor practices and featuring strong socialist statements. They created storms of protest among city officials and the first was destroyed while the second, entitled America Tropical, was painted over. In the 1970s it was found that the second mural was, though damaged and faded, largely intact under layers of paint and by the 1980s various groups had become involved in restoration efforts. The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) assumed the work of restoring the mural and some of the burden of funding the project. The project has involved technicians from several institutions and has provided the opportunity for innovative approaches to restoration. This work has continued into the 1990s and, despite the passage of so much time and vast changes in social conditions, the restoration efforts have managed to stir up some degree of protest based on the content of the mural itself.
Siqueiros was a lifelong revolutionary. He entered the San Carlos Academy of Art in Mexico City in 1911, the year after the revolution had deposed the corrupt regime of Porfirio Diaz. His teachers there were imbued with the spirit of the Revolution and the quest for human rights and Siqueiros' subject matter--the struggles of the peoples of Latin America--was determined for life. After serving in the Constitutional Army of Venustiano Carranza in the battle to secure the Mexican Constitution Siqueiros was rewarded with a diplomatic post in Europe. In 1919 he met Diego Rivera in Paris and the two young men traveled in Italy studying the great muralists of the Renaissance. Siqueiros returned to Mexico in 1922 and joined Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and others in painting murals with political subjects that eventually offended government sponso...