01.03.11: Siqueiros in Los Angeles: Censorship Defied

David Alfaro Siquieros is known as one of “Los Tres Grandes” the three major Mexican muralists who depicted and helped define national and international images of post-revolutionary Mexico. In 1932, after having served prison time for his political views, Siquieros came to Los Angeles to work. The artist had mastered an outdoor mural technique with a workers’ rights painting at the Choinard Art School. That piece, called “Street Meeting” was painted over, white washed for its socialist content. Shortly thereafter, Siquieros was commissioned by patron of the arts F.K Firenz and wealthy city booster Christine Sterling to paint a mural on a beer garden wall above the Italian Hall at Olvera Street. That mural -titled America Tropical- figures prominently in Los Angeles art history, in no small part because it was whitewashed shortly after it was completed. America Tropical sits at the center of an exhibition currently on display at the Autry Musuem called Siquieros in Los Angeles: Censorship Defied. Hear in the City host, Sara Harris took a tour with the curators of the show, Lynn Labate and Luis C. Garza to talk about the circumstances around the creating and subsequent covering up of that mural. (c) Hear In The City. 2011 . www.hearinthecity.org Airs Mondays on KPFK 90.7FM in Los Angeles at 2:00pm or www.kpfk.org