American Scenes/Americas Seen features works spanning the 1930s and 1940s by celebrated muralists and abstract artists including Diego Rivera, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Carlos Mérida, Alice Trumbull Mason, Doris Rosenthal, and others.

During the ’30s and ’40s, many artists reacted against the abstract styles favored by the first generation of American moderns, dismissing non-objective art as “un-American.” Favoring representational modes, artists on both sides of the border pursued variations on several period styles variously called the American Scene, Regionalism, and Social Realism in the United States.

In Mexico, the Mural Movement shaped by the utopian fervor of the Revolution was initially a state-sponsored project to bring public art to the masses, translating nationalist ideologies into visual form. Some celebrated muralists like Diego Rivera also created easel paintings of idealized peasants marketed to foreign tourists, and heroic paintings of indigenous peoples by Alfredo Ramos Martinez were in great demand during his sojourn in California in the late ’30s.

Exhibition Date: September 15, 2018 – December 31, 2021.

Location: American Art galleries

Admission:

Museum Members | Free

Military Access Program | Free

Adults | $23.00

Seniors | $20.00

Students | $18.00

Youth (6 – 17) | $5.00

Children (5 and younger) | Free

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