MURALS
Above we have the a Mural on Argyle Street in Chicago Illinois. Toni Anita Gray did her version of Myles Davis and a woman representing the Asian cultural participation in that neighborhood.
____________________________________________________________________
WHAT IS A MURAL?Painting applied to and made integral with the surface of a wall or ceiling. Its roots can be found in the universal desire that led prehistoric peoples to create cave paintings—the desire to decorate their surroundings and express their ideas and beliefs. The Romans produced large numbers of murals in Pompeii and Ostia, but mural painting (not synonymous with fresco) reached its highest degree of creative achievement in Europe with the work of such Renaissance masters as Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. In the 20th century, the mural was embraced by artists of the Cubist and Fauve movements in Paris, revolutionary painters in Mexico (e.g., Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros), and Depression-era artists under the sponsorship of the U.S. government (e.g., Ben Shahn, Thomas Hart Benton).
A mural is a painting done directly on the wall. It comes from the Latin word murus, which means wall. Murals often show the concerns, hopes, values and memories of the community where the murals are painted.
MURALS TODAY CAN BE REMOVABLE
Professional murals by Demolli Fine Art Studio are more than interior decoration flourishes. Don't commission a mural just to add value and decor to a house. Commission a mural as an investment like any other investment.
Murals are not like other paintings. They have a different purpose, a different kind of effect on the lives of those who see them. They are public art in the best sense, because they are actually created in public, with the community looking on. Good public art says something about the community. It says, this is who we are or, this is what we think, this is where we came from, this is what we want. And it says these things in a way that everybody can understand and enjoy.
Skilled artists who want to poke fun at someone or something have a number of weapons at their disposal. An artist might come up with a caricature, which is adrawing or written piece that exaggerates its subject's distinguishing features or peculiarities (: the cartoonist's caricature of the presidential candidate). A parody is similar to a caricature in purpose, but is used of written work or performances that ridicule an author or performer's work by imitating its language and style for comic effect (: a parody of the scene between Romeo and Juliet). While a parody concentrates on distorting the content of the original work, a travesty retains the subject matter but imitates the style in a grotesque or absurd way (: their version of the Greek tragedy was a travesty). A lampoon is a strongly satirical piece of writing that attacks or ridicules a person or an institution; it is more commonly used as a verb (: to lampoon the government in a local newspaper).While a caricature, a parody, and a travesty must have a specific original to imitate, a burlesque can be an independent creation or composition; it is a broad comic or satiric imitation, often a theatrical one, that treats a serious subject lightly or a trivial subject with mock seriousness (: the play was a burlesque of ancient Rome). Mimicry is something you don't have to be an artist, a writer, or an actor to be good at. Anyone who successfully imitates another person's speech or gestures is a good mimic or impressionist, whether the intent is playful or mocking (: he showed an early talent for mimicry, entertaining hisparents with imitations of their friends).
Toni Gray
Caricature (a picture, a caricature of the famous brothers: cartoon, parody, satire,lampoon, burlesque; informal sendup, takeoff., description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect. The art or style of such exaggerated representation is Gray's comic rendition of Jazz Musician and Trumpet play, Miles Davis.
Caricature of Trumpet Player Miles Davis and a Asian woman who is one of his biggest fans, 2004
7' 9 3/4" x 6' 2" (238.1 x 188 cm).
The Argayle Street Building located on the North side of Chicago, Illinois at __________________.
Diego Rivera was the subject of MoMA’s second monographic exhibition (the first was Henri Matisse), which set new attendance records in its five-week run from December 22, 1931, to January 27, 1932. MoMA brought Rivera to New York six weeks before the exhibition’s opening and gave him studio space within the Museum, a strategy intended to solve the problem of how to present the work of this famous muralist when murals were by definition made and fixed on site. Working around the clock with two assistants, Rivera 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, now taking on New York subjects through monumental images of the urban working class and the social stratification of the city during the Great Depression. All eight were on display for the rest of the show’s run. The first of these panels, Agrarian Leader Zapata, is an icon in the Museum’s collection.
This exhibition will bring together key works made for Rivera’s 1931 exhibition, presenting them at MoMA for the first time in nearly 80 years. Along with mural panels, the show will include full-scale drawings, smaller working drawings, archival materials related to the commission and production of these works, and designs for Rivera’s famous Rockefeller Center mural, which he also produced while he was working at the Museum. Focused specifically on works created during the artist’s stay in New York, this exhibition will draw a succinct portrait of Rivera as a highly cosmopolitan figure who moved between Russia, Mexico, and the United States, and will offer a fresh look at the intersection of art making and radical politics in the 1930s. MoMA will be the exhibition’s sole venue.
Organized by Leah Dickerman, Curator, Painting and Sculpture.
The exhibition is made possible in part by BBVA Bancomer, with major support provided by the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA).
The Museum acknowledges generous funding from David Rockefeller, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, and The Mexican Friends of Rivera: Dr. Abraham Franklin and Gina Diez Barroso de Franklin, Roberto and Aimée Servitje, Yvonne Dadoo de Lewis and Martin Lewis, Marie Thérèse Hermand de Arango, Juan Beckmann Vidal and Doris Legorreta de Beckmann, Timothy Heyman and Malú Montes de Oca de Heyman, and Enrique Norten.
Special thanks to our hotel sponsor, Hôtel Americano, Chelsea, New York.
Additional support is provided by the Consulate General of Mexico in New York and by the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York.
Support for the publication is provided by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art and by The Museum of Modern Art's Research and Scholarly Publications endowment established through the generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Edward John Noble Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Perry R. Bass, and the National Endowment for the Humanities' Challenge Grant Program.