When he was asked to discuss the way he looks at landscapes Siqueiros said:
“I do not believe that man in the age of the airplane can have, with respect to landscape, the same lyricism, the same romanticism, as the men of the ages when space had not been mastered. This need for the cosmic landscape is part of his new nature”
Siqueiros in an interview with Raquel Tibol, 1956
When Siqueiros was born in 1896, people had already been photographing the earth from above for almost forty years. Nadar, a French caricaturist and photographer, took the first aerial photographs of France in 1858. In 1935, the United States sent a balloon up into the stratosphere, capturing the curvature of the earth for the first time!
It is very likely that Siqueiros, always fascinated by innovation, saw those photographs. In 1971 he painted La tierra vista desde la estratosfera (Earth seen from the Stratosphere)
La tierra vista desde la estratosfera / Earth seen from the Stratosphere
Acrylic on masonite / Acrilico sobre masonite
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, Sala de Arte Público, Mexico
Fotografía: Agustín Estrada
Activity: Compare/Contrast the two images
Above you will see a painting by David Alfaro Siqueiros next to an actual photograph of the earth taken from its stratosphere.
How are they the same?
How are they different?
Which do you prefer? Why?
The photograph of the earth from above shows a mostly serene planet, and the viewer is not really able to see how human beings are affecting the land, sea and sky down below. Look at Siqueiros’ painting of the earth, however, and notice that it is not as “peaceful” as the original photograph. How does Siqueiros use poly angular perspective to make the image more dynamic or show action?
Nothing is flat or static about Siqueiros’ landscapes. They are always moving and changing, like the world around him.
SIQUEIROS AND THE WORLD AROUND HIM
SIQUEIROS AND INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS
SIQUEIROS AND COSMIC LANDSCAPE
SIQUEIROS AND HIS USE OF ALLEGORY
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE MAZE BOOK