ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the formation of a Black Legend of Mexican Painting and the institutionalization of a modernist canon which sought to discredit the work of the Mexican muralists. Efforts to undermine the value of engaged realism were justified by a Eurocentric historiography that elevated the aesthetics of pure form and presented abstraction as the crowning achievement of modern art. Behind this narrative, however, were the cultural politics of the Cold War, and the reality of a world divided by the Iron Curtain. By examining the rise and fall of the Mexican muralist movement, in relation to the cultural politics of the Cold War, this study aims to reevaluate its legacy and highlight the transnational and decolonial outreach of this revolutionary avant-garde.
