Obra destruida

July 3, 2025 Modernism Diego Rivera Jorge González Camarena Mexico

A surviving photograph of Díptico de la vida

Mexican muralism is a defining art movement of the country, but it has a severe disadvantage: In a country prone to earthquakes, the buildings hosting the walls, which in turn host the murals can crumble and the artworks themselves can be lost. Unlike a canvas, they also can’t be moved—so when the winds of time change, the only way to move a mural out of sight is to destroy it.

This famously happened to Diego Rivera’s Man at the Crossroads, which was supposed to be installed at the Rockefeller Center in New York but plastered over when Rockefeller himself considered it “anti-capitalist propaganda”.

Mexico City’s Palacio de la Bellas Artes not only shows a replica of Rivera’s mural, it also has an exhibit about the much less known Mexican artist Jorge González Camarena.

Camarena’s Díptico de la vida

The exhibit shows sketches for a mural called Díptico de la vida that González Camarena painted in 1941 on the walls of the Guardiola building, an annex to the Bank of Mexico. The sketches are magnificent, the artwork both powerful and deeply weird, showing a naked woman and a naked man, each lying on their backs. It’s all utterly modern, very progressive and definitely a little horny.

Later considered obscene, the mural was first damaged by an earthquake in 1957 and then removed because it was considered immoral. The accompanying explainer to the photos of the work state plainly “obra destruida” — “work destroyed”. A mural truly has nowhere to run.