Customer Reviews

Idols Behind Altars: Modern Mexican Art and Its Cultural Roots (Dover Fine Art, History of Art)

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This book is of course dated, but it's well wort the read anyways. The Mexican muralists were so deeply tied to Mexico's revolutionary culture that having a contemporary account of their place in society such as this provides a unique source for understanding the relationship between art and society in that period. Later accounts may be more objective, but it's precisely Ms. Brenner's being caught up in the times that makes the book so interesting. She knew all these people and she was in a unique position to describe the movement to the english speaking world.
The book is very well written. Brenner is a very polished writer. Her prose is very well crafted.
The downside to the book is that it is written before many of the most important works of artists she writes about were executed. Also her emphases at time to seem slightly askew. For example her chapter on Goitia seems rather odd given the way in which he has become such a minor figure over the intervening years.