In Etnografía (Ethnography), a figure bursts forward from a stormy background, clothed in a white tunic characteristic of the Totonac people of Papantla, Veracruz. The mask that covers the figure’s face is modeled after an ancient Olmec carved wooden mask found in a cave in Iguala, Guerrero. Painted when Siqueiros was caught up in a public feud with fellow artist Diego Rivera, Etnografía was intended to criticize the tendency of some Mexican artists and intellectuals to idealize Mexico’s precolonial past while neglecting the struggles of living Indigenous populations.
Gallery label from 2022