David Alfaro Siqueiros (December 29, 1896 - January 6, 1974) was a Mexican painter and muralist. He was known for his social realism work, particularly his many murals depicting Mexican history. He was also a political activist.

His largest and best-known work is the eleven-story mural adorning the library building on the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City.

Siquerios was one of several well-known Mexican muralists working at the same time, including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo. His art directly reflected the time period in which he flourished as an artist. His art was deeply rooted in the Mexican Revolution, a period in Mexican history in which much violence, confusion, and chaos took place. The period from the 1920s to the 1950s is known as the Mexican Renaissance, and Siqueiros was active in the attempt to create a truly Mexican art.

Political activism was an important piece of Siqueiros' life. In 1911, when he was only fifteen years old, Siqueiros attended the Academy of San Carlos and was involved in a student strike that protested the academy's method of teaching and urged the impeachment of the school's director. One year later, when he was just sixteen years old, he conspired against Victoriano Huerta's dictatorship. At the age of eighteen, he participated in the Constitutionalist Army fighting against the forces of General Victoriano Huerta. He was exiled twice from Mexico because of his political activism, once in 1932 and again in 1940.

From 1919 to 1933 he traveled to Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain to study art. Siquieros also painted several murals in the United States.

External link

• Siqueiros on Artcyclopedia.com