The Art of Mexico Trivia Quiz

Answer: Colossal heads

There have been many proposed explanations for these large sculptures. The most widely-accepted theory is that they represent the rulers of the Olmec civilization, since there was so much effort and cost involved in their creation. Each individual head was made from one large boulder made of basalt, and some of them had to be transported over 100 km to reach their current location.

The heads are located around San Lorenzo and La Venta, which were important Olmec centers. The Olmec civilization, located on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, lasted from around 1600BCE to 350BCE.

The stone heads are thought to date back to at least 900BCE.

Answer: Market activities

The marketplace scene depicted in the mural at Calakmul has been valuable in helping researchers to understand the day to day life of the Mayan civilization. Murals discovered at other important Mayan sites prior to this discovery had provided insights into warfare, royal rituals, and religious activities. Additionally, there is an unusually large amount of women present in the Calakmul mural compared to typical Mayan images, with about one-third of the people found in the second phase of the murals being women.

Answer: Feathers

To create their works of art, the "amantecas", or feather artists, would use the feathers of many different birds, including hummingbirds, red macaws, parrots, quetzal birds, and cotingas. After the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish, the Aztec feather artists were encouraged to create images of Christian figures.

These works were sent back to Europe, where they were spread across the globe in the 16th and 17th centuries, inspiring artists around the world. One of the beauties of the feather work is that the iridescence of the feathers made the image change colors and look different, based on the light and the angle from which it was viewed.

Answer: Baroque

Some of Villalpando's most famous early works are the paintings he made for the Puebla Cathedral, including a large piece called "The Transfiguration", and the painting on the inside of the dome in the apse chapel, the "Assumption of the Virgin". One of his works, "View of the Zócalo of Mexico City" is considered important for its depiction of both the architecture of the city and the activities of the people in the plaza.

His later works embrace the contrast of light and dark common to Baroque style in a much more dramatic fashion than his early work.

Answer: Casta paintings

Most existing casta paintings are unsigned, but a few can be attributed to prolific artists, such as Miguel Cabrera and José de Ibarra. Motives for their creation are not entirely known, but some sources have theorized they were souvenirs for Spanish visitors to New Spain (Mexico's name during the colonial period). Generally, the casta paintings consisted of either a collection of sixteen paintings or one painting divided into sixteen sections. Each of these sections or paintings contained a family representing the different racial mixtures present in colonial society.

Answer: José Clemente Orozco

The mural is located in the reading room on the lower level of the library, and was painted between 1932 and 1934. It is split into two different themes, "The Coming and Departure of Quetzalcoatl" in the west wing, and "Cortez and the Modern Era" in the east wing. Each theme consists of multiple panels, each telling a part of the history of the interaction between the natives and the Europeans. In 2013, the mural gained status as a National Historic Landmark.

José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and came from a poor family. His humble beginnings and hardships early in life shaped his work as an artist. One common theme in his work is human suffering, and he was very critical of the nationalist sentiment present in Mexican society.

Answer: Vladimir Lenin

Rivera's mural depicted different facets of contemporary social and scientific culture. This consisted of contrasting images of capitalism and communism, and the right hand side of the painting included a Soviet Russian May Day parade and a portrait of Lenin holding hands with multi-racial workers.

This was seen as anti-capitalist propaganda. Rivera refused to remove the portrait and the Rockefellers refused to allow work to continue with it included. Work was stopped and the mural was eventually destroyed. Fortunately, all was not lost. Rivera had kept drafts and photos of his work, and he later created a near identical reproduction at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

The new mural was entitled "Man, Controller of the Universe" and, in addition to Lenin, included portraits of Trotsky, Marx, and Engels.

It also contained a portrait of John Rockefeller Jr, Nelson Rockefeller's father and a lifelong teetotaller, drinking in a nightclub with a woman.

Answer: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo de Rivera (1907-1954) was a 20th century Mexican artist who painted many portraits and self-portraits, as well as works inspired by the natural environment of Mexico and indigenous cultures. She was married to the artist Diego Rivera, and during her lifetime was more famous for being his wife than for her own work.

In the late 1970s, her work was rediscovered and adopted by minority groups such as feminists, the LGBTQ community, and civil rights activists. Since then her popularity has grown and she is now considered one of the most significant artists of the 20th century.

Her appeal lay in the way she wasn't afraid to be herself, defying society's expectations in both her appearance and her behaviour.

Answer: Duality

Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo (1899-1991) was a 20th century Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage. He often combined Mexican folk themes with a European abstract style of painting. The mural "Dualidad" (Duality), housed in the National Anthropology and History Museum, Mexico City, is one of several of his works depicting stark contrasts.

The feathered snake in the mural represents the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, while the jaguar represents another god, Tezcatlipoca. The snake is on a red background with a yellow sun, and the jaguar on deep blue with a constellation and the moon.

The colors merge together in the center of the mural where the fangs, jaws, and claws of the two creatures meet. The picture represents the drama of Mexico's indigenous past, as well as the tension of modern culture. Though its main theme seems to be one of conflict, it also conveys a sense of harmony and balance. "El día y la noche" (Day and Night) and "Luna y sol" (Moon and Sun) are the titles of two of his other paintings.

Answer: Day of the Dead

José Guadalupe Posada used skeletons in his work, but he did not intend them to be linked to the Day of the Dead. Many of his works were published by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo's press, which published cheap literature, making it accessible to the lower classes. It was in these productions that Posada was able to express his criticism of the dictatorship and the bourgeoisie. Posada was not famous during his lifetime, and it wasn't until the 1920s that the French artist, Jean Charlot, discovered his work and brought him to national and international fame.

The Day of the Dead is a Mexican celebration that has origins in Mexico's indigenous cultures. People build altars dedicated to their dead loved ones, and the belief is that the spirits of the dead return to visit the living. During this time, the artistic representations of skulls and skeletons abound, making Posada's work a seemingly natural fit for the celebration.