Quite frankly, I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed my trip to the museum.  On a sweltering afternoon, who would have thought that an unaccompanied tour of the museum by yourself could be entertaining?  Although I went to the museum as an assignment- as a mandatory task, I returned with a newfound interest in art and other people’s work in general, as the artists’ making graffiti art or photography art also had eye-catching and compelling pieces.  Unfortunately, at the museum my attention was drawn to the European works of the great Monet (attached), Picasso, Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh and Rousseau.

The one non-European and non-American work of art that boldly stood out was David Alfaro Siqueiros’s 1936 painting “Collective Suicide.”  Similar to Edvard Munch’s “Scream,” much of the colors are distorted and heavily concentrated in areas.  The top half of the painting seems to be an ominous, dark, mountainous terrain, with fire, sunset or the sunrise in the horizon above the mountains.  My attention was immediately drawn to the enormity of the mural-like painting, as there was many contrast in colors, at times making it hard to focus on a specific section.  Reading from the attached sign, I concluded that Siqueiro’s political activism influenced the actions depicted, as the native people are committing suicide via different means or purging themselves in order to resist being conquered.  Siqueiro advances the notion of facing death and dying rather than having your freedom seized.  To be fair, I had to read the other sign that described it as an apocalyptic scene where the Mexicans are depicted killing their children and others, as I had only noticed the people jumping off the cliff.  This strengthens my hypothesis of Siqueiro’s influence, as to kill your children and then yourself is a very literal interpretation of “Give me liberty, or give me death!”