In 1932, Mexican artist and activist, David Alfaro Siqueiros, came to Los Angeles from Mexico where he had been exiled for his radical political activities. Chouinard Art Institute quickly hired him to teach mural painting. The first of three murals he created while in Los Angeles was “Street Meeting,” painted on an exterior wall of the school’s inner courtyard. By 1934, it had been painted over for reasons that remain unclear. The other two murals are “América Tropical” at Olvera Street and “Mexico Today” for a private home in the Pacific Palisades.

This July, Art Division will mount a small exhibition featuring a replica of “Street Meeting” created by our students. In our display, we will explore aspects of the mural’s history, including what its subject matter and technique have to say about Siqueiros’s artist’s artistic practice.

The facsimile of the mural was guided by Luis Mateo, Art Division graduate, and students from his mural painting workshop. Luis Serrano, Art Division’s Director of Painting and Drawing, assisted Mateo. Although only black-and-white photos exist of “Street Meeting,” conservators were able to uncover a few portions of the mural. These glimpses at Siqueiros’s palette allowed Luis Mateo and his students to approximate this important work’s original appearance for the first time with regards to scale, three-dimensionality, and color.