Occult Movements and Mexican Mural Art

This project investigates the influence of Theosophy and other esoteric currents on Mexican muralism, the state-sponsored artistic movement that emerged after the Revolution of 1910 to shape the cultural identity of modern Mexico. It examines how leading muralists engaged with these traditions to imagine Ancient Mexico as central to the construction of modern national identity and art.

Recent scholarship on esotericism and modern art has increasingly led to a reassessment of women artists, who were long marginalized in canonical accounts of twentieth-century art. Particular attention is given to the contributions of less recognized Mexican women artists such as María Izquierdo (1902–1955), Cordelia Urueta (1908–1995), and Sofía Bassi (1913–1998), whose work drew on esoteric ideas to articulate alternative readings of national history, marked by critical reflections on gender and by explorations of personal and spiritual experience.

In its second year, the project expands beyond Mexico to study visual art produced in the United States, as well as the work of European surrealists who sought refuge in Mexico during the 1930s and 1940s. This transnational perspective places Mexican visual art within international debates on the relationship between art and spirituality, showing how these encounters reshaped modern artistic practices across the Americas.

The research combines archival materials from artists’ collections with visual analysis of murals and public buildings in Mexico. It also builds on work carried out at the Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (University of Amsterdam), the Warburg Institute (London), and the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice).

Project point person: Mariano Villalba