The Mexican Muralists, and especially the art of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are the focus of our Mexico City Art History Tour: Looking for Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Arrive on November 13 and depart on November 17. 
This intensive study tour takes you into off-the-beaten path public art spaces and those that are more popular where Rivera, Orozco and Siquieros worked. 
Be prepared to walk, explore, discover, discuss and enjoy the Old World beauty of Mexico’s capital city. You will learn more in three days about Mexico, her culture and ethos, than you ever imagined, and how Rivera and Kahlo helped define a national identity after the 1910 Revolution. 
If you are intrigued by
- the mystery of Frida’s relationship with her mentor Diego Rivera, whom she married twice,
- social and political history of pre- and post-revolution Mexico,
- Mexican Muralist Movement as populist outcry and government tool,
- Aztec archeology,
- Colonial and Belle Epoque architecture,
- Mexico City as a food, culture, and art mecca,
This program is for you!
Our art historian has postponed her graduate studies in Europe for one year, so we are fortunate to be able to offer this program again.
If you have never traveled to Mexico City, this is a great introduction to the historic center and Casa Azul, the home Frida and Diego shared. Plus, we visit the Dolores Olmedo Museum that holds the largest collection of Diego’s and Frida’s work.
Mexico City is easy to fly to from anywhere in the United States and Canada. The city is safe, clean and hospitable. Our friendly hotel is located just two blocks from the Zocalo, the Palacio Nacional, the Catedral and the Templo Mayor archeological site of the Aztec power center. 
Questions? Contact Norma Hawthorne. 
Photography: Cartier-Bresson Exhibition in Mexico City
The Mexico City exhibition featuring 398 pieces by French photographer-filmmaker Henri Cartier-Bresson closes May 17, 2015 at Palacio Bellas Artes. Please don’t miss it. Considered the founder of photojournalism, this is the first major retrospective since his death in 2004.
An hour is not long enough to absorb the emotional intensity of Cartier-Bresson’s work. If you love political history, photojournalism, the decades leading up to World War II and the beginning of photography as an important artistic and cultural vehicle for storytelling, you will love this exhibition. I needed more than two hours to do it justice.
It represents Cartier-Bresson’s interest in painting, drawing, photography and filmmaking. It is an in-depth view of pre and post-World War Europe, of poverty and racism, of what happens on the street among the people. There are also amazing portraits of notables who he was commissioned to photograph.
Oaxaca Day of the Dead Photography Workshop, October 2015
Chiapas Festivals and Faces Photography Workshop, January 2016
For example, the exhibit features photographs taken during the coronation of King George II of England. But Cartier-Bresson concentrates on the expressions of people in the crowd and not the regal procession. Some are using raised mirrors to watch the parade, and to do so, they must turn their backs to the King.
Cartier-Bresson uses this as a metaphor for how the people must turn away from monarchy and embrace a republican government.
Program Notes: Impressions of Africa. “He took little interest in local customs or ritual feasts, as he did not want to get drawn into “Exoticism” or what he called “detestable local colour.” In a style very much influenced by the European New Vision (high angle shots, geometrical compositions, repeating motifs) he tended to photograph subjects like children playing in the street, dockers at work or the effort of rowers in a boat: in other words, the rhythm of African life.
Aligned with the intellectuals and artists of the time, he was a powerful voice in support of Communism, active in the Spanish Civil War and the French Resistance.
As a contemporary of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Cartier-Bresson came to Mexico to photograph, and many of the images shown capture the poor and disenfranchised, including children and prostitutes.
As I moved through the exhibition, I learned more about photography by seeing this work. Cartier-Bresson shunned fiestas and processions, the formalities of organized life. He concentrated on what was messy and spontaneous.
His technique was to find a backdrop with texture and interest that he liked and then wait for people to pass through the space.
As we walked from Palacio Bellas Artes to see the Diego Rivera mural Dream of a Sunday Afternoon on the Alameda, I stopped to take photos of young men practicing their skateboard moves a la Henri Cartier-Bresson — perhaps — and a man sitting on a steel post mid-sidewalk, waiting, surrounded by passersby who paid no attention.
The Decisive Moment, an essay by Cartier-Bresson, describes his philosophical approach to photography and is considered a foundation for all photographers.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Photography, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats
Tagged art history, Chiapas, class, course, cultural immersion, Film, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mexico, Oaxaca, photography, photojournalism, portrait, workshop