ae

5 PREVENT anyone mistaking
him for an American tourist,

artist Avrom. Yanovsky of
Toronto wore a maple leaf badge
when he visited Mexico recently.

“This led to unexpected inci-
dents,” Avrom told the Tribune.
“On several occasions Mexicans,
_ On being introduced, shook my
_hand fervéntly and at length, ex-
pressing warm feeling toward our
country because, as they put it,
‘you, too, recognize Cuba.’

“My _mission wasn’t a political
One, in any direct sense of the
word. I wanted to meet Mexican
artists, study their murals, learn
something about the role of govern-
ment in encouraging art and be-
come acquainted with the new
movement among artists them-
Selves.

“But just as art cannot be div-
orced from reality, so it cannot
be separated from politics — and
particularly in a country’ like
Mexico, where a great revolution
was left unfinished.”

. Avrom arrived in Mexico City
the day after David Alfaro Siquei-
ros, the great revolutionary mural
painter—was released from prison.
He heard Siqueiros lecture and
saw the love and respect with
which younger artists regard him
—even though many of these
young painters consider the style

MEXICO =

of the old masters (Siqueiros,
Rivera, Orozco) to be passe.

Ex-Vancouverite Arnold Belkin
is a leader in this youth move-
ment, which Avrom feels is a
humanist movement, an answer—
or at least partly the answer—to
non-objective painting. On the
negative side, the young painters
are introspective, lack a class
viewpoint.

The old tourist cliche, “land of
contrasts,” applies to Mexico, said
Avrom. The country of great
murals is also flooded with Ameri-
can comic books. At the entrance
to the Palace of Fine Arts the
guard was reading a comic book.
At the same time busloads of
school children visit museums and
art centres, where murals. depict-
ing Mexico’s independence and re-
volutionary struggles are carefully
explained to them by teachers. The
children, Avrom noted, take copi-
ous notes.

The 1910 revolution was never
completed. Its positive results are
seen on all sides—the fine build-
ings, parks and playgrounds. And
its negative aspects are also evi-
dent — Indians living in slums,
women and child beggars. Govern-
ment speeches continue to publi-
cize the aims of the revolution
—aims which they do not carry
out,

This young balloon seller rests and refreshes himself with an
ice-cream cone in one of Mexico City's numerous parks. The parks
are artistically designed, many with” beautiful water fountains, and
all with special, decorative playgreund facilities for children.

delegation from his #
City to see the presided
the government, takeé f nth
Riviera’s celebrated 9!4

This man was studying
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November 13, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page ©