Art, folklore, and industry: popular arts and indigenismo in Mexico, 1920–1946

ABSTRACT The construction of popular arts in Mexico is a process that is generally attributed to the proposals of the plastic artists of the post-revolutionary period. Here, I explore some of these (Exposición Nacional de Artes Populares, 1921; y Museo de Artes Populares, 1930–1942), along with others not yet analyzed by historiography, mainly developed by anthropologists (at the Museo Nacional, 1920–1924; in the Misión Universitaria del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas de la Universidad Nacional, 1936–1937; and in the Departamento de Asuntos Indígenas, 1936–1946). The goal is to show their affinities (a purist and primitivist notion) but, above all, to highlight their differences regarding the aesthetic (art), cultural (folklore), and identity (Mexican, indigenous, national) valuation of the objects (industry/crafts), as well as the need for its conservation vs. transformation. I argue that, far from being a linear and homogeneous history derived exclusively from post-revolutionary plastic arts, it is a heterogeneous process that was not consolidated into a single centralized and institutionalized project until the middle of the century, within the framework of the modernization of the Mexican State and the inter-American indigenism.