Cet article étudie les liens entre deux événements longtemps analysés de manière séparée par l’historiographie : la Première Guerre mondiale et la Révolution mexicaine. Les deux processus entrèrent pourtant en interaction. Le Mexique révolutionnaire fut confronté au spectre de l’entrée en guerre en avril 1917, peu après la promulgation de sa nouvelle Constitution. À l’instar d’autres pays latino-américains, le pays fut le théâtre d’une véritable « guerre des esprits », opposant neutralistes, défenseurs de l’Entente ou des empires centraux. De la présidence de la République au mouvement étudiant, en passant par le Congrès constituant, la presse et les intellectuels, cet article analyse les positions contradictoires des élites révolutionnaires face à la Grande Guerre.

The links between surrealism and Mexican artists have been widely explored in the literature, particularly in the context of the visits of leading French surrealists like André Breton and Antonin Artaud to Mexico in the 1930s. Despite an abundance of scholarship on this issue, however, little work has been done on Mexico's first and foremost public event dedicated to surrealist art-the International Exhibition of Surrealism held in Mexico City in 1940. Using archival materials, press reviews, and photographs, this article provides a comprehensive overview of the exhibition, an analysis of its conceptual underpinnings, and an outline of its critical reception, as well as a discussion of its generative and multifaceted role for Mexican art and its institutions. In particular, we analyze the extent to which the organizers drew upon previous European exhibition discourses and display techniques, and how these practices were adapted for a Mexican audience and the context of the Mexican art scene in 1940. We emphasize the artistic dialogue and discrepancies between Mexican and international artists that led to, and were reinforced by, the exhibition. The exhibition was organized by the Peruvian poet and painter César Moro and the Austrian artist Wolfgang Paalen, at that time enthusiastic surrealists close to Breton's inner circle. It opened on 17 January 1940 at the Galería de Arte Mexicano (GAM), which by virtue of this exhibition became the preeminent private art gallery in Mexico City. The exhibition notably featured two sections: one focused on international artists and the other on Mexican artists. In our analysis, we emphasize the coexistence of the local and the international in the exhibition, and the tensions created by using this distinction implicitly as a marker of quality. A vivid debate ensued, for example, around the inclusion of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Manuel Álvarez Bravo in the international section alongside the works of Giorgio de Chirico, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, and Marcel Duchamp, sent to Mexico by Breton, rather than around the choices for the Mexican section that featured diverse artists such as Agustín Lazo,

En plena vorágine revolucionaria, México fue el escenario de animados debates de opinión que se centraban en las implicaciones directas que la Primera Guerra Mundial pudiera tener sobre los derroteros de la nación. Si bien su estudio ha sido en gran parte ignorado, su análisis es crucial para la comprensión del pensamiento mexicano durante y después del conflicto. Tras un balance historiográfico, este trabajo define el escenario de dichos debates de opinión, identifica su punto más álgido durante el año 1917 y analiza su evolución en tres de sus principales foros: la prensa, el Poder Legislativo y las asambleas estudiantiles. While in the thick of a revolutionary maelstrom, Mexico was the setting for animated debates centered on the direct implications that World War I might have on the nation’s future. Although its study has been largely ignored, analysis of the Great War is crucial for understanding Mexican thought during and after the conflict. In addition to offering a historiographical assessment, this work elaborates the scenes of said debates, identifies their most decisive moment during the year 1917, and analyzes their evolution in three of their principle forums: the press, the Legislative Branch, and student assemblies.

Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 30 avril 2019. IdeAs-Idées d'Amériques est mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale-Pas de Modification 4.0 International.