Fewer subjects make for more stimulating conversation than art. Chalk it up to the subject’s ephemeral nature, which often leads people standing in front of the same object to see two distinctly different things. Enter former MOLAA curator Cynthia MacMullin, who’s giving a lecture on the work of Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, currently on display at the museum through the end of the month. Siqueiros, whose work was featured on the cover of Rage Against the Machine’s Battle of Mexico City DVD, brought with him to the U.S. a style eventually adopted by Angelino muralists, even as his long-whitewashed Olvera Street mural, La América Tropical, decays. MacMullin’s lecture explores the role of Siqueiros’ art as either “a social tool” or “propaganda,” and no doubt patrons will line up on opposing sides of the debate. In the spirit of diplomacy, we suggest art can be both.
Sun., Jan. 23, 2 p.m., 2011
