The second module of this exhibit focuses on Mexican women artists working during the decades in which post-revolutionary muralism defined the dominant model of revolutionary art. In the 1920s, mural painting was promoted as the central artistic form of the new state. Large government commissions in schools and official buildings were awarded exclusively to male artists, and no woman completed a large-scale mural commission within the central government programs that established the canonical narrative of Mexican muralism.

Painting on canvas remained an important medium, yet muralist manifestos identified large-scale public painting as the primary vehicle of revolutionary art. Women artists worked mainly in easel painting, not simply as a matter of preference, but because access to major state mural commissions was effectively closed to them. Some, such as Aurora Reyes, did execute murals in educational or union settings, though these were not officially comissioned by the state and did not occupy the same position within the national cultural program.

María Izquierdo was a prolific artist, holding over 20 solo exhibitions and producing an estimated 500 paintings. She was also the first Mexican woman to exhibit her work in the United States. During her 1930 exhibition at the Art Center in New York, she became involved with members of the Delphic Society, a space frequented by Theosophists, artists, and nationalists. Influenced by the Russian esoteric author Peter Ouspensky and his theories of the “fourth dimension,” Izquierdo explored higher planes of perception and consciousness in her paintings. These ideas shaped her symbolic portrayals of women influenced by celestial forces, often characterized as expressions of male authority, and allowed her to merge spiritual exploration with a critical reflection on gendered power relations.

In 1945, Izquierdo became the first Mexican woman officially commissioned by the government to paint a mural in a public building. The commission was later revoked under pressure from Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Izquierdo publicly protested the decision, declaring that “it is a crime to be a talented woman.” The cancellation of this mural illustrates the barriers women faced in accessing the most visible forms of state-sponsored art.

Cordelia Urueta was mentored in her youth by Gerardo Murillo, known as Dr. Atl, a central figure in Mexican muralism. During her stay in New York in 1930, she encountered Theosophical ideas that would later inform her artistic development. In her early metaphysical self-portraits, spiritual concerns appear through charged figuration and symbolic atmosphere. Over time, this interest in spiritual transformation led her toward abstraction, where color and form became the primary means of articulating interior experience.

Sofía Bassi, a later contemporary of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, shared their fascination with esoteric and surrealist themes, though her work was more deeply rooted in alchemical symbolism. Her paintings frequently depict spectral figures, labyrinthine castles, and egg-shaped vessels drifting through otherworldly landscapes. Her life was marked by a five-year imprisonment for the murder of her son-in-law, a period during which she redefined her artistic practice as a form of alchemy. One of her most enigmatic works is the Ovosarcófago (Ovosarcophagus), a sculptural egg-shaped coffin she worked on for ten years and in which she was eventually laid to rest.

Izquierdo, Urueta, and Bassi demonstrate that esoteric ideas played a significant role in post-revolutionary Mexican art beyond the most visible government mural programs. Their careers also make clear how gender shaped access to institutional recognition, even as women artists made decisive contributions to modern Mexican visual culture. In recent years, their work has received increasing scholarly and curatorial attention, prompting renewed consideration of their place in the history of Mexican art.