“Popular Art is the art of the People.
A popular artist is an artisan who, as in the Middle Ages, remains anonymous. His work needs no advertisement, as it is done for the people around him. The more pretentious artist craves to become famous, and it is characteristic of his work that it is bought for the name rather than for the work– a name that is built up by propaganda.
Before the Conquest all art was of the people, and popular art has never ceased to exist in Mexico. The art called Popular is quite fugitive in character, of sensitive and personal quality, with less of the impersonal and intellectual characteristics of the art of the schools. It is the work of talent nourished by that of the community– rather than being taken form the experiences of other painters in other times and other cultures, which forms the intellectual chain of non-popular art.”
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
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