NEW YORK, NY.- On Friday, January 28th at 10am, registered participants will enjoy a lively discussion on Mexican Muralism and the artists that impacted that period in both Mexico and the United States.

War dominated the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. New political ideologies -- socialism and communism, also added tensions. Art responded by turning its focus onto the common man and woman in natural and urban environments.

The Americas were impacted as well with cries for change. In Mexico, a ten-year revolution offered an opportunity for Mexico to acknowledge its pre-Hispanic past with a new blended population. Art became the medium to spark emotions and share with pride epic tales of how this blended world was to take shape.

The Mexican Muralism Movement embraced European traditions of drawing and frescoes with social realism and new aesthetics that swept into North America.

Joining the moderator, Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director of the West Harlem Art Fund are:

• Esther Adler, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings & Prints, MoMA

• Leon Tovar, Director, Leon Tovar Gallery, NYC

• Dr. Orlando Hernández-Ying, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Curatorial Research Fellow for the Hubert & Mireille Goldschmidt Works on Paper Fellowship, Hispanic Society Museum & Library

Participants will also view a special exhibition curated by the Hispanic Society Museum and Library. A selection of nearly two dozen drawings will be exhibited from the collections of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library.

These drawings were executed by artists as preparatory drawings for other works of art, such as frescos, tapestries, paintings, and architectural-sculptural ensembles.

This exhibit will complement the recently donated Jose Clemente Orozco drawings to the Hispanic Society and will also feature earlier drawings by Rafael Ximeno y Planes and Juan Rodriguez Juárez.

To give visitors a truer sense of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library's expansive and diverse holdings, the exhibition will also feature drawings by notable artists from the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America from the 17th to the 20th century, including Jusepe de Ribera and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Alonso Cano, Francisco Goya y Lucientes, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, and Francisco (Pancho) Fierro.

400 Years of Master Drawings from Hispanic Society Museum & Library was organized by Marcus Burke, Senior Curator, Paintings & Drawings, Hispanic Society.