The Mexican Mural Movement was Mexican painting movement that developed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its most well-known painters were Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Each of these men were heavily influenced by Marxism and a sense of Mexican nationalism, which made them want to paint historical, indigenous, and agricultural scenes. Most of the muralists were often skirting trouble with the changing governments in Mexico, finding their support fluctuating throughout their careers.

Official Catholic record states that San Juan Diego, then just a peasant, witnessed an apparition of the Virgin Mary four times at the Hill of Tepeyac, now a suburb of Mexico City.  It is said that the apparition of the Virgin Mary spoke to him in his native tongue of Nahuatl, asking for a church to be built there in her honor. Now the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world, and the world's third most-visited sacred site.

Diego Rivera is a very well-known Mexican artist. One of his many artistic accomplishments was to help launch Mexican muralism in the 1920s. Although Mexico has a long history of mural art, Mexican muralism gained traction as a globally popular art form thanks to the contributions of Rivera and other artists, such as José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as they used the form as a political and social tool. In the USA, Mexican muralism served as inspiration for the Chicano art movement.

The Mexican Mural Movement was Mexican painting movement that developed from the 1920s to the 1950s. Its most well-known painters were Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Each of these men were heavily influenced by Marxism and a sense of Mexican nationalism, which made them want to paint historical, indigenous, and agricultural scenes. Most of the muralists were often skirting trouble with the changing governments in Mexico, finding their support fluctuating throughout their careers.

The Academy of San Carlos was established by the Spanish crown and staffed with an all-Spanish cast of instructors in order to better control the artistic expression of the colonials, and the messages they were potentially spreading to one another about ideas that the Spanish Crown considered "dangerous." After all, the Spanish colonies of the Americas were growing increasingly culturally independent.

Although there were paintings done by indigenous artists in New Spain, the artists are unknown. Therefore, the first known artists are those who relocated to New Spain as adults, during their artistic careers. Some of these painters were religious figureheads, but they were Catholic, not Protestant.

Only a handful of ancient Mayan murals survive to the present day, but they all are massive plaster frescos usually found in archaeological sites. The giant murals at Bonakmal depict the court life of an ancient Mayan king in great detail. The paintings were done quite quickly, as they had to be completed before the plaster dried.

Pre-Columbian societies often did not have a system of writing, so for much of their histories, the visual arts was their primary source of communication and record keeping, along with word-of-mouth record-keeping and day-to-day verbal conversation.

The early art of the colonial Americas (namely Mexico) was derived from the European artistic principles that the Spanish brought with them to New Spain (what is now Mexico). When the native settlers of New Spain began to paint using such European principles, they also added details that they could relate to, such as crops native to the Americas, or imagery from the folklore of their culture. These additions gave their paintings a unique indigenous appearance.

Mexican painters were trained using imported European copies and engravings of popular paintings and other works. Therefore, by the time they mastered the techniques they were studying from the engravings and copies, the trends featured had already gone out of style.