Fuente de Petróleos

Understanding monumental sculpture in Mexico, particularly until around 1960, begins with an understanding of the Mexican Revolution and the relative instability it produced being such a broad movement. This also helps to explain the muralist movement in painting. It is necessary to examine carefully the socialist realism of the Soviet Union and that of the many countries within the USSR's sphere of influence. The academic movements of the nineteenth century-and their strong use of allegory-are also important for an understanding of the state, especially a young post-revolutionary state. Such a state has a strong interest in ideological expression in art that is very much at play in much of the sculpture of this period. This tradition of commemorative sculpture was both an inheritance and continuity of 19th century art. Today located at a vertiginous intersection, the fountain is almost unobservable.