Occult Movements and Mexican Mural Art examines the influence of Theosophy and other occult movements on Mexican muralism, with a particular focus on the contributions of Mexican women artists such as María Izquierdo, Cordelia Urueta and Sofía Bassi. It explores how these artists engaged with esoteric ideas and organizations between Mexico and the United States, and how their integration of esoteric themes in their work challenged the dominant narratives promoted by state-sponsored Mexican mural art.

Since the interwar period, artists and art advocates influenced by Theosophy and other occult movements have profoundly shaped modern art between Mexico and the United States. Villalba’s doctoral research demonstrated how key figures in Mexican muralism—including its primary patron, José Vasconcelos, as well as artists such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and Adolfo Best Maugard—actively incorporated spiritual, Theosophical, and Rosicrucian elements into their artistic projects. This engagement was frequently aligned with the ideological priorities of the post-revolutionary state, which sought to craft a nationalist mythology that reframed modern art as the spiritual continuation of a pre-Hispanic artistic tradition, mediated through Catholic and colonial legacies. The content of Module 1 of the digital exhibition is primarily drawn from Occult Mexico. The Imagination of Mexican Antiquity, from the Colonial Era to Arnold Krumm-Heller and the Revolution, Villalba’s forthcoming monograph with Oxford University Press. This study draws upon previously unexplored archival sources in Mexico, including correspondence, photographs, and reports, while integrating contextualization and visual analysis of esoteric themes in mural artworks and public buildings.

Building on this foundation, Villalba's current postdoctoral research shifts focus the understudied work of Mexican women artists María Izquierdo (1902–1955), Cordelia Urueta (1908–1995), and Sofía Bassi (1913–1998), examining how their engagement with esoteric ideas offered an alternative vision of Mexican identity. While state-sponsored muralism selectively incorporated esoteric motifs to reinforce nationalist and revolutionary ideals, these artists used esoteric ideas to legitimize their artistic choices in the face of gender biases and to develop original visions that diverged from post-revolutionary narratives. Influenced by Peter Ouspensky’s concept of a “fourth dimension,” Izquierdo claimed her paintings were dictated by ancestral spirits of pre-Hispanic Mexico, positioning herself as a visionary artist outside the nationalist canon. Bassi, a contemporary of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, shared their occult and surrealist sensibilities but distinguished herself through a persistent alchemical imagery—castles, labyrinths, and egg-like forms—evoking themes of transformation and spiritual rebirth. Meanwhile, Urueta’s approach to abstraction was informed by Theosophy, prioritizing spirituality and inner experience over political and historical themes. The content of Module 2, Gender and Visual Arts, is based on this ongoing research at the Center for the Study of World Religions.

This study draws upon the archives of María Izquierdo and Cordelia Urueta in Mexico, including letters, photographs, and newspaper clippings, as well as analyses of their artworks. By incorporating decolonial and global history perspectives developed in the doctoral research, this project highlights the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and cultural representation in Mexican modern art. The project also involves research in key repositories and collaborations with the Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Warburg Institute in London, and the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice.

Ultimately, this research seeks to reassess the evolution of Mexican modern art by foregrounding the contributions of artists who have been historically overlooked due to their engagement with esoteric ideas and their exploration of spirituality in the arts. Furthermore, by examining the interplay between occult currents and Mexican visual culture of the 1920s, it offers new perspectives on the development of magical realism as a distinct Latin American artistic and literary movement, as well as on the subsequent period of European surrealist exiles in Mexico.

Key publications

Forthcoming (2026) Occult Mexico. The Imagination of Mexican Antiquity, from the Colonial Era to Arnold Krumm-Heller and the Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Forthcoming (2026) (Ed. with Dr. Mauricio Oviedo) Esotericism and Visual Arts in Latin America: Experiences, Practices, and Representations.

2021 (co-authored with Juan Pablo Bubello and Marcos José Diniz Silva) “Spiritism in Latin America at the Turn of the 19th Century: The Cases of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.” In Martínez Esquivel, R. & Baisotti, P. (eds.), Modernity of Religiosities and Beliefs: A New Path in Latin America, XIXth-XXIth Centuries. Lexington: Lexington Books, pp. 233-272. ISBN-13: 978-1793654885.

2021 “The Occult Among the Aborigines of South America? Some Remarks on Race, Coloniality, and the West in the Study of Esotericism.” In Asprem, E. & Strube, J. (eds.), New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism. Leiden and Boston: Brill, pp. 88-108. DOI: 10.1163/9789004446458_006