José Clemente Orozco: biography, works and style of the Mexican muralist

José Clemente Orozco was a painter who was part of the generation of Mexican muralism, which emerged in the first half of the 20th century. Together with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, he became a fundamental reference of this movement and of Latin American art. Beyond these known facts, it is worth wondering who was José Clemente Orozco, what was his style or what characterized him, what were his most important works and where are they.

Biography

He was born in Jalisco on November 23, 1883. His parents were Irineo Orozco Vázquez and Rosa Juliana Flores Navarro. He spent part of his childhood in Guadalajara and later in Mexico City, where he learned about the work of José Guadalupe Posada.

Formation and studies

His first formative experience in painting was at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, where he received night classes for some time.

In 1897 his family enrolled him in the San Jacinto National School of Agriculture, where he graduated as an agricultural engineer. During this period, before graduating, he made a living by drawing topographic maps.

instagram story viewer

In 1904, Orozco lost his left hand in a gunpowder accident.

Between 1907 and 1914, he formally began his artistic training at the Academia de San Carlos. There he received classes from the Spanish Antonio Fabrés. Shortly after, he met Dr. Atl (Gerardo Murillo), who guided him towards the investigation of Mexican identity.

His early work

Starting in 1911 he made a living as a cartoonist in the publications The Son of Ahuizote, The Impartial Y The vanguard. In 1913 he became director of the publication The Malora.

In 1916 he held the first exhibition of him under the title The house of tearss, which took place in the Biblos bookstore in Mexico City. Mexican.

Mexican muralism

In 1922, he joined David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and other prominent names to shape Mexican muralism. Muralism was a movement that sought to return art to the public dimension and serve nationalism and the popular cause.

Private life

In 1923 he married Margarita Valladares, with whom he had three children.

International career

In 1928 José Clemente Orozco went to New York, USA, where he held the exhibition Drawings of the revolution. After this, in 1930 he made a mural work at Pomona College in California and, a year later, he executed another at the New School for Social Research in New York. He also traveled through Europe, where he studied the great masters of the Baroque and met the avant-garde artists.

I return to Mexico

In 1934 he returned to Mexico and committed himself to the defense of revolutionary values, becoming a highly valued artist.

Since 1941 Orozco devoted himself to easel painting, although he did not stop undertaking mural projects.

In 1943 he participated as a founding member of the National College. Orozco published his autobiography two years later, in 1945. In it he reveals his political disappointment.

In 1946 he joined the commission of Mural Painting of the National Institute of Fine Arts along with his peers Siqueiros and Rivera. That same year he received the National Prize of Fine Arts of Mexico.

José Clemente Orozco died in Mexico City on September 7, 1949, as a result of cardiac arrest.

Style and influences

José Clemente Orozco showed great interest in social issues, which in his first stage was expressed in the representation of the everyday life of the subaltern world, bars and cabarets.
His favorite subjects were pre-Columbian history, the history of Mexico and criticism of the contemporary world.
He evaded the mystification of the indigenous issue by perceiving it as part of the historical conflict in Mexico.
He rejected western models classics and avant-garde, and became interested in the study of indigenous aesthetics.
In his work male characters predominate.
He inherited from the Baroque the large diagonals in group compositions and the use of chiaroscuro as a dramatic device.
He used the burning coloring, akin to expressionist vigor.
He highlighted the geometrization of the figures.
His characters used to be hieratic and robust.
He preferred gigantism and monumentality in his compositions.

Works by José Clémente Orozco

José Clemente Orozco's work is very prolific. The monumentality of most of his works, as well as the integration with the architectural space, has made them separate by scenes for the study and dissemination of it. Here are a series of essential examples to understand this artist from the initial stages of him.

Women dancing

Date: ca. 1913
Technique: Watercolor on paper.
Dimensions: 39 x 53 cm.
Location: Andrés Blaisten Collection, Mexico.

Omniscience

Date: 1925
Technique: Fresh
Dimensions: 36 m²
Location: Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico.

Cortés and La Malinche

Date: 1926
Technique: Fresh
Dimensions: no information
Location: Old College of San Ildefonso

Trenches

Date: 1926
Technique: Fresh
Dimensions: 1.8 x 5.5mts
Location: Old College of San Ildefonso

Prometheus

Date: 1930
Technique: Fresh
Dimensions: 609.6 x 868.68 cm)
Location: Pomona College Museum of Art, California.

Gods of the modern world

Date: 1932-1934
Technique: cool
Set or series: The epic of American civilization
Location: Dartmouth College, USA

Katharsis

Date: 1934-1935
Technique: Fresco on a transportable metal frame.
Dimensions: 11.46 x 4.46 meters.
Location: Palacio de Bellas Artes, D.F. Mexico.

The creative and rebellious man

Date: 1935–1937
Technique: Fresh
Dimensions: 13.70 x 5.50 m
Location: Museum of the Arts of the University of Guadalajara (MUSA), Mexico.

Man on fire

Date: 1939
Technique: Fresh
Dimensions: 11 x 27 mts.
Location: Hospicio Cabañas, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

Indias

Date: 1947
Technique: Pyroxylin on masonite.
Dimensions: 1,935 x 1,220 mm.
Set or series: The Teules.

It may interest you: David Alfaro Siqueiros: biography and works of the Mexican muralist.

Andrea Imaginario

University professor, singer, Bachelor of Arts (Cultural Promotion mention), Master of Literature Compared by the Central University of Venezuela, and PhD candidate in History at the Autonomous University of Lisbon.