Orozco, José Clemente

Orozco, José Clemente (b Zapotlán el Grande [now Ciudad Guzmán], 23 Nov. 1883; d Mexico City, 7 Sept. 1949). Mexican painter, with his contemporaries Rivera and Siqueiros one of the trio of politically and socially committed muralists who dominated modern Mexican art. Following the first outburst of revolutionary activity in Mexico in 1910 (which was to last on and off until 1920), Orozco took up work as a political cartoonist. In 1912 he began a series of watercolours called ‘House of Tears’ dealing with prostitutes (a favourite symbol of human degradation for Orozco). The angry reaction of critics and moralists to these works was one of his reasons for leaving for the USA, where he spent three unhappy and unproductive years, 1917–20. His career as a muralist began after he returned to Mexico in 1920. The country was now relatively stable under the government of Alvaro Obregón, who encouraged nationalistic subjects as a way of creating a positive identity for the country after years of turmoil.

Orozco's first frescos were in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National Training School), 1923–4. They were controversial because of their caricatural style, and all except Maternity and The Rich Banquet while the Workers Quarrel were subsequently destroyed or altered. In the period 1927 to 1934 (broken by a brief trip to Europe in 1932) he again worked in the USA. This time he was much more successful, carrying out a number of important mural commissions, most notably a cycle for Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, on the coming and the return of Quetzalcoatl (1932–4). This huge scheme showed his outlook crystallizing into a contrast between a pagan paradise and a capitalist hell. Unlike Rivera and Siqueiros, Orozco did not align himself with a political movement, but his work had an intense humanitarian mission. He returned to Mexico in 1934 with a big reputation after his success in the USA, and he spent most of the rest of his life engaged on mural projects in Mexico City and Guadalajara, the country's second city. In his last years his work became ever more violent in expression, moved by a passionate concern for the suffering and miseries of mankind. His studio in Guadalajara is now a museum dedicated to him.