Juan OGorman

Juan O'Gorman 1905-82, Mexican architect. Trained by Villagran Garcia, O'Gorman produced designs adapting the International style to Mexican requirements. O'Gorman's most notable work is the University Library, Mexico City (1952), with its elaborate, fantastic mosaic facade.

O'Gorman, Juan (1905–82). Mexican architect and painter. Early in his career he designed a series of houses in Mexico City (notably those for himself and for Diego Rivera) that were among the first in the Americas to show the functionalist ideas of Le Corbusier. In the 1930s, however, he abandoned architecture for painting. His work was strongly nationalistic and his anti-fascist, anti-church frescos at Mexico City airport (1937–8) were destroyed in 1939 during a political swing to the right. In the 1950s he returned to architecture, now advocating a more ‘organic’ approach inspired in part by Frank Lloyd Wright. His most celebrated work in this vein is the Library of the National University in Mexico City (1951–3), in which a modern structural design is completely covered externally in mosaics of his own design that symbolically represent the history of Mexican culture. In 1953–6 O'Gorman built a second home for himself outside Mexico City. This too was lavishly decorated in mosaics externally and internally and it was designed to harmonize with the lava formation of the landscape. He committed suicide.

O'Gorman, Juan (b Mexico City, 6 July 1905; d Mexico City, c.18 Jan. 1982). Mexican architect and painter. Early in his career he designed a series of houses in Mexico City (notably those for himself and for Diego Rivera) that were among the first in the Americas to show the functionalist ideas of Le Corbusier. In the 1930s, however, he abandoned architecture for painting. His work was strongly nationalistic and his anti-fascist, anti-Church frescos at Mexico City airport (1937–8) were destroyed in 1939 during a political swing to the right. In the 1950s he returned to architecture, now advocating a more ‘organic’ approach inspired in part by Frank Lloyd Wright. His most celebrated work in this vein is the Library of the National University in Mexico City (1951–3), in which a modern structural design is completely covered externally in mosaics of his own design that symbolically represent the history of Mexican culture. In 1953–6 O'Gorman built a second home for himself outside Mexico City. This too was lavishly decorated in mosaics externally and internally and it was designed to harmonize with the lava formation of the landscape. He committed suicide.