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Together with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco was a member of “Los tres grandes,” who through their monumental mural paintings in Mexican government buildings pioneered the first modern public art movement of the Americas. Orozco started his artistic career as a caricaturist for newspapers and an army illustrator during the Mexican Revolutionary War (1910–20). Early on, he had developed an aesthetic and subject matter that were dramatic, often violent, and always committed to human values.
In the wake of the Great Depression and the emergence of the New Deal, Mexican Muralism became a model for democratic, uplifting art that informed the work of such American artists as Ben Shahn. Orozco’s best-known U.S. commissions include Prometheus at Pomona College, California, and the mural cycle The Epic of American Civilization at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.
Nacido en Jalisco, México
Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros y José Clemente Orozco fueron “los tres grandes” del muralismo mexicano, cuyas monumentales pinturas en edificios públicos inauguraron el movimiento del arte público moderno en las Américas. Orozco comenzó su carrera haciendo caricaturas en la prensa y como ilustrador para el ejército insurrecto durante la Revolución Mexicana (1910–20). Desde temprano desarrolló una estética y temática de gran dramatismo, a menudo violenta, y siempre comprometida con lo valores humanos.
En tiempos de la Gran Depresión y el New Deal, el muralismo mexicano se convirtió en modelo de un arte democrático e inspirador que influyó en artistas estadounidenses como Ben Shahn. Entre las obras encargadas a Orozco en Estados Unidos se destacan Prometeo en Pomona College, California, y el ciclo mural Épica de la civilización americana en Dartmouth College, New Hampshire.
