Mario Orozco Rivera (January 19, 1930 – November 20, 1998)
was a Mexican muralist and painter, a later proponent of
Mexican muralism, and whose work was particularly influenced by
David Alfaro Siqueiros
David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...
. He created a number of murals, mostly in the state of
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
before becoming an assistant to Siqueiros, directing the Taller Siqueiros in
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D.
The na ...
and working with the artists on projects such as the
Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros
The Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros is a cultural, political and social facility located in Mexico City as part of the World Trade Center Mexico City. It was designed and decorated by David Alfaro Siqueiros in the 1960s and hosts the largest mural w ...
. While preferring mural work, which he considered less commercial, Orozco Rivera also created oils and sculptures. Many of these works were exhibited in Mexico and abroad and can be found in many major collections. His work received recognition in various countries.
Life
Orozco Rivera was born in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
to a circus family, in which he performed as a young child.
He was a cousin of painter José Clemente Orozco
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Sique ...
. When asked about his famous last names, he used to state “(José Clemente) Orozco is my dad and (Diego) Rivera is my mom!
At age sixteen he went to Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
but returned after the Batista coup to begin studying at the in 1952. After he finished, he traveled in Europe and into the then Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and China, paying for it by singing political songs.[
Like other artists of the Mexican muralism movement, he was politically active, a member for thirty years of the ]Mexican Communist Party
The Mexican Communist Party ( es, Partido Comunista Mexicano, PCM) was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1917 as the Socialist Workers' Party (, PSO) by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian revolutionary. The PSO changed its name ...
then of the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico
The Unified Socialist Party of Mexico ( es, Partido Socialista Unificado de México, PSUM) was a socialist political party in Mexico. It later became the Socialist Mexican Party () in 1988.
History
The PSUM was founded in November 1981 by the me ...
. This also mixed with his artistic work, working with political artist groups such as the Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas and the Sociedad de Profesores e Investigadores, both of the Universidad Veracruzana
Universidad Veracruzana (Spanish for ''University of Veracruz'') is a public autonomous university located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Established in 1944, the university is one of the most important in the southeast region of México. It ...
.[
While primarily a painter, he was also a poet, composer and musician, as well as a promoter of art and literature.][ From the 1960s to the 1980s he composed political songs and recorded four albums in the Soviet Union.][
However, he remained primarily a painter calling painting a “most jealous lover” remaining active in the craft until his death despite poor health. Orozco Rivera died at age 68 from cardio-respiratory failure, leaving behind his third wife, Ema León de Orozco and five children, Paloma, Valentín, Gabriel, Alejandra and Bruno.][
]
Career
Most of Orozco Rivera’s career was dedicated to mural painting, on his own and working with David Alfaro Siqueiros. He painted his first mural in 1958 at the auditorium of the Museo de Antropología in Xalapa
Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which ...
, Veracruz, followed by various mural works for the Universidad Veracruzana in the late 1950s and early 1960s at the veterinary school, the stairwell of the main library and other locations.[ Other murals he created include those at the Banco Regional del Pacífico in ]Culiacán
Culiacán, officially Culiacán Rosales, is a city in northwestern Mexico, the capital and largest city of both the Culiacán Municipality and the state of Sinaloa. The city was founded on 29 September 1531, by the Spanish Conquistadores, con ...
, Sinaloa
Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is d ...
,[ the Tribunal de Justicia of the state of Veracruz,][ and the ]Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
The Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) (Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla) is the oldest and largest university in Puebla, Mexico. Founded on 15 April 1578 as Colegio del Espíritu Santo, the school was sponsored by the ...
.[ He dedicated a large part of his career to teaching, starting at the Universidad Veracruzana. In 1964, he became an assistant to Siqueiros, eventually becoming the director of the Taller Siqueiros in Cuernavaca, collaborating with Siqueiros and training Mexican and foreign artists. He and various students from this institution worked on the murals at the Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros.][ Orozco Rivera also worked with Siqueiros on the mural for the ]Museo Nacional de Historia
The National Museum of History (Spanish: ), also known as MNH, is a national museum of Mexico, located inside Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City. The Castle itself is found within the first section of the well known Chapultepec Park. The museum rec ...
. Other monumental works included sculpture, such as the fountains for the Hotel de México
The Hotel de México was to have been the largest hotel in the Americas, a huge project started by the entrepreneur Manuel Suárez y Suárez in 1966 in Mexico City, Mexico.
The project ran out of control and was never completed.
After Suárez die ...
and another for the Hotel Casino Selva in Cuernavaca.[
He also worked with artist and cultural organizations such as the Centro Libre de Experimentación Teatral and the ]Salón de la Plástica Mexicana
Salón de la Plástica Mexicana (Hall of Mexican Fine Art; ''SPM'') is an institution dedicated to the promotion of Mexican contemporary art. It was established in 1949 to expand the Mexican art market. Its first location was in historic center o ...
.[ He was also a regular contributor to the Fundación Cultural Pascual.][
Orozco Rivera did easel work as well with his first individual exhibition at the El Círculo de Bellas Artes Gallery.][ Since then he exhibited his work in numerous individual and collective shows in Mexico and abroad including venues such as the ]Museo de Arte Moderno
The Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) is located in Chapultepec park, Mexico City, Mexico.
The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura and provides exhibitions of national and international contemporary a ...
, the Tecnológico de al Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Iconográfico de Quijote in Guanajuato
Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...
, the National Museum in Prague and a major individual exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It has hosted notable events in music, dance, theatre, opera and literature in Mexico and has held important exhibitions of painting, sculpture and p ...
in 1960.[ Orozco Rivera’s works can be found in major museum collections in Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, the United States, the Czech Republic, Italy, England and China, in institutions such as the ]Casa de las Américas
Casa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, ...
in Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. . The Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros has a collection of about 300 of his pieces.
In 1956 and 1957 Orozco Rivera won the acquisition prize of the Nuevos Valores event of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. He won third place at the International Painting Competition in the Soviet Union in 1957.[ He also received recognitions for his work from the governments of Bulgaria, France and ]Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
.[ After his death the Foro Cultural Coyoacanense and the Polyforum Cultural Siquieros held retrospectives and tributes to his work.][
]
Artistry
Orozco Rivera was a student and apprentice to David Alfaro Siqueiros, a later proponent of the Mexican muralism movement, faithfully adhering to the aesthetics and ideology of social realism. His artistic work; oils, sculptures and murals show strong influence from Siqueiros, with the most common themes being the struggles of common and marginalized peoples, done without portraying anyone in particular, using composite faces.[ He considered painting to be a social contract and preferred painting murals over easel works “which are sold in galleries like merchandise.” He did not believe in art for its own sake, rather that it was fundamentally social and communicative. He stated he painted to express what he had inside, not for pleasure.][
]
References
Gráfica Mexciana
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orozco-Rivera, Mario
1930 births
1998 deaths
Mexican muralists
People from Mexico City
Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" alumni
20th-century Mexican painters
Mexican male painters
20th-century Mexican male artists