José Clemente Orozco born - November 23, 1883

On this day in 1883, Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco was born. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hi everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This
Day in History Class, a podcast where we dust off
a little piece of history and placed it ever so
gently on your brainshelf every day. Today is November nineteen.

(00:25):
The day was November twenty three, eighty three. J. Clement
Rosco was born to Dnio Rosco and Rosa Flores in
El Grande, Mexico. Now see you dot Gooseman. Odosko went
on to become a renowned caricaturist and painter, known for
his Fresco murals. Odosko's family moved to Guadalajara in eighteen

(00:48):
eighty six, and by eighteen eighty eight they had made
their way to Mexico City. His passion for art blossomed
there as he admired the art in the workshop of
Guadalupe Posada, a printmaker whose work included political and social commentary.
As he passed the workshop on his way to and
from school, he became fascinated by the style of postadas illustrations.

(01:12):
Atosko studied art in Mexico City, taking classes at the
San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts. By his parents had
sent him to the country to study agriculture for pragmatic reasons.
He studied at the School of Agriculture in San Jacinto
and attended the National Preparatory School with the intent of
studying architecture later, but in nineteen o three, his father

(01:35):
died of typhus, so Otosko began working to support his
mother and siblings and pay his way through college. He
took a job as an architectural draftsman and hand tinted
post mortem portraits. He wasn't as passionate about agriculture, math,
and architecture as he was about painting. Atsko also injured

(01:55):
his eye and lost his left hand in an accidental explosion,
so he began studying art again at the San Carlos Academy.
By nineteen tent Otsko's artwork was getting attention. That year,
some of his drawings got recognition at an exhibition commemorating
the centenary of Mexican independence from Spain. The Mexican Revolution,

(02:16):
which was unfolding around this time, affected his artistic viewpoint.
Opposition to the regime of President port Rio Dias spread,
and political and social turmoil escalated as power changed hands.
Otosco participated in a student strike, and he began creating
illustrations for radical newspapers. He painted with black and what

(02:37):
he said were quote the colors exiled from Impressionist palettes.
He depicted locals who went to the bars and brothels
in his neighborhood. Informed by the context of the Mexican
Revolution and the culture of Mexico City, he emphasized injustice
and corruption. One of the artists who influenced his work
was Julio Rules, a Mexican symboli who created dark, hallucinatory

(03:02):
images of mythological characters, the subconscious and his own tormented face.
While in Ordi Saba, working for the revolutionary newspaper lave
Ban Guardia, he met David Alfado, Sicatos and Diego Rivera, who,
along with him, would later be known as the Big
Three in Mexican muralism. Dr Ato, also known as Harrado Mario,

(03:26):
edited lave Ban Guardia. Dr Ato had met Arosco at
the San Carlos Academy years earlier and inspired him to
embrace Mexican themes in his art. After his solo exhibition
House of Tears received a lot of negative criticism, he
turned to the US to find new opportunities. He got
to the US in nineteen seventeen, where customs took a

(03:48):
lot of his paintings because they were deemed indecent. After
spending two years in the States working on his art,
he returned to Mexico. His career in muralism began in
nineteen twenty three, when he started painting his first murals
at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. Cicados and
Rivera were also doing murals here. This same year, Autosko

(04:11):
married Margharita via Dadas and helped found the Union of
Revolutionary Painters, Sculptors and Engravers. As he completed more murals,
his work received more praise and international attention. In nineteen seven,
he went back to the U S, where he found
inspiration in the artwork of European artists like Francisco Goya

(04:33):
and was influenced by the impact of the Great Depression.
He stayed in the US until nineteen thirty four. The
Epic of American Civilization, a cycle of murals that he
completed at Dartmouth College, was a highlight of his art
career in the US. Autosko went back to Mexico after
he left the US, and he stayed there throughout most

(04:54):
of the nineteen forties, constantly adding to his already robust
body of work by creating new murals exhibiting his idealistic
and pessimistic perspective. He painted murals in the Palace of
Fine Arts in Mexico City, the University of Guadalajara, the
Governor's Palace, the Auspicio Cabanas, and the Palace of Justice

(05:15):
in Mexico City, among other locations. He also created smaller
works like engravings, eaesel paintings, and portraits. He continued to
work on frescoes until he died of heart failure at
the age of sixty five. Even though he faced censorship
and financial struggles, he played a key role in invigorating
the public arts movement and has been honored for exposing

(05:38):
Mexican art to a wider international audience. I'm Eaves jeffco
and hopefully you know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. No, any fellow history buffs who
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(06:01):
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