Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945
Feb 17, 2020–Jan 31, 2021
Orozco on the Coasts
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The work of José Clemente Orozco had a tremendous impact on American artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Jackson Pollock, and Charles White. Orozco was the first of the leading Mexican muralists to come to the United States, arriving in New York in December 1927. His first mural in the United States, painted in 1930 for the Frary Dining Hall at Pomona College in California, appears in the exhibition as a half-scale reproduction. Rejecting the folkloric themes popular with his peers, Orozco focused on Prometheus, the mythical Greek Titan who incited the wrath of the gods by bringing fire—and thus knowledge—to humanity. The never-ending cycle of conflict and struggle remained a central theme in Orozco’s art as he continued to receive major commissions from institutions including Manhattan’s New School for Social Research, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and the Museum of Modern Art. Through works such as these, Orozco inspired artists across the country, who channeled his visceral brushwork and uncompromising portrayal of struggle and trauma into their own depictions of upheaval and strife, both personal and collective
Artists
- Charles Henry Alston
- Ramón Alva Guadarrama
- Lola Álvarez Bravo
- Luis Arenal
- Belle Baranceanu
- Will Barnet
- Carleton Beals
- Thomas Hart Benton
- Henry Bernstein
- Emil Bisttram
- Julius Bloch
- Lucienne Bloch
- Anita Brenner
- Jacob Burck
- Elizabeth Catlett
- Stuart Chase
- Howard Cook
- Miguel Covarrubias
- Aaron Douglas
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Jesús Escobedo
- Philip Evergood
- Seymour Fogel
- Ford Motor Company
- Hugo Gellert
- Xavier Gonzalez
- Marion Greenwood
- William Gropper
- Philip Guston
- Eitarō Ishigaki
- María Izquierdo
- Everett Gee Jackson
- Joe Jones
- Frida Kahlo
- Jacob Lawrence
- Harold Lehman
- Michael Lenson
- Mardonio Magaña
- Bendor Mark
- Fletcher Martin
- Leopoldo Méndez
- Carlos Mérida
- Edward Millman
- Tina Modotti
- Roberto Montenegro
- Emilio Gómez Muriel
- Hideo Benjamin Noda
- José Clemente Orozco
- Jackson Pollock
- Alfredo Ramos Martínez
- Anton Refregier
- Diego Rivera
- Ben Shahn
- Henrietta Shore
- Mitchell Siporin
- David Alfaro Siqueiros
- Harry Sternberg
- Paul Strand
- Thelma Johnson Streat
- Rufino Tamayo
- Edward Weston
- Charles White
- Hale Aspacio Woodruff