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Orozco's House of Tears

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

James B. Lynch Jr.
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Extract

Since his death in 1949, the prestige of the eminent Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco has continued to grow as his artistic stature becomes more measurable. For this reason, if for no other, the early formative years of his career when the stylistic foundations of maturity were laid demand now more than ever careful scrutiny and evaluation. Among the early works of this artist none, in our opinion, is of greater interest and few are of higher quality than a collection of water colors known to students of Orozco as the House of Tears. In spite of their importance, however, these pictures have received only casual treatment from most writers. This essay embodies the earnest hope that our analysis of certain problems involved in the sources and style of House of Tears may at least kindle broader interest in the series as a whole.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , July 1961 , pp. 367 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1961

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References

1 On the origin of this title see the comments of Alma Reed in her monograph Orozco (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 66.

2 Jean Chariot, “Orozco and Siqueiros at the Academy of San Carlos,” College Art Journal, Vol. X” No. 4, pp. 356-357.

3 José Clemente Orozco, Autobiografía (Mexico City: Ediciones Occidente, 1945), pp. 19-24.

4 Ibid., pp. 22ff.

5 Ibid., p. 23.

6 Ibid., p. 31.

7 MacKinley Helm, Man of Fire (New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1953), p. 19.

8 Orozco, op. cit., p. 33.

9 Chariot, op. cit., p. 359.

10 Orozco, op. cit., p. 40.

11 Reed, op. cit., p. 68.

12 Bertram D. Wolfe, Diego Rivera (London: Robert Hale Limited, 1939), p. 177.

13 Figure 1 reproduces Juego de Prostitutas (courtesy of Sra. Margarita de Orozco).

14 Catharsis was painted for the Palace of Fine Arts in 1934.

15 See Orozco's frescoes in the National Preparatory School.

16 Figure 2 reproduces The Mother's Farewell in the National Preparatory School.

17 Bernard S. Myers, Mexican Painting in our Time (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 43.

18 Justino Fernández, ed., Obras de José Clemente Orozco en la Colección Carrillo Gil (Mexico: privately printed, 1949), p. 58.

19 Ibid., p. 42.

20 Reed, op. cit., p. 66.

21 Ibid.

22 E. g., El Tocador.

23 D. W. Scott in an article on Orozco's mural Prometheus maintains that the Expressionist elements of Orozco's early works, including House of Tears, derive from the influence of German and French Symbolism through Julio Ruelas and a group of illustrators for Revista Moderna. (See David W. Scott, “Orozco's Prometheus,” College Art Journal, Vol. XVII, No. 1, pp. 10-11.) It seems more logical, however, to relate Orozco's Expressionism to the influence of contemporary German Expressionism than to the fin de siécle romanticism of Bocklin or the Art Nouveau of La Plume.

24 Manuel Toussaint, “The Political Caricature in Mexico,” Mexican Art end Life, No. 4, Oct. 1938, n. p.

25 Courtesy of Sra. Margarita de Orozco.

26 Courtesy of Dr. Carrillo Gil.

27 Orozco, op. cit., p. 20.

29 Kuhn, Charles, German Expressionism and Abstract Art (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), p. 7.Google Scholar

29 Figure 4 reproduces a drawing by E. Thony. See Simplicissimtis, XVIII. Jahrgang I. Halbjahr 1913, p. 160.

30 Ibid., XVII. Jahrgang II. Halbjahr 1912/13, p. 743.

31 Ibid., p. 458.

32 Reed, op. cit., p. 66.