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Orozco: A Small Tribute

In November 1996 Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art organized an exhibition of rare paintings and works on paper by the Mexican muralist, José Clemente Orozco. A handsome catalogue of this exhibition is available by mail from the gallery and also on the internet. There are numerous illustrations in color and black and white as well as the first printing of a previously unpublished lecture comparing Orozco and Rivera, given by Hayden Herrera in 1990 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In the course of putting our exhibition together, we were amazed to discover that no major Orozco exhibition has been held in the United States in over thirty years, although one is now in preparation at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, on the subject of Orozco in New York.

José Clemente Orozco
Self-Portrait, 1948
oil on canvas
18 × 14 inches

Our project put us in touch with the artist’s son, Clemente Orozco, whom we visited in Guadalajara last September, while we were exhibiting at Expo Arte Guadalajara. Clemente informed us that he is extremely concerned with the deterioration of one of his father’s murals in Mexico City, The Apocalypse, in the chapel of the Hospital of Jesus the Nazarene, which is "falling down in chunks." Since the 1970’s, when the Orozco Foundation first alerted the Mexican Government to this problem, no restoration effort has been started. What began as a problem is now an emergency and the world will soon lose this fresco altogether if something is not done.

We feel that Orozco has been sadly neglected, especially in comparison to Rivera, who stole the limelight from Orozco during his lifetime and apparently after death as well.

Because of mam/fa’s contribution to the cause of reviving critical interest in the work of Orozco, its directors, Matthew Rembe and Mary-Anne Martin have been made Honorary Members of the José Clemente Orozco Foundation. Its aims are to work toward the preservation of Orozco’s works, to further the systematic study of his art and to spread his legacy to the public. We hope to continue our efforts as Orozco seems to us to be one of the most underappreciated great artists of the twentieth century.

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