HE'S NO JESSE :

A Fire Born of the Mexican Revolution (GRACE GLUECK, August 16, 2002, NY Times)

ALTHOUGH its title suggests a drowsy history textbook, "The Epic of American Civilization," a mural by the Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) in the Baker Library at Dartmouth College here, has a throbbing vitality that keeps viewers' eyes wide open. Punctuated by doors, windows and other architectural bits and pieces as it runs the 92-foot length of the basement reserve reading room, the 26-panel fresco is densely packed with symbolic figures and stagy events. A blend of myth, history and contemporary comment, much affected by premonitions of the pending World War II, it aptly conveys Orozco's dour, apocalyptic vision of human fate.

The rhythmic orchestration of this montage excited the interest of Jackson Pollock, among other artists, and its thunderous presence has helped it serve, for better or for worse, as a role model for the development of public art in the United States. A narrative that pairs the legend of Mexico's founding by Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec god represented by a feathered serpent, with images from the Eurocentric period that began in the New World with the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico, the mural was Orozco's most ambitious venture in the United States. (He had done two earlier murals, one at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., the other at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan.) Aside from its grim world view, the Dartmouth fresco reveals Orozco's dual artistic involvement, with Mexico's heritage and with the modern-art movements of the 20th century.

At the time (1932), Dartmouth's commissioning of a mural by a "revolutionary" Mexican artist made waves. There were accusations of extravagance, considered inappropriate during Depression days. (Over two years, the artist received $10,000, including expenses.) There were chauvinistic protests against giving the commission to a foreigner, particularly one of leftist political views. And there were outcries over the strong social commentary in the planned work, as opposed to, say, an amiable depiction of New England scenery.

To its credit, Dartmouth rose above these protests, with the help of an art faculty that saw the aesthetic and humanistic strengths of the Mexican mural movement and - not least - of the Rockefeller family, some of whom were alive to the art world's interest in things Mexican. (Nelson A. Rockefeller, a 1930 Dartmouth graduate, wanted Diego Rivera to do the job, although in 1933 he fired Rivera for including Lenin in a mural at Rockefeller Center and had the portrait removed.) Now, nearly 70 years after the Dartmouth mural's completion, the college's Hood Museum of Art has mounted "José Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934," a show of the artist's work during his second visit to this country, including the two years devoted to the mural.

Geez, I always assumed a student--and not a very talented one--did it. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 17, 2002 9:28 AM