"José Clemente Orozco, One of the Great Mexican Muralists, Is Focus of New Lecture Series," by Cynthia Peters, Pomona College News
José Clemente Orozco was one of the three great Mexican muralists, along with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Pomona College is home to Orozco’s Prometheus mural, created in 1930 and recognized as one of the artist’s masterpieces.
The Pomona College Museum of Art introduces “Orozco in Focus,” a new series of lectures by prominent national and international scholars examining the artistic, social and political significance of Orozco’s work.
The “Orozco in Focus” series will be inaugurated, on Nov. 13, at 7 p.m., with “Revising Orozco," a lecture by Alejandro Anreus, associate professor of art history and Latin American studies at William Patterson University. The lecture will be held in Frary Dining Hall (347 E. Sixth St., Claremont), the location of Orozco’s Prometheus mural. The lecture will be in the private dining room, and will be followed by an examination of the painting with Anreus.
In his talk, Anreus will examine key issues within Orozco’s artistic production, including his stylistic shifts, misunderstood politics, view of history and “social expressionism.” Anreus is an authority on the art of Latin America and the author of Orozco in Gringoland (2001) and co-editor of Mexican Muralism: A Critical History (2012). Anreus’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Pomona College Romance Languages and Literatures Department.
On Feb. 6, Dartmouth College professor Mary Coffey will give the second “Orozco in Focus” lecture, exploring Orozco’s relationship to history, myth, and the public. Coffey is a specialist in the history of modern Mexican visual culture and has published widely on Orozco.