Artwork Page for Study for the Mural “Aboriginal Races” (for the National Preparatory School, Mexico City)

Details / Information for Study for the Mural “Aboriginal Races” (for the National Preparatory School, Mexico City)

Study for the Mural “Aboriginal Races” (for the National Preparatory School, Mexico City)

1926

José Clemente Orozco

(Mexican, 1883–1949)
Culture
Mexico, 20th century
Medium
graphite
Measurements
Sheet: 32.2 x 31.8 cm (12 11/16 x 12 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride 1945.253
Copyright
© José Clemente Orozco / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SOMAAP, Mexico
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
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Did You Know?

The National Preparatory School murals were José Clemente Orozco's first major commission, shared with the artists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Description

José Clemente Orozco created this drawing as a study for his first mural, which Mexico’s minister of education commissioned as a series for the National Preparatory School, a prestigious secondary school in Mexico City. Over the course of two phases of work, between 1922 and 1926, Orozco covered the building’s stairways and corridors with allegorical and political subjects from Mexican history. This drawing is one of several in which the artist worked out a composition depicting the country’s earliest inhabitants.
A square-oriented graphite drawing on tan paper depicts two nude men with medium skin tones in a struggle. Within a penciled arch, a muscular man stands facing right, a cloth knotted around his neck, holding a blade. Below him, another man lies on his back with raised legs. Vertical and horizontal grid lines cross the composition. A signature is in the lower left corner.

Study for the Mural “Aboriginal Races” (for the National Preparatory School, Mexico City)

1926

José Clemente Orozco

(Mexican, 1883–1949)
Mexico, 20th century

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