O'Gorman, Juan (1905–1982)

Juan O'Gorman (b. 6 July 1905; d. 8 January 1982), Mexican painter and architect. A great admirer of Frida Kahlo and the nineteenth-century landscape artist José María Velasco, Juan O'Gorman came from a wealthy and aristocratic Irish family with relatives in Mexico. His father, who arrived in Mexico at age twenty-four, was an amateur portrait painter and taught his son drawing and painting; his mother was Mexican born. Trained as an architect, O'Gorman introduced the functional international style to Mexico and built a number of schools and residences in this mode until he turned to the mosaic ornamentation of surfaces. His best-known buildings are the house-studio for Diego Rivera in San Angel, Mexico City (1931), his own organic mosaic-covered home in San Angel (1949, destroyed 1969), and the narrative mosaic-covered library at the University of Mexico (1950–1951), which has been compared to a codex.

In 1931, O'Gorman began a series of murals in tempera and fresco, the most important of which are The History of Aviation (1937–1938; partially destroyed), the History of Michoacán (1941–1942), and Altar of Independence (1959–1961). Several of his murals were destroyed for political or anticlerical imagery. O'Gorman also produced a large body of easel paintings, many in tempera, which include portraits and imaginary landscapes with surreal qualities.

O'Gorman's mural style was strongly influenced by Diego Rivera but was even more complex and layered, though carefully organized for legibility. He frequently used textual references, reproducing lines from manuscripts, or injecting his own commentaries. His imaginary landscapes, however, are freer and more flowing in design, though painted with the same minute attention to detail as the murals.

See alsoArchitecture: Modern Architecture; Art: The Twentieth Century; Kahlo, Frida; Rivera, Diego; Velasco, José María.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Antonio Luna Arroyo, Juan O'Gorman: Autobiografía, antología, juicios críticos, y documentación exhaustiva sobre su obra (1973) and Homenaje a Juan O'Gorman, 1905–1982 (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Burian, Edward R. "Modernity and Nationalism: Juan O'Gorman and Post-Revolutionary Architecture in Mexico, 1920–1960." In Cruelty & Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America, Jean-François Lejeune, editor. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005.

Eggener, Keith L. "Settings for History and Oblivion in Modern Mexico, 1942–1958: The City as Imagined by Juan O'Gorman, Luis Barragán, Mathias Goeritz, and Mario Pani." In Cruelty & Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America, Jean-François Lejeune, editor. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005.

Jiménez, Víctor. Juan O'Gorman: Vida y obra. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Arquitectura, 2004.

Masters, Hilary. Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Pátzcuaro. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.

                                   Shifra M. Goldman