O'Higgins, Pablo (1904–1983)

Pablo O'Higgins (b. 1904; d. 1983), American artist who worked primarily in Mexico. Born Paul O'Higgins in Salt Lake City, Utah, he was raised and educated in the United States. In 1924 O'Higgins traveled to Mexico, where he was attracted to the muralist movement, then in its early years. He became a studio assistant of Diego Rivera, and from 1925 to 1927 participated in the creation of Rivera's murals at Chapingo and Mexico City. In 1927 he joined the Communist Party, and from 1931 to 1932 he studied at the Moscow Academy of Arts. Upon returning to Mexico, he began to create his own murals, the first in 1933. His major public work, La explotación del campesino y del obrero, was executed at the Mercado Abelardo Rodríguez, Mexico City, in 1934–1936. He also produced murals in the United States, including one for the Ship Scalers' Union Hall, Seattle, in 1945. O'Higgins was a founding member in 1933 of the leftist artists' group Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios, and in 1937 of the graphics collaborative Taller de Gráfica Popular. He died in Mexico City.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century; Rivera, Diego.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Elena Poniatowska and Gilbert Bosques, Pablo O'Higgins (1984).

Museo Del Palacio De Bellas Artes, Exposición homenaje Pablo O'Higgins, artista nacional (1904–1983) (1985).

Dawn Ades, Art in Latin America: The Modern Era, 1820–1980 (1989).

James Oles, South of the Border: Mexico in the American Imagination, 1914–1947 (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Celorio, Gonzalo, Teresa del Conde, and Pablo O'Higgins. Pablo O'Higgins: Hombre de siglo XX. Mexico City: Difusión Cultural, UNAM, 1992.

Reyes Palma, Francisco. Pablo O'Higgins: De estética y soberanía. Mexico City: Fundación Cultural María y Pablo O'Higgins, 1999.

Uranga López, Lourdes. El tema campesino en la pintura de Pablo O'Higgins. Chapingo: Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Dirección de Difusión Cultural, Coordinación de Extensión Universitaria, 1987.

                                     Elizabeth Ferrer