Orozco: Man of Fire
An American Masters/VOCES Presentation
Monday, September 16 at 10:00 pm
Artist José Clemente Orozco (1883-1945) is one of the leading lights of the Mexican Muralism movement.
2022-23 marked the centennial of the birth of Mexican muralism, the influential artistic movement that combined the centuries-old tradition of painting on public walls with social and political fervor. Celebrations have launched throughout Mexico, including numerous exhibitions in major museums. After receiving requests to screen Orozco: Man of Fire as part of the centennial events, filmmakers Laurie Coyle and Rick Tejada-Flores decided to create a Spanish language version of the documentary, working with stellar actors, including Damián Alcázar (Narcos, Acapulco) as the voice of Orozco, and Arcelia Ramírez (La Civil), who narrates the film.
In the post-revolutionary 1920s, a groundbreaking group of Mexican artists had a vision of bringing art to the people, art that would fuse European modernism and expressionism, pre-Conquest art and mythology, and Indigenous arte popular/folk art. The heart of the movement was representation: after centuries of painting dominated by Spanish and other European art, Mexican painters declared that Indigenous and mestizo lives matter and that their untold history should be writ large on public buildings for all to see. The movement created the careers of artists who would go on to international renown, including Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros – and José Clemente Orozco.
The life of Orozco is one of the great stories of modern art, filled with drama, adversity and remarkable achievement. He survived the loss of his left hand and the destruction of his early work by U.S. border agents and witnessed the carnage of the Mexican Revolution and the turmoil of the Great Depression in New York. A gifted easel painter, Orozco was first and foremost a public artist whose greatest achievements were murals created not for individual patrons but for society. His work had a far-reaching influence on subsequent generations of American artists, including such important figures as Thomas Hart Benton, Jackson Pollock, Jacob Lawrence and the Chicano mural movement.
Orozco: Man of Fire recreates the artist’s journey with footage of his greatest works; excerpts from his autobiography and letters; interviews with family members, renowned author Carlos Fuentes and esteemed American artists including Elizabeth Catlett, Will Barnet, and John Wilson. Weaving a rich tapestry of images and sound, the film evokes the artist’s distinctive style and opens a window into his inner life, passions and convictions.