 José Clemente Orozco (born November 23, 1883, in Zapotlán el Grande (now Ciudad Guzmán), Jalisco; died September 7, 1949, in Mexico City) was a Mexican social realist painter who specialized in bold murals. Orozco was fond of the theme of the human versus the mechanical. He was also a genre painter and lithographer.
Orozco studied in Mexico City at the San Carlos Academy. With Diego Rivera, he was a leader of the Mexican Renaissance. An important distinction he had from Rivera was his critical view of the Mexican Revolution. While Diego was a bold, optimistic figure, touting the glory of the revolution, Orozco was less comfortable with the bloody toll the social movement was taking. Orozco is known as one of the "Big Three" muralists along with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. All three artists, as well as the painter Rufino Tamayo, originated in Mexico and experimented with frescoes and murals on large walls. One of his most famous murals is The Epic of American Civilization at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA. It was painted between 1932 and 1934 and covers almost 300 m² (3200 square feet) in 24 panels. Another of his murals is to be found at the New School for Social Research, now known as the New School University.
As Orozco's philosphies changed over the years, he painted more and more about politics, and his personality suffered. He was known as a cold and unemotional fascist, who admired Hitler. Jose Orozco was born to Rosa de Flores Orozco, he married Margarita Valladares and had three children. His other works include Prometheus (1930, at Pomona College, California), Zapata (1930), The Man of Fire (1939), and Christ Destroying His Cross (1943).
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