Juan O'Gorman (6 July 1905 – 18 January 1982) was a Mexican painter and architect.

Early life and family

Juan O'Gorman was born on 6 July 1905 in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough of the city, to an Irish immigrant father, Cecil Crawford O'Gorman and Encarnación O'Gorman Moreno. His parents were distant cousins. He had three younger siblings, Edmundo, Margarita and Tomás. Despite his father's influence, O'Gorman chose to focus on architecture early in his career. In 1927, he graduated from Academy of San Carlos, the Art and Architecture school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. O'Gorman dubbed the house the first functionalist structure in Latin America. The house was built in a similar functionalist style from 1931 to 1932. Both houses were purchased to be restored and opened to the public with the Rivera-Kahlo house operating as a museum.

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File:FridaDiegoSanAngel049.jpg|The 1929 Cecil O'Gorman House

File:DETALLE ESCALERA CASA JUAN O GORMAN, ATRAS FACHADA CASA-ESTUDIO FRIDA KAHLO SAN ANGEL INN MEXICO DF CLAUDIA AGUILAR.jpg|The exterior staircase of the Cecil O'Gorman house.

File:San-Angel-Casa-Rivera-Kahlo.jpg|The Rivera-Kahlo house as visible from the street

File:FACHADA CASA-ESTUDIO DIEGO RIVERA SAN ANGEL INN MEXICO DF CLAUDIA AGUILAR.jpg|A bridge connects the two divisions of the Rivera-Kahlo house

File:Vista externa del Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo.jpg|Panorama of Rivera-Kahlo house

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Schools

In 1932, Narciso Bassols, then Secretary of Education, appointed O'Gorman to the position of Head of Architectural Office of the Ministry of Public Education, where he went on to design and build 26 elementary schools in Mexico City.

After 6 years of functionalist projects, O'Gorman turned away from strict functionalism later in life to focus on painting and murals, including works at the Mexico City airport in 1937 and "Credit Transforms Mexico" for the International Bank on Reforma Avenue, now moved to HSBC.

After being asked by Edgar Kaufmann Sr. to submit a proposal for murals for the Pittsburgh Young Men's & Women's Hebrew Association, O'Gorman spent a weekend at Fallingwater, which inspired him to return to architecture, this time a more organic architecture, combining the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright with traditional Mexican constructions.

Central Library at Ciudad Universitaria (UNAM)

thumb|O'Gorman's mural Historical Representation of Culture on the [[Central Library (UNAM)|Central Library at UNAM]]

Juan O'Gorman's most celebrated work due to its creativity, construction technique, and dimensions, are the four thousand square meters murals covering the four faces of the building of the Central Library at at UNAM. These murals are mosaics made from millions of colored stones that he gathered all around Mexico in order to be able to obtain the different colors he needed.

<blockquote>From the beginning, I had the idea of making mosaics of colored stones in the walls of the collections, with a technique in which I was already well experienced. With these mosaics the library would be different from the other buildings of , and it would be given a particular Mexican character.</blockquote>

Later work

O'Gorman built and designed his own house in the suburb of Pedregal, which was part built structure part natural cave, which is known as "The Cave House" from 1953 to 1956. It was decorated with mosaics throughout. Due to financial reasons O'Gorman sold the house to the Mexican sculptor Helen Escobedo in 1969, with the promise that the house would be preserved in its original state. However the house was partially demolished and modified, later transformed into a music school without a clear preservation plan for O'Gorman's architectural legacy.

His paintings often treated Mexican history, landscape, and legends. A mural commission in Pátzcuaro, Michoacan resulted in the huge "La historia de Michoacán" in the Biblioteca Pública Gertrudis Bocanegra in a former church. He painted the murals in the Independence Room in Mexico City's Chapultepec Castle, and the huge murals of his own 1952 Central Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, designed with Gustavo Saavedra and Juan Martínez de Velasco.

In 1959, together with fellow artists, Raúl Anguiano, Jesús Guerrero Galván, and Carlos Orozco Romero, O'Gorman founded the militant Unión de Pintores y Grabadores de México (Mexican Painters and Engravers Union).

Death

O'Gorman was found dead at his home of suicide at age 76, on 18 January 1982. Authorities believe the artist grew despondent after being diagnosed with a heart ailment which curtailed his work.

Awards

  • National Prize for Arts and Sciences of "fine arts", 1972.

Bibliography

See also

  • Mexican Muralism
  • Modernist architecture in Mexico

Further reading

References

  • Juan O'Gorman on artcyclopedia.com