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Juan O'Gorman

Mexican artist and architect (1905–1982)

Field	Value
name	Juan O'Gorman
image	Juan O'Gorman.jpg
birth_date
birth_place	Coyoacán, Mexico
death_date
death_place	Mexico City, Mexico
training	Academy of San Carlos
Art and Architecture School at National Autonomous University of Mexico
movement	Functionalism, Mexican muralism
patrons	Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo

Art and Architecture School at National Autonomous University of Mexico Juan O'Gorman (6 July 1905 – 17 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.

His first marriage was to Nina Wright, Russian-American architect. He later married Helen Fowler, an American artist with whom he had an adopted daughter.

Career

San Ángel houses

In 1929, O'Gorman purchased a plot containing two tennis courts in Mexico City's San Ángel colonia. On the plot, O'Gorman constructed a small house and studio intended for use by his father, now known as the Cecil O'Gorman House. The building's forms were strongly influenced by the work of Le Corbusier, whose theories of architecture O'Gorman studied. O'Gorman dubbed the house the first functionalist structure in Latin America.

Diego Rivera, a contemporary of O'Gorman, impressed with the design of the Cecil O'Gorman House, commissioned the architect to design a home for him and Frida Kahlo on an adjacent plot (O'Gorman and Kahlo had been friends since high school in Coyoacan). The house was built in a similar functionalist style from 1931 to 1932. The Rivera-Kahlo house was two houses connected by a bridge. Both houses were purchased to be restored and opened to the public with the Rivera-Kahlo house operating as a museum.

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

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. The schools were built with the philosophy of "eliminating all architectural style and executing constructions technically."

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)

Main article: Central Library (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 Ciudad Universitaria 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. The north side pictures Mexico's pre-Hispanic past and the south facade its colonial one, while the east wall depicts the contemporary world, and the west shows the university and contemporary Mexico.

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 Ciudad Universitaria, and it would be given a particular Mexican character.

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. It was demolished in 1969.

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 17 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

References

"Juan O'Gorman {{!}} Mexican architect and muralist".
(December 2024). "Juan O'Gorman".
(1942). "Juan O'Gorman". Southwest Review.
"O'Gorman, Edmundo (1906-1995), historian".
Canales, Francisco Gonzales de. (2015-06-12). "Juan O'Gorman (1905-1982)".
"Juan O'Gorman".
(2015-12-17). "The Personal Debate of Juan O'Gorman".
Traynor, Jessica. (2018-12-26). "Juan O'Gorman, architect behind Mexico City's most intriguing buildings". The Irish Times.
Quinn, Gary. (2007-06-21). "Rediscovering our man in Mexico City, Juan O'Gorman". The Irish Times.
(2015-01-05). "Modern Architecture in Latin America: Art, Technology, and Utopia". University of Texas Press.
Castro, Claudio. (2021-02-02). "A Mexico City Tour of Architect Juan O'Gorman's Design Legacy".
"Juan O'Gorman".
Orzechowski, Alan Rojas. (2018-01-17). "Restoring the past: The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Home Studio".
Fraser, Valerie. (2000). "Building the new world : studies in the modern architecture of Latin America, 1930-1960". Verso.
"Murray, Edmundo: "Irish-Mexican Brothers: Edmundo and Juan O'Gorman"".
Gupta, Tanya. (2020-11-21). "Juan O'Gorman- 13 Iconic Projects".
(2023-07-05). "Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's Fascinating Connections to Fallingwater".
O’Sullivan, Lucy. (2019-04-03). "Diego Rivera and Juan O'Gorman: Post-Revolutionary Architectural Anatomies". Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies.
(2020-07-09). "Architectural Classics: Central Library, Ciudad Universitaria / Juan O'Gorman".
"Creación del mural".
Gallanti, Fabrizio. (2015-12-17). "The Personal Debate of Juan O'Gorman".
Jolly, Jennifer, ''Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico: Art, Tourism, and Nation Building Under Lázaro Cárdenas''. Austin: University of Texas Press 2018. {{ISBN. 978-1477-314203
(2008). "Ireland and the Americas : culture, politics, and history : a multidisciplinary encyclopedia". ABC-CLIO.
(1982-01-20). "Juan O'Gorman, 76; Painter and Architect". The New York Times.

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