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    Juan O'Gorman: A Confluence of Civilizations
    Juan O'Gorman: A Confluence of Civilizations
    Juan O'Gorman: A Confluence of Civilizations
    Ebook176 pages2 hours

    Juan O'Gorman: A Confluence of Civilizations

    By Catherine Nixon Cooke

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    About this ebook

    To create the "Confluence of Civilizations" mural commissioned for the 1968 World's Fair in San Antonio, Texas, Juan O'Gorman collected natural stones from all over Mexicotwelve colors in allfield stones that the artist knew would never fade or change their hue. Juan O'Gorman: A Confluence of Civilizations follows the life of Juan O'Gorman and covers the creation of this spectacular piece of midcentury public art that stands the test of time not just in vibrancy but as one of the most influential works created by a storied Mexican artist.

    Juan O'Gorman was a not only a painter and a muralist, a mosaic artist, a critic, and a professor, but he was also an architect and a revolutionary; possibly most famous for his close friendship with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and as designer of their infamous two-house studio in Mexico CityCasa Azullinked by a symbolic bridge.

    To celebrate San Antonio's "HemisFair" Exposition in 1968, Juan created the giant mosaic mural that still adorns one wall of the Lila Cockrell Theater along San Antonio's famed River Walk. The design plans for the five ton mosaic measured 2600 square feet and consisted of 540 numbered panels, each weighting about 90 pounds.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMaverick Books
    Release dateOct 17, 2016
    ISBN9781595347985
    Juan O'Gorman: A Confluence of Civilizations
    Author

    Catherine Nixon Cooke

    Catherine Nixon Cooke is the author of Tom Slick Mystery Hunter and a contributing author to They Lived to Tell the Tale: True Stories of Adventure from the Legendary Explorers Club. Cooke served as editor-in-chief of Coronet magazine for more than a decade. She lives with her husband in San Antonio, Texas, and on a farm in the nearby Hill Country.

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      Book preview

      Juan O'Gorman - Catherine Nixon Cooke

      Published by Maverick Books, an imprint of Trinity University Press

      San Antonio, Texas 78212

      Copyright © 2016 by Catherine Nixon Cooke

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Book design by BookMatters

      Cover art: Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas, Juan O’Gorman, 1966–1968. Photograph by Christian Besson, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Collection

      ISBN 978-1-59534-798-5 ebook

      Trinity University Press strives to produce its books using methods and materials in an environmentally sensitive manner. We favor working with manufacturers that practice sustainable management of all natural resources, produce paper using recycled stock, and manage forests with the best possible practices for people, biodiversity, and sustainability. The press is a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit program dedicated to supporting publishers in their efforts to reduce their impacts on endangered forests, climate change, and forest-dependent communities.

      The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 39.48–1992.

      CIP data on file at the Library of Congress

      2019181716|54321

      For Flora Cameron Crichton,

      who gave the Confluence of Civilizations mural to the City of San Antonio

      and who has enhanced her community and beyond with her gifts of culture and beauty

      (fold out) Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas covers more than twenty-five hundred square feet, comprised of natural stones from Mexico. Its message of diverse cultures coexisting to create a harmonious world is as powerful today as it was when Juan O’Gorman created the mural, between 1966 and 1968.

      Contents

      PROLOGUEFeathers, Jade, and Magic

      ONERoots

      MEXICO, 1905–1915

      TWOThe Builder

      MEXICO CITY, 1920–1930

      THREEA Return to the Earth

      MEXICO CITY, 1930–1960

      FOURA Gift to a City

      SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 1960–1970

      FIVEJewel in the Crown

      SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, 1968–FOREVER

      SIXA Man of the People

      MEXICO, 1968–1982

      Timeline

      Photo Credits

      Bibliography

      Acknowledgments and Credits

      Index

      The left side of...

      The left side of the Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas mural by Juan O’Gorman reflects early Mesoamerican culture.

      Prologue

      Feathers, Jade, and Magic

      I believe that we are all creatures of history;

      We do not live in a world without roots.

      —JUAN O’GORMAN

      Quetzalcóatl, the plumed serpent, resplendent in his cloak of colored feathers and jade, ancient god of Mesoamerica, undulates across the landscape. He embodies the spirit and culture of Latin America. With no effort, he transforms into Ehecatl, the wind god, and bellows through his conch shell, delivering knowledge to future generations, trumpeting the sacred voice of religion and art to his world. He has helpers for this supernatural task—a remarkable array of creatures and characters. A monkey and a white parrot accompany him; black butterflies hover; and a mysterious woman, who holds an obsidian mirror made of dark volcanic glass, peers into the future. There is magic in the air; something extraordinary is about to happen.

      Mythologies from the Olmec, Aztec, and Maya cultures blend. Figures from the ancient Mexican calendar, the tonalpohualli, join the dance—an eagle, a human skull, a condor, a jaguar, a moon, an open book, and luscious fruits add to the mystery. Architect, artist, and muralist Juan O’Gorman invites us to embrace a remarkable confluence of civilizations—to explore the magic, and to follow Quetzalcóatl, the serpent-monster, on an adventure that stretches across 130 feet of mosaic stones carefully collected by the artist, who traveled throughout Mexico for six months seeking just the right colors to capture his story.

      From the other side of the mosaic mural, another drama begins in ancient Macedonia; and those characters and creatures are working their way toward the center as well. The mighty Greek god Zeus travels past sacred temples, accompanied by creatures of his own—a snake (symbol of science and medicine), a horse (representing transportation), and an ibis (symbolic of writing, mathematics, measurement, and time, as well as magic and the moon). The expedition to the center continues, past the influences of Europe, the Industrial Age, and religion.

      Both stories begin in the ancient past; and they take us to the present, and perhaps the future. They are connected by a great river—the universal symbol of transformation, change, and growth—flowing across the bottom of the mural, glittering blue in the Texas sun.

      According to scholars, Quetzalcóatl’s richly colored feathers and jade rings represent the very core of Latin America. As early as 900 B.C., the feathered serpent god appears on a stela at an Olmec ceremonial site; and ancient codices document Quetzalcóatl’s importance. More recently, modern exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art have explored his role as the founder of the Nahua, Mixtec, and Zapotec kingdoms in southern Mexico. The hovering butterflies in the mural are also powerful symbols in the pre-Columbian world, representing the fearsome goddess Itzpapalotl, ruler of the Aztec calendar. She carries obsidian—that black, lustrous, sacred stone that is associated with the night and her magic; and it is part of the gleaming dreamscape. And in the world of ancient Greece and Rome, Zeus is the god of the sky, the father of gods and men, the guardian of political order and peace. He wields a mighty thunderbolt, and like the gods of Latin America, an eagle accompanies him.

      The right side of...

      The right side of the mural reflects ancient Macedonian culture.

      While Quetzalcóatl travels through ancient Mesoamerica and beyond, Zeus journeys through the landscapes and symbols of the Mediterranean and Europe—both creatures of history, representatives of the very roots of their civilizations. And somewhere along their paths, cultures collide and blend, in a confluence of civilizations.

      Today our world continues to experience the confluence, at an ever-increasing speed. We are global citizens; and our roots reach back to ancient origins. Somewhere within, perhaps, we still hold the archetypical images of those long-ago places that have influenced who we are.

      Come explore. Journey with artist Juan O’Gorman through twentieth-century Mexico. His extraordinary murals were a voice for social justice and economic reform following the Revolution of 1910, his buildings pioneered modern architecture in Latin America, and his paintings helped shape artistic expression internationally. Plunge into his surreal, magical dreamscapes; discover the past; consider the implications for the present and future. The adventure begins in the mountains of central Mexico, at the start of the twentieth century, as the first whispers of revolution were heard in the wind . . . perhaps carried by Ehecatl himself.

      This detail in...

      This detail in O’Gorman’s painted sketch for the mural depicts Ehecatl, the legendary wind god of the Aztecs, and illustrates the artist’s use of color and metaphor in his work.

      Recuerdos de los...

      Recuerdos de los remedios, painted by Juan O’Gorman in 1943, depicts the Guanajuato landscape of his childhood and the colors that inspired a lifetime of creativity.

      One

      Roots

      MEXICO, 1905–1915

      The little boy sat with his abuelita on the stone patio, gazing at the hills that surrounded the beautiful city of Guanajuato. He knew that the gambusinos—Spanish entrepreneurs—had found silver in those hills in the mid-sixteenth century, and that over the next three hundred years, the mines had produced 60 percent of the world’s silver.

      Founded in 1557, Guanajuato was a colonial city with European influences, but its gardens of lemon and guava trees and brightly colored houses reflected an indigenous style as well. The Jardín Unión in the center of town was flanked by eucalyptus and oak trees; and blooming nopal and calabaza flowers added vibrant color to the terracotta walkways of the plaza’s gardens. At five thousand feet, the city was cool and dry. A sloping cobblestone

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