Jose Chávez Morado

José Chávez Morado, born in 1909, was one of the greatest 20th century Mexican muralists, focused on political and social factors of the Mexican revolution and embraced his heritage much like Dr. Atl had wanted for all Mexican artists. He was the last of one of the greatest 20th century muralists, who greatly influenced Mexican styled art. This paper will discuss his life journey, accomplishments, and two of his great works/murals. The purpose of this is to gain insight on one of the 20th centuries greatest artists, and examine his work from multiple perspectives to give us understanding and view his work in a different light. Jose, was a painter, printmaker, muralist, promoter and cultural advisor, he also made a valuable contribution in
It is located in one of the outer walls of the Auditorium of the Faculty of Sciences at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Jose recreates the serpent Quetzalcoatl as a boat that represents peoples of the oldest civilizations with a flaming background. At the left end of the mural is a pyramid stabbed by a sword and spear, this image is meant to remind us of the conquest of America. On the serpent boat, from left to right, is figure a representing Egyptian culture; next to it is a Franciscan friar, who represents Christianity; behind the friar is a winged figure, most likely an angel. in the In the middle of the boat, we have the main character, who is a red man clearly representing the indigenous people of Mexico, who runs the course of the boat wearing a mask of Ehecatl, god of wind, with a speech scroll coming from his mouth. To the right of the red figure, is the Mesopotamian/Persian figure, followed by a Greek, and to the right of him an Asian man and then a Middle Eastern man, representing Buddhism and Islam. Jose takes us to the idea of the return of Quetzalcoatl, i.e. pre-Hispanic culture, augmented by the contributions of other ancient cultures. I believe this mosaic represents the same journey that these cultures have all experienced, and that is the survival of their history and their culture. This mural looks to the past, but it also looks to the future in that they are all moving in the same
Was it just something he was good at? Did he love it passionately? Or did he want to change how people thought about art entirely? I think it was mixture of all three, ever since his was young he was intrigued by art and had natural creative ability to produce his own ideas. While was in America he worked through multiple occupations, but then found his way back to art, and after meeting Orozco he knew he loved it, and knew what he wanted to do. His art was exactly what Dr. Atl had wanted, to abandon European art style, and create Mexico’s own art from the richness of the culture and history that came with it. Jose, used his travels and his knowledge of his heritage to create pieces that made observers ask questions, to make their brains think deeper than what was right in front of them, and analyze his work to find a deeper meaning. When looking at Jose’s works and his life journey, an important question to ask is how did his work change how we think about muralism and the Mexican art style? For Jose, he grew up in time of turmoil in his country, being only a boy during the Mexican revolution, and was most likely exposed to great tragedies. Leaving Mexico as soon as he could, he began opening his mind to different cultures without even realizing it. His travels greatly influenced his art, which therefore greatly influenced art itself. He was for the under privileged and lower class, and his beliefs came