Nothing he has done publicly since the completion of his ironical historical frescoes in Guadalajara has materially added to his reputation. Partly, I think, because of Rivera’s personal unpopularity, and only partly because the older man’s greater authority is now being recognized, José Clemente Orozco has acquired, during these years, the greater prestige at home. But in the frescoes which he is now making in the National Palace, on the subject of pre-Conquest history, there are glimpses of the once-honored master, the man of talent and energy, of knowledge of mural design and passion for color. Most people think his new paintings are tripe. Mention of Diego Rivera, who once ruled the School, now arouses so much rancorous argument that it is hard to estimate, with any objectivity, such values as may be seen in his more recent murals. The old gentleman sat every day in the frigid galleries at the top of the Palace of Fine Arts, wrapped up in mufflers and receiving the homage of thousands: for in Mexico, a successful artist remains a great public figure. Atl, the prophet of the Mexican renaissance, has been officially honored by a retrospective exhibition of his globular landscapes in bright Atl-color, a waxy pigment of his eccentric invention. And three or four new young people - not very many - have appeared on the scene.ĭr. Some of the young men who were print makers first - Raúl Anguiano, José Chavez Morado, and Alfredo Zalce -have grown up as painters. Francisco Gutiérrez died of a tragic ailment not long after he had begun to exercise the true lyrical power which was hardly in sight in 1941.

Others, like Francisco Goitia and Agustín Lazo, have dropped out of sight in the galleries through neglecting to paint. A few artists have disappeared from the group, like the mysterious young genius Tebo, whom no one has seen in the City for four or five years. SINCE I made my first comprehensive report on the Mexican painters six years ago, when I took my readers on a tour of about fifty studios, the membership of the School of Mexico City has become somewhat more clearly defined.

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