Study for Modern Human Sacrifice (Panel 17) for The Epic of American Civilization
José Clemente Orozco, Mexican, 1883 - 1949
about 1930-1934
Graphite on tracing paper
Overall: 19 3/4 × 18 3/4 in. (50.2 × 47.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through gifts from Kirsten and Peter Bedford, Class of 1989P; Jane and Raphael Bernstein; Walter Burke, Class of 1944; Mr. and Mrs. Richard D. Lombard, Class of 1953; Nathan Pearson, Class of 1932; David V. Picker, Class of 1953; Rodman C. Rockefeller, Class of 1954; Kenneth Roman Jr., Class of 1952 and Adolph Weil Jr., Class of 1935
D.988.52.177
Geography
Place Made: Mexico, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Drawing
Research Area
Drawing
Not on view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, upper right: 2; inscribed, on reverse, lower right: 23, 61.1783.1; inscribed, on reverse, lower left: 1453
Label
These drawings are studies for Orozco’s fresco mural The Epic of American Civilization at Dartmouth College. Study for Hispano-America depicts an agrarian peasant as a revolutionary fighter associated with Zapatismo, an armed movement of the Mexican Revolution. His upright, column-like stance suggests a sense of courage and contrasts with the chaos spiraling around him. However, the soldier is also portrayed as a potential victim. The U.S. general behind him stands ready to stab him in the back, speaking to the long history of unwelcome and violent U.S. military intervention in Latin America. In contrast, Study for Modern Human Sacrifice shows a fully victimized soldier, skeletonized and buried beneath symbols of patriotic sacrifice. Floral wreaths, flags, a war monument, and an eternal flame all mark the death of this individual. This drawing asks us to think of the soldier figure as a sacrificial victim to the forces of modern nationalism and industrialized warfare.
From the 2023 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 110, Constructing the Ideal Soldier, curated by Nathan Savo '24, Class of 1954 Intern
Course History
ARTH 16, LACS 48, Mexican Muralism, Mary Coffey, Spring 2012
SART 20/SART 71, Drawing II/Drawing III, Colleen Randall, Fall 2019
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 110, Constructing the Ideal Soldier, Nathan Savo, Class of 2024, Curator, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 7 January - 26 February 2023
Death and Dying: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Anthropology 55, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 11-March 26, 1995.
Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California, March 9-May 19, 2002; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 8-December 15, 2002; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico, January 25-April 13, 2003.
Pinta La Revolucion: Arte Moderno Mexicano, 1910-1950; Museo del Palacio de Bellas Arts, Centro Historico, Mexico; February 1-April 30, 2017.
Publication History
Renato Gonzalez Mello and Diane Miliotes, Jose Clemente Orozco in the United States, 1927-1934, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College (Copublished by W.W. Norton and Company), 2002, p. 179, fig. 225, listed p. 297.
Provenance
Artist; by descent to the Orozco Family, about 1949; purchased by the present collection, 1988.
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