Consider Juan O’Gorman donate donate the artist’s personal archive to UNAM

Quiet and proud of the memory and recognition in Mexico of the life and work of his father, the painter and architect Juan O’Gorman (1905-1982), María Elena O’Gorman advanced to The day His interest in donating to our country the personal archive that protects that prominent artist, from whom this year is celebrated the 120th anniversary of his birth.

Such collection, details, contains photographs, about 10 engravings and personal correspondence, as well as articles about their work and some other documents, in addition to a series of original paintings of who his wife, also the American artist and botanist Hellen Fowler.

I have a big trunk with many things; I have reviewed it very little. I still don’t know what to do with him, but my intention is to send it to Mexico. I plan to donate it, because, when I die, I don’t know what your destiny will be. That is why it is better to be here, is where it must besaid Pedagogue, who has reside in San Antonio for several decades.

He affirmed that to make such assignment – which would also include the artist’s easel, the same one that appears in his famous painting Multiple self -portrait (1950) -, will request the intermediation of the director of the Nancarrow O’Gorman Space Foundation, the art historian Adriana Sandoval. In principle, he contemplates that the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is, for being the institution where his father studied and the place that protects his most significant work: the mural of the central library, which covers the four external faces of that building.

Regarding the paintings of Hellen Folwer or Hellen O’Gorman, her mother, María Elena O’Gorman said that they are the same that gave rise to a book on endemic plants and trees from Mexico published in the middle of the last century, which currently exists The proposal of a group of biologists from the UNAM, headed by Martí Gil, to redeem it.

Born in 1956 in San Francisco, the United States, María Elena O’Gorman was adopted by the marriage formed by the Mexican muralist and the aforementioned American artist when she was 18 months old. Bunnyas his parents said, he lived both in the house of San Jerónimo and in Garden 88, a few steps from the current Rivera and Kahlo museum. He is currently visiting Mexico after 20 years of absence. The most recent time was here was on the occasion of the celebration of the centenary of Juan O’Gorman, in December 2005.

Now he does it on the occasion of the sample All O’Gorman Juan O’Gormanopened yesterday at the University Museum of Sciences and Arts (MUCA), In the University City, through which various public institutions, higher education –unam, UAM and IPN–, the Conlon Nancarrow Foundation and national artists join efforts to celebrate the painter and architect for the 120th anniversary of their birth.

Possible rectruption of the Cueva Casa

I feel very proud of this tribute, I am very pleased, it is an honor. Yes I feel that my father is very well valued in Mexico, he is recognized as an architect and as a plastic artistthe pedagogue already retired in the interview with this newspaper.

She also said that she feels very happy that the said exhibition shows the model of the Cueva Casa, and that there is even the possibility of reconstructing it, as stated during the opening of the sample, especially because the demolition of that property destroyed my dad mentally; After that he went down. It was your baby, its creation.

He stressed that Juan O’Gorman had a social vision of art and architecture. Of the first, he considered that much of his meaning was to educate people, That is why its murals are educational works, about the history of Mexico. To the architecture, he added, he saw it as an element to provide people with better life, as he did evidence in the design of his schools, in which he prioritized natural light and ventilation. I had a social vision of architecture, because it also struggled because it was accessible.

– What do you remember more from his father as an artist?

– As a painter, because it was what I saw most of him. I remember, for example, when I was doing the mural in Chapultepec Castle. My mom and I took dinner every night because the full week was working in that place.

– And as a person?

“Well, she had her ideas, but she was very loving with me and worried a lot.” In the end, it was my dad. For his ideas …, I mean he was very liberal and disciplined. He was also Marxist and perhaps he did notice a little, but he kept believing that we are all the same. He was a socialist.

After indicating that the creation that is proud of the artist is the Central Library of the UNAM –It is a magnificent work, of great beauty, and continues here-, María Elena O’Gorman considered that Juan O’Gorman’s school architecture projects are less explored than the mural work, since the latter It has a lot of color and is more strikingwhile schools are more utilitarian.

My dad knew that his work did not like many people, although it is not something that I remember very well, because he was very younghe said, and then emphasize that his legacy in the field of functionalist architecture is still present today and, in this regard, he mentioned that Primary schools in the United States are almost equal to those that my dad designed, although I don’t think he knows that he did that. They look the same.

– What is one of the key lessons of its architecture for new generations?

–The simplicity. He liked it a lot. I do not know if he has seen what he did in Diego Rivera’s house, the tinacos are open, everything is functional. My mother didn’t like it so much, but …

About All O’Gorman Juan O’Gormanit was highlighted in its opening that is A multidisciplinary exhibition, a party for memory, a dialogue that is caused within one of the most important educational projects in our country: University City.

Curated by Adriana Sandoval, it will remain open until April 5 and it integrates a work body made up of the most important collection of early architecture of the artist, facilitated by the UAM Azcapotzalco Unit and documents of the General Archive of the Nation, by means of Memoric : Mexico make memory; the archive of Mexico City, the National Photo Library; the Academy of Arts; the Historical Archive of the UNAM; The Historical Archive of the IPN, and the Manuel Toussaint photographic archive, as well as the work of various national artists.