JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO (1893 - 1949)
PROLETARIANS (aka Basurero, Scavengers ) 1935 (Orozco 27)
lithograph, One of 88 signed and numbered of a total edition of 133, (+ 42 unnumbered and 3 unsigned and unnumbered). 12 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches. Full margins, simili-japan paper, with deckle edge. Some spots and scattered foxing in the margins and on verso. Tape at sheet corners.
From the Jose Clemente Orozco - The Graphic Work by Clemente Orozco, the artist's son:
This lithograph seems to be the result of a combination of Orozco's knowledge of Mexico City and a photographic memory. Orozco adopts an original iconography of misery- the rubbish pile and its scavengers; thus he creates a relation of mimesis amid the refuse, intrinsically anti-aesthetic, and by his treatment turns into a moving artistic manifestation. This is an image of an inhuman kind of life without any privilege: but, beyond the obvious, it shows altruism.
