MIAMI, United States. — June 10, 2020 died in Mexico City (Mexico), victim of COVID-19, the Mexican painter Antonio González Orozco, one of the main exponents of muralism in the Aztec country.
Born on May 10, 1933 in Mexico City, González Orozco studied from 1953 to 1957 at the Antigua Academia de San Carlos. In 1956 he was a student of Diego Rivera, who motivated his interest in muralism during a course he taught at that institution on mural technique.
Throughout his extensive career —which spans the second half of the 20th century and part of the 21st century— Antonio González Orozco contributed to Mexican art with easel paintings and portraits, drawings, engravings, serigraphs, sculptures, many of which He exhibited in 31 individual exhibitions, both in Mexico and in various countries such as the United States, Canada, Poland and Romania.
His works would trace a distant and somewhat experimental pictorial line to that of his teachers Leandro Carreón and Diego Rivera.
Particularly noteworthy are eight mural paintings by González Orozco, located in Mexico City, Coahuila, Sinaloa and Chihuahua.
The prominent muralist alternated his artistic career with his work as a restorer at Chapultepec Castle, a place where he left his mark with two paintings of his own: Portrait of Joaquin de la Cantoya y Rico (also know as Cantoya Ballon) and Execution of Agustín de Iturbide.
As a restorer at Chapultepec Castle, he met his wife: Mercedes Arriaga Rivera. He married her in 1969, with whom he had two children: Alejandro and Antonio. In 1978 he installed his house-studio in the pre-Hispanic town of Tetelpan, south of Mexico City. In this place he continued his creative work until his death in 2020.
