Orozco was born in Zapotlán El Grande, Jalisco in 1883. Although he first studied to become an agronomist and graduated as an agricultural surveyor, Orozco began his art studies in the Academy in 1906. From his earliest work there can be noticed a keen spirit of criticism through political caricatures, and a series of watercolors and drawings that are expressionist in character where he captures the crude reality of Mexico City prostitutes. In 1917, he visited the United States for the first time in search of ways to spread his art. he returned to Mexico amd worked as a muralist in the National Preparatory School. In the twenties he did easel paintings that perhaps like the work of no other artist show an apocalyptic vision of the Mexican Revolution. He went back to the United States in 1927, where he lived until 1934, exhibiting his work and painting murals in the Frary Hall of Pomona College in Claremont, California, the New School for Social Research (New York) and the Baker Library of Dartmouth College in Hannover, New Hampshire. He returned to Mexico and dedicated himself to pianting murals in Mexico City and the provinces: Catharsis for the palace of Fine Arts Museum, where he synthesizes his vision of the revolution, and on the dome of the University and in the State Government Building of Guadalajara, and began the cycle of murals in the Hospicio Cabañas with the theme of the Spanish Conquest. Between 1943 and 1948 he held six exhibitions in the National College. He died on September 7, 1949, leaving and outdoor mural unfinished.
