José Clemente Orozco

In this roughly drafted oil sketch, three figures wait motionless in an empty space; the barest outline of a chair or throne appears to the left of the principal figure. At the far right, a zoomorphic creature wearing a cap fades into the gray background; a second figure with human arms is concealed by a triangular black form; closest to the viewer, the most carefully rendered figure sits fully erect, his heavily muscled body captured in warm pinks and reds, his simian head topped by several long black feathers. This unsigned work, also acquired from Orozco's family, is the least elaborated image by the painter in the Blaisten collection. Similarly strange pseudo-prehispanic headdresses appear on figures in earlier murals and paintings, such as the "Coming of Quetzalcoatl" [La llegada de Quetzalcoatl] panel at Dartmouth (1932-34) and the "Dictators" [Los dictadores] panel in the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara (1937-39), where they are equated with barbarism and violence. Though a definitive interpretation is difficult, this painting seems closely related to images from the 1947 series known as "Los Teules," inspired by accounts of the violent clash between the Spanish and Aztecs at the time of the Conquest. Whomever this seated "warrior" and his companions may be, there is little doubt they are members of a council of evil, far from the colorful indigenous heroes that populate so many of Diego Rivera's murals and paintings. Indeed, Orozco's "Teules," like the figures in this picture, seem part of an extended visual response to Rivera's idealized interpretations of the pre-Columbian past, especially his National Palace frescoes of the 1940s.