Orozco Paints Fresco

Jose Clemente Orozco, the famous Mexican artist who, with his countryman Rivera, is a leading modern exponent of the ancient and lasting art of the true fresco, spent the greater part of the past month in Hanover on appointment of the Department of Art to exhibit the art of fresco painting, incidentally leaving the College in possession of a mural painting of rare worth.

Orozco arrived in Hanover May 2. The site selected for his work was the wall at the end of the corridor leading from Carpenter Hall into Baker Library. The wall space, well lighted and at an effective focus "at the end of the long corridor, is about seven by eight feet in dimensions. Several days were required for the preliminary plastering in preparation for the final coat of plaster on which the fresco artist paints while it is still wet. Arrangements were made for watching the artist at work at a little distance in order not to disturb him.

Orozco's painting, called "Release" representing release from the destructive uses of machinery and the rediscovery of the soul in the creative use of the hands, is now completed in rich colors. It shows junked machinery and exploded guns in the lower part, with a figure above discovering freedom in the use of his hands. The only other fresco known to be in the possession of any college in the United States is the gigantic Premetheus mural which Orozco painted for Pomona College in Claremont, California.