The Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) was one of the artists responsible for the renaissance of mural painting in Mexico in the 1920s.

José Clemente Orozco was born on Nov. 23, 1883, in Zapotlán el Grande (now Ciudad Guzmán) in the state of Jalisco. In Mexico City he studied at the School of Agriculture (1897-1899), the National Preparatory School (1899-1908), and the National School of Fine Arts (1908-1914). He exhibited some of his drawings in the Centennial Exposition in 1910 and had his first one-man show in 1916. He visited the United States in 1917-1918.

In 1922 Orozco initiated his mural work. His first murals at the National Preparatory School (1923-1924) are derivative and stiff, but with the work he executed there on the patio walls and staircase vaulting (1926-1927) he began to develop his own style. During this period he also executed the mural Omniscience...