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WHEN the artist, with his concluding brush strokes, painted into the wet plaster of his last completed panel in the east wing of the large basement room of the Baker Library the signature "J. C. Orozco--Febrero 13, 1934", he marked the end of two years' creative labor and the completion of a series of murals which were to be greeted as a notable contribution to mural art in this country and which compose, quantitatively, the largest fresco project yet executed in the United States.
At a testimonial dinner tendered to the artist a few evenings later, the spokesman of the undergraduates presented to him the gratitude of the College community for the privilege of witnessing over two years the creation of this vast work of art; a message from President Hopkins extended the appreciation of the College to the artist and expressed the pleasure of the community in its association with him during his residence; artists and critics who had come to Hanover for the event congratulated the artist on the completion of his greatest frescoes and felicitated Dartmouth on her good fortune in enlisting the creative artistry of Orozco, her vision in desiring to enlist this artistry, and her courage in giving it free reign; and the chairman of the department of art pictured the occasion as "the end of a beginning" in two senses--the completion of the frescoes marking their beginning as a finished work of art, and Orozco's completed work possibly representing the first of a sequence of visits of great muralists, giving the privilege to succeeding Dartmouth generations to witness the enrichment of Dartmouth walls with living works of art.
José Clemente Orozco made his first appearance at Dartmouth May 2, 1932, as a teacher. His appointment was as a visiting lecturer in the department of art, and his commission was to demonstrate to students the ancient, difficult, and --more than any other technique of painting--lasting art of painting in true fresco. In performing this commission, Orozco demonstrated to Dartmouth students, in the corridor connecting the Baker Library with the Carpenter Art Building, the technique with which Michelangelo in the 16th century brushed unfading earth pigments into the wet plaster of the Sistine Chapel, the color penetrating into the walls and, as the plaster hardened, becoming in its fresh lustre as lasting as the structure itself. Taking as a theme the escape from the destructive uses of machinery, Orozco painted into the end wall of this corridor the small fresco that has been entitled "Release."
In May, 1932, many were interested and some were excited at this opportunity to watch a master of fresco at work at Dartmouth. But this first interest and excitement became of comparative insignificance when it was announced in June that Orozco had found in the reserve book room of Baker Library the walls of which he had dreamed as space for the conception that had been growing in his mind for a mural project which he hoped would become the greatest work of his career--an epic of civilization on the American continent. He would accept appointment to a regular faculty rank in the department of art, he would direct the experimental work of students in this medium, he would spend as many months as necessary to transfer his conception to the 3000 square feet of wall space, and in return he would receive the freedom of the walls for the development of his theme.
Orozco came to Dartmouth in 1932 as a teacher, remained for two years as a creative artist, gained the affection of the community for his sweetness of nature, injected a vital something into the College's consciousness of art, and departed in 1934 leaving a notable work in ageless colors on the library walls.
That the Orozco murals should arouse controversy was anticipated and desired. Passive acceptance has no legitimate place in the educational process, and the double-edged incisiveness of controversy is one of the major educational values to be derived from work as positive and vital as Orozco's. The Orozco project at Dartmouth was primarily an educational venture. Whatever may be the final judgment of time on the place of Orozco and these murals in the great tradition of art, the college generation which witnessed the creation of these frescoes had a rare and exciting privilege.
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