Chagoya: Drawing on History

Contemporary artist Enrique Chagoya recently donated a new work, Homage to Orozco #1, to the New School Art Collection. The drawing is on view through September 12 in Re-imagining Orozco, a multimedia exhibition in the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons. The exhibition explores the legacy of Jose Clemente Orozco’s historic 1931 New School mural cycle, A Call to Revolution and Table of Universal Brotherhood, as well as works inspired by Orozko from students and faculty from across The New School.

Homage to Orozco #1 is one of three large-scale drawings specifically conceived for the exhibition and completed on-site in the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery. In the drawing,Chagoyare-imagines Orozco’s Table of Universal Brotherhood with Stephen Hawking, Dolores Huerta, Queen Elizabeth, Mao Tse-tung, Andy Warhol, and George Washington staring out of the table at the viewer. A gigantic male nude crashes down onto the table headfirst, while an oversize skull faces the absurdist scene. Chagoya and two Parsons illustration students extended the drawing onto the wall of the gallery using caricatures from Orozco’s sketchbooks and etchings by other Parsons students.

“Chagoya’s generosity and humor fueled this exhibition, and we are deeply honored to add this gift to the collection,” said curator Silvia Rocciolo.“This was the first time we invited a contemporary artist to comment on a historic work in the collection, and it was a privilege to embark on this momentous undertaking with Enrique.”

For more information on the exhibition, including gallery hours, visit www.newschool.edu/parsons/sjdc. Enrique Chagoya will deliver a lecture on September 8 as part of the AMT Visiting Artist Lecture series, hosted by the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons; for more information, visit www.newschool.edu/events.