Grief (Aflicción)

José Clemente Orozco

1930

A charcoal‑like lithograph by José Clemente Orozco showing a seated, muscular figure with hands clenched over the face, meant to embody the physical weight and immediacy of grief.

You first notice the dramatic, cross‑hatched shadows and the sculptural mass of arms and hands—so strongly modeled that the hidden face becomes a void of private pain against a flat, dark field.

Working as a print as well as a muralist, Orozco here condenses the monumental drama of Mexican modernism—turning political and personal anguish into a universal, visually immediate form that shaped 20th‑century graphic expression.

Palette

Art Terms

Lithography Print Mexican Muralism Figurative Monochrome Expressionism

Exhibitions

Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art

1940

Orozco: Studies for the Dartmouth Murals

1961

Paintings from the Museum Collection

1949

Mexican Art

1978