Zapata

A sense of danger pervades this painting of Emiliano Zapata, the leader of an army of Mexican laborers that fought for liberty and land redistribution for the poor during the early 20th century: bullets are strung across a man’s shoulder, a sword is pointed at another’s eye, and figures kneel in enervated poses. José Clemente Orozco portrayed Zapata silhouetted against a doorway, standing before two other revolutionaries and two grieving figures. For Orozco and other leftist Mexicans, Zapata—assassinated in 1919—became a symbol of the revolution that took place from 1910 to 1920. With its emphasis on violence and suffering, this depiction is ambiguous rather than laudatory. A leader of the Mexican mural movement, Orozco worked in his home country as well as in the United States, painting Zapata in California.