The countless Dartmouth students who study in the Orozco mural room daily interact with the mural ---— even if they are unaware of its significance — simply by studying in the room, art history department chair Mary Coffey said. The National Park Service awarded the mural national landmark status in 2013, Hood Museum interim director Juliette Bianco said at yesterday’s fourth annual “Manton Foundation Orozco Lecture.”
The event’s featured speaker Luis Castañeda discussed schoolhouses in Mexico and their role in Mexican history. Castañeda explained the concept of public architecture, exemplified by these schoolhouses, as an “interface where architects, bureaucrats, artists and politicians all intersect.” Specifically, he discussed the murals in these schoolhouses.
Schoolhouses’ structure in Mexico are standardized, but local artists influence the architecture through their murals, Castañeda said in his lecture.
Coffey said in her introduction of the art historian that Castañeda’s talk would “open up a whole new world.”
In his lecture, Castañeda said that he aimed to make a connection between “radical experiments” in Mexican public education and “the architectural vessel” for these experiences.
“What I’m arguing is that these schools, a lot of which prominently featured murals, are an extension and a fulfillment of the mission of the radical muralist movement,” Castañeda said.
Castañeda said the work of the Manton Foundation, which is dedicated to the study and preservation of the Orozco mural, was a significant draw that brought him to the College.
Even before he received the invitation from the Manton Foundation, Castañeda said he felt an affinity to the College because of the presence of the mural itself, as well as his familiarity with Coffey’s work.
“Dartmouth is not just a place where you have literally a piece of the muralist experience on campus, which is absolutely unique and amazing,” Castañeda said. “It’s also a place where consciousness of muralism has been flourishing for some time.”
Castañeda said his studies revolve around 20th-century Latin American culture, with a focus on art, architecture, design and “visual culture in a broad sense.” Last year he published a book comparing design and politics in relation to the 1968 Summer Olympics held in Mexico City, Mexico.
Castañeda said his lecture today was a part of his current book project, which focuses on 20th-century cooperation between experimental architects and more traditional bureaucrats.
In its fourth iteration, Coffey said the annual Orozco lecture series draws more attention to the murals, allows students to look at them in a new way and brings outside scholars to campus.
“It’s helping to expand the intellectual discourse on the murals in new and interesting ways,” she said.
Coffey said that Castañeda brought a contemporary perspective to the lecture series, versus past lecturers who focused on history. Last year’s speaker Barbara Mundy, for example, discussed archaeology and ancient Aztec culture.
“This year I wanted to go forward, to bring in somebody who could reframe our discussion of muralism, instead of just looking at the deep past or the 1930s when the mural was built,” Coffey said. “We wanted someone who could talk about the legacies and outcomes of muralism.”
Coffey said she was familiar with Castañeda’s work from his book, in addition to knowing him socially. Castañeda offered expertise on muralism in the 1960s, a time period related to the mural with which students and community members are less familiar, she said.
For the future, she said she hopes to invite more engaging scholars with an emphasis on cutting-edge work and new insights in their respective fields.
“We want to continue to branch out even beyond art history to artists, historians, anthropologists, et cetera to have a wider disciplinary conversation around the murals,” Coffey said.
Music professor Hilda Paredes said she attended the lecture mainly because of her Mexican heritage. She said that she was impressed by the presentation and wished there were more of that type.
“I think it’s important that talks like this happen everywhere in the U.S., or outside Mexico, because it’s history that us, as Mexicans, know about and a lot of people outside the country don’t know about,” Paredes said.
