González Camarena, Jorge

20th Century Mexican

Jorge González Camarena belonged to the last generation of muralists (Juan O’Gorman, 1905-1982; Alfredo Zalce, 1908-2003; Federico Cantú, 1907-1989; José Chávez Morado, 1909-2002) who, as noted by Luis Carlos Emerich, approached “sugar-coated Mexican subject matters as comic strips or tableaux vivants painted like family portraits with an extremely rich heroic tradition” in a symbiosis of mythological, biblical and historical narratives with local themes.

González Camarena spent his youth in Mexico City, where he attended the San Carlos Academy albeit none too assiduously. He began to make headway in advertising, collaborating with the painter Dr. Atl (1875-1994) in the edition of the portfolio Las iglesias de México and contributing articles to several newspapers. In 1933, the Dirección de Museos Coloniales commissioned him with the restoration of the mural works at the Huejotzingo Franciscan monastery, a task that was to furnish him with technical expertise.

In the course of his career he created many mural paintings, among which his best-known one is undoubtedly Mankind is Freed from Poverty, at Palacio de Bellas Artes. He also created mosaic murals for the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores in Monterrey, and is remembered for his illustrations for the covers of text books for Secretaría de Educación Pública.