It is finished

The apocalyptic atmosphere in this landscape by Juan O’Gorman is the result not only of
its jumbled paths and parched trees but also of its title: "Consumatum est", or “It is finished” are, in the Gospel According to John, the final words uttered by Christ on the cross. An architect in addition to a painter, O’Gorman was a particular artist in a no less particular context—Mexico in the first half of the twentieth century. With its fine and precise lines, his painting combines a wealth of detail with overviews indicative of an architectonic sensibility mindful of spaces. The fantasy of the Mexican imaginary (offspring of the macabre and the Spanish baroque) and certain elements of modern painting come together in his figures and scenes. Like his friend Diego Rivera (indeed, many see O’Gorman as Rivera’s artistic heir), he was a painter of the Mexican Revolution who, with his murals, championed that important moment in the country’s history. A certain dreamlike and surrealist spirit makes itself in work that, like the production of many of his Mexican contemporaries, is an heir to Renaissance art. The inevitable points of reference in this landscape in particular are Bosch and El Greco, as well as Mexican painting from the colonial era.