Carlos Orozco Romero (September 3, 1896 – March 29, 1984) was a Mexican cartoonist and painter who co-founded several cultural institutions in Mexico, including the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda".
[1][2] He hired a painter named Luis de la Torre, an eccentric who traveled Mexico to paint, taking his guitar and bottle of tequila along with his art supplies.
[1] He became a member of the Centro Bohemio, an organization of artists, intellectuals and militants founded by José Guadalupe Zuno, through which he met David Alfaro Siqueiros, Xavier Guerrero, and Carlos Stahl .
He traveled in Belgium and France and lived for a time in Madrid,[3][5] where he met painter Rafael Alberto and Mexican writers Luis Gonzaga Urbina and Alfonso Reyes .
[1][2] Orozco Romero's later travels included seven months working and exhibiting in New York on a Guggenheim Fellowship; later in 1957 he visited Spain, Italy, France and Switzerland.
[1] In the 1920s and 1930s Orozco Romero's work also appeared in books such as Los Pequeños, Galería de Pintores Mexicanos Modernos, and El Arte en México.
[2] He did some mural work upon his return from his first visit to Europe in the 1920s, including a commission to paint the Jalisco State Museum and Library in Guadalajara with Amado de la Cueva.
During this time, the gallery promoted artists such as Rufino Tamayo, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, and María Izquierdo, who held her first individual exhibition there.
[6] After a career of teaching in Guadalajara and Mexico City with the Secretaría de Educación Pública, Orozco Romero co founded the La Esmeralda art school in 1946.
[3][6] Orozco Romero created easel works, set design, and costume, along with book illustrations and cartoons for magazines and newspapers.
His first teacher, Luis de la Torre, was an important early influence, especially in the creation of landscapes, satirical cartoons, nudes, and portraits.