Zapatista's Marching 1931

Jose Clemente Orozco’s ‘Zapatista’s Marching’ at MoMA is a masterclass in how to make brown and red feel so alive. Imagine him, in his studio, moving paint around, wiping it off, building up these figures, these horses, and these monumental hats, bit by bit. I can almost feel him layering the paint, pushing and pulling the forms from the canvas, the figures emerging like ghosts from the earth. Look how the hats tilt and jut, casting shadows, sharp and angular, a rhythmic pattern. And the cloaks—are they white or grey or some ghostly shade in between? Each stroke seems a negotiation, a conversation between intention and chance. You can almost feel Orozco talking to the great muralists like Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros, but also finding his own voice, his own way of seeing and feeling. His work makes you think about how painting is a way of embodying history, struggle, and resilience all at once, and how we can use colour to paint shadows as well as light.