Year 8 History

Early in life, O'Gorman was exposed to drawing and composition through his father, Cecil Crawford O'Gorman, a well-known Irish painter who settled in Mexico. Despite this influence, he chose to focus on architecture early in his career. After graduating in 1927 from the school of architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, O'Gorman began designing spare, rectilinear houses and buildings in the style of the Functionalist architect Le Corbusier. Included among these designs were, in 1928, the house and studio of the muralist Diego Rivera, a close associate.O'Gorman worked as chief draftsman for Carlos Santacilia and other architects in Mexico City until 1932, at which time he became head of the Department of Building Construction for Mexico City and professor of architecture at the National Polytechnic Institute. He founded a study group for workers' housing and was responsible for the Functionalist design and construction of about 30 schools.In the mid-1930s O'Gorman began to focus on painting, typically creating historical and nationalistic narratives in both easel paintings and murals. His major works in Mexico City included murals at the Mexico City airport (1937–38), which were removed in 1939 because of their anticlerical and antifascist character.