José Clemente Orozco, Reproduction of Prometheus, 1930

Narrator: This installation reproduces Prometheus, the first mural painted by a Mexican artist in the United States. José Clemente Orozco painted the Greek mythic figure in the cafeteria of what is now Pomona College in California. 

Steve Comba: Prometheus is the Titan that stole fire from the gods, which for many people symbolizes education. 

Narrator: Steve Comba is Associate Director and Registrar for the Pomona College Museum of Art.

Steve Comba: On the left panel are Zeus and Hera and they are angry. In the story Prometheus was punished by having his liver pecked out by an eagle, only to have it regenerate and have that go on for eternity. The other panel is Orozco's poetic idea about the past being consumed by the future, and so you have a satyr and other mythological figures that are being kind of pulled down by this large snake figure. The full narrative cycle kind of completes itself as you journey up to the barrel and look around, and then above the Godhead is kind of an abstraction.

Narrator: Go ahead and move into the gallery to your left. You’ll see a number of works by artists who were deeply influenced by Orozco’s vigorous brushwork and his tendency towards expressive figuration. The young Jackson Pollock was especially moved by Prometheus. He made a pilgrimage to see it soon after Orozco completed it, and kept a photograph of the work in his studio throughout the 1930s.