In this essay, Xavier Villaurrutia examines José Clemente Orozco’s paintings through a prism of dread. The writer contends that this dread, this sense of horror, though not the only feeling present in Orozco’s work, is almost always the dominant one, and he sees it not just as the expression of a feeling but as a character in and of itself as well. In this sense, Orozco’s work intoxicates the viewer to some extent and thereby imbues his painting with a seductive quality. Villaurrutia ends with a quote from French poet and essayist Charles Baudelaire that alludes to the taste for that sense of horror to be found in Orozco’s work: “None but the strong are inebriated by the seductive power of horror.” 

Xavier Villaurrutia (1903-50) was a poet, literary critic, and playwright. He was the editor of many literary and theatrical publications. Death was one of the main themes of his œuvre. As one who wrote about a subject that few care to consider, Villaurrutia was able to look at works by José Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) and see the horror that is generally lost on the conventional viewer; this allowed him to see different aesthetic nuances in Orozco’s paintings. His essay is valuable because—in addition to acknowledging Orozco’s importance as one of the “Big Three” just a few days after he passed away on September 7, 1949—it also documents how the author perceives and then transmits his vision of the sense of horror to be found in Orozco’s paintings.   The Revista Mexicana de Cultura is the Sunday supplement of El Nacional newspaper. This particular issue was devoted entirely to the memory of José Clemente Orozco, and included tributes by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Fernando Gamboa, Antonio Castro Leal, Xavier Villaurrutia, Carlos Pellicer, Álvar[o] Carrillo Gil [sic], Fedro Guillén, Antonio Rodríguez, Justino Fernández, Manuel Lerín, Efraín Huerta, Miguel Rubio Candela, and Mauricio Gómez Mayorga.