BIBLIO is the largest independent book marketplace in the world, with over 100 million books.

Skip to content

Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro
Stock photo: cover may vary

Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro Hardback - 2005

by Hilary Masters

Add to wish list

Reader reviews for Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro

From the publisher

Novelist and essayist Hilary Masters recreates a moment in 1940s Pittsburgh when circumstances, ideology, and a passion for the arts collided to produce a masterpiece in another part of the world. E. J. Kaufmann, the so-called "merchant prince" who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, was a man whose hunger for beauty included women as well as architecture. He had transformed his family's department store into an art deco showcase with murals by Boardman Robinson and now sought to beautify the walls of the YM&WHA of which he was the president. Through his son E. J. Kaufmann, jr (the son preferred the lowercase usage), he met Juan O'Gorman, a rising star in the Mexican pantheon of muralists dominated by Diego Rivera, O'Gorman's friend and mentor. O'Gorman and his American wife spent nearly six months in Pittsburgh at Kaufmann's invitation while the artist researched the city's history and made elaborate cartoons for the dozen panels of the proposed mural. Like Rivera, O'Gorman was an ardent Marxist whose views of society were radically different from those of his host, not to mention the giants of Pittsburgh's industrial empire-Carnegie, Frick, and Mellon. The murals were never painted, but why did Kaufmann commission O'Gorman in the first place? Was it only a misunderstanding? In the discursive manner for which his fiction and essays are noted, Masters pulls together the skeins of world events, the politics of art patronage, and the eccentric personalities and cruel histories of the period into a pattern that also includes the figures of O'Gorman and his wife Helen, and Kaufmann, his wife Liliane, and their son. Masters traces the story through its many twists and turns to its surprising ending: E. J. Kaufmann's failure to put beautiful pictures on the walls of the Y in Pittsburgh resulted in Juan O'Gorman's creation of a twentieth-century masterpiece on a wall in the town of Patzcuaro, Mexico.

Details

  • Title Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro
  • Author Hilary Masters
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition First Printing
  • Pages 130
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh
  • Publication date April 4, 2005
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780822942603 / 0822942607
  • Weight 0.88 lbs (0.40 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.5 x 8 x 0.7 in (19.05 x 20.32 x 1.78 cm)
  • Category Art & Art Instruction
  • Library of Congress subjects O'Gorman, Juan - Criticism and interpretation, Mural painting and decoration, Mexican -
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2005001792
  • Dewey Decimal Code 709.2

About the author

Hilary Masters\ is the author of eight novels, two collections of short stories, a book of essays, and a family biography, Last Stands: Notes from Memory, that has been called "an American classic." The American Academy of Arts and Letters has given his work its Award for Literature..

More Copies for Sale

Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro
More photos

Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro

by Masters, Hilary

  • Used
  • Near Fine
  • Hardback
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Near Fine
Edition
First printing
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780822942603 / 0822942607
Quantity available
1
Seller
Item price
A$43.31
A$10.11 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
PIttsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. First printing. Hardcover. Near fine/near fine. Cloth in dust jacket, inscribed by Masters on the titlepage, illustrated, clean unmarked text, near fine copy in near fine dust jacket.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$43.31
A$10.11 Delivery to USA
Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro [signed!]
More photos

Shadows on a Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro [signed!]

by Masters, Hilary

  • Used
  • Near Fine
  • Hardback
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
Near Fine
Edition
First printing
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780822942603 / 0822942607
Quantity available
1
Seller
Item price
A$57.75
A$10.11 Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. First printing. Hardcover. Near fine/near fine. Cloth in dust jacket, inscribed by Masters to fellow Pittsburgh writer Chuck Kinder on the titlepage, clean unmarked text, near fine copy in near fine dust jacket, light wear to the tips of the dust jacket. Chuck Kinder was a legendary teacher at Pitt and author of several books of poetry and fiction.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$57.75
A$10.11 Delivery to USA
Shadows On A Wall: Juan O?Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro
Stock photo: cover may vary

Shadows On A Wall: Juan O?Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro

by Masters, Hilary

  • Used
  • Good
  • Hardback
Condition
Good
Binding
Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780822942603 / 0822942607
Quantity available
1
Seller
Item price
A$61.32
Free Delivery to USA

Show details

Description:
hardcover. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Add to wish list
Item price
A$61.32
Free Delivery to USA