Juan O'Gorman (Mexico City, Mexico, 1905-1982), portrait of Antonio J. Bermudez, the General Director of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), 1958, oil on wood panel, with note from artist to verso

sight: 33 x 23 in., frame: 35 x 25 in.

Provenance: Family inheritance from the sitter, Antonio Jáquez Bermudez (Mexico, 1892-1977), who commissioned the portrait from O'Gorman upon the occasion of his retirement

Juan O’Gorman, the son of Irish engineer Cecil Crawford O'Gorman and Encarnacion Moreno, was one of Mexico's most prominent architects and muralists, who designed modernist homes and buildings, including the house and studio of his associate Diego Rivera. By the mid-1930s, he shifted focus to painting, producing historical and nationalistic narratives in murals and easel works. His most renowned architectural achievement is the mosaic-covered exterior of the Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, completed in the early 1950s. He was also commissioned to create a mosaic mural for the 1968 World's Fair, known as HemisFair, located on the exterior façade of the Lila Cockrell Theater in San Antonio, Texas. O’Gorman’s unique fusion of modernist architecture with deeply rooted Mexican nationalist themes secured his place as a pioneering figure in 20th-century Latin American art history.

Antonio Bermudez was the General Director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and Municipal President of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where he significantly promoted the maquiladora sector--factories that were duty-free and tariff-free. He established a whiskey distillery on the border city of Ciudad Juarez, after being displaced from Kentucky in 1927 due to Prohibition. He also served as president of the Ciudad Juárez Chamber of Commerce from 1927 to 1929. He was also mayor of Ciudad Juárez from 1942 to 1943. In 1946, he was elected senator for the state of Chihuahua. However, before he could enter the position, President Miguel Alemán Valdés appointed him general director of Pemex. Apart from his directorship there, he is remembered as the first major promoter of maquiladoras in Ciudad Juárez, creating the first industrial park where they were established.