| Pablo O'Higgins was born on March 1st., 1904 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a family of Irish-American origins. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a farmer. Until 1909 Pablo O'Higgins lived at the family's ranch 'El Cajon' in California. He was sent to primary school in Salt Lake City and high school in San Diego and Salt Lake City. He received piano lessons, and in 1914 gave his inaugural concert. A year later he was initiated into the field of painting and his family relocated to San Diego, California. In 1922, he abandoned his career as a musician and entered the Academy of Arts in San Diego. It was not long before he became dissatisfied with the academic techniques employed by their art instructors and decided to move to Mexico where he began his permanent residence in Mexico City in 1924. O'Higgins also spent a year at the Academy of Art in Moscow on a Soviet Scholarship (1933). Once again, unimpressed with the instruction, most of his time was devoted to sketching Soviet workers at the railroad station. O'Higgins first gained a close knowledge of modern Mexican art when he was appointed the primary assistant to the great master, Diego Rivera who became his friend and mentor. O'Higgins worked with Rivera for both his Chapingo and Ministry of Education projects. Due to political differences and O'Higgins' desire to create his own works, he left Rivera's tutelage when the Chapingo murals were completed. One of the lengthiest associations (1934-1960) was his connection with the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists or LEAR; an anti fascist organization that led to his participation on a mural at the Mercado Abelardo Rodriguez in Mexico City, created to denounce war and the monopolists involvement in food distribution. Unfortunately, Pablo felt that LEAR was in unison with the government in power, consequently attracting artist whose sole purpose was to obtain commissions, but who demonstrated little interest in contributing to the political art or contention. As a result, the Taller de la Gráfica Popular (TGP) was organized by Pablo O'Higgins, Loepoldo Mendez and Luis Arenal. Its goal, not unlike that of LEAR, was to combat fascism, racism and improve the lives of the underprivileged through the collaborative efforts of its members. But, in contrast to LEAR, it was much more active in the political movement. During this period, Pablo painted ten murals throughout Mexico. He either painted or collaborated on the (Escuela Emiliano Zapata, 1933), (Talleres Graficos de la Nacion, 1936-1939), (Escuela "Estado de Michoacan" 1938-1939) (Escuela "Gabriel Ramos Millan, 1949). Pablo O'Higgins also created two murals in the United States and in keeping with his political art and views; both promote union solidarity and empower the worker. The first was requested by the Union of Ship Scalers for their Seattle, Washington offices. It is on display at the University of Washington. His second U. S. commission (1952) was for the offices of the International Union of Longshoremen and Warehousemen in Honolulu, Hawaii. He exhibited in San Francisco at the Art Center Gallery (1925 and 1927) along with Diego Rivera, Jose Clement Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and other great Mexican masters. He had a one-man exhibition in New York at the John Levy Gallery (1931), which included over twenty of his works. He also exhibited in Cuba, Spain, Los Angeles and Mexico. It is imperative to mention that his work was included in the first large group exhibit of Mexican art held in the United States. He was the only non-native Mexican artist whose work was included in the Modern Art's exhibit "Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art" in New York (1940) and the Mexican Government has awarded him the highest honours in retrospectives of his work at El Palacio de Bellas Artes. It is evident that the influence and dominance of his political art continues with the inclusion of his works in major exhibitions of Latin American art throughout Mexico, the United States and in Britain. Pablo O'Higgins became a Mexican citizen in 1961.
During his travels in 1968, he gave courses in mural painting in Moscow and Eastern Europe. In 1971 he received the Elías Sourausky Award in arts.
Pablo O'Higgins died on July 16th, 1983, and a funeral was organised at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. He was buried in Nuevo León.
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Pablo O´Higgins
, 1904 - 1983
