page_title: Ocotlán de Morelos
section_title: Rodolfo Morales
hierarchical_section_title: Ocotlán de Morelos / Arts and handcrafts / Rodolfo Morales
caption_attribution_description: English: "Mujer con Niño" by Guillermina Aguilar Alcantara of Ocotlan de Morelos on display at Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca in San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. See COM:CRT/Mexico#Freedom of panorama
context_page_description: Ocotlán de Morelos is a town and municipality in the state of Oaxaca, about 35 km south of the center of the city of Oaxaca along Highway 175.
  It is part of the Ocotlán District in the south of the Valles Centrales Region. The area was a significant population center at the time of the Spanish Conquest, and for that reason an important Dominican monastery was established here in the 16th century. The complex still exists, with the church still being used for worship and the cloister area used as a museum. While mostly quiet, the city is an important distribution and transportation center for the south of the Central Valleys region of Oaxaca, a function which is expected to be reinforced with the opening of new highway being built to connect the city of Oaxaca with the Pacific coast. The city is known for artist Rodolfo Morales, who painted aspects of his hometown in his works and sponsored projects to save and restore historic monuments here. For generations the municipality has been known for its crafts, with the ceramics making Aguilar family producing some of the best known craftsmen.
context_section_description: The town is intimately linked with the life of painter Rodolfo Morales. He has depicted it in his works and has worked to save many of its historic and architectural treasures. The artist's work is devoted to images from this hometown, including local churches, indigenous women, religious procession and others. Art critic Julio Cesar Schara states that Ocotlan is a down without grace or major heroes but Morales reinvented the area with his own imagination, painting Neoclassic palaces, angels, fairies to express how he felt about the place. One of his last works called "Mercados" depicts market scenes from the town painted on columns.
  Rodolfo Morales’ career as an artist developed in fits and starts. In the 1950s, Morales was commissioned to do the mural work in the municipal palace of Ocotlan, painting it with historical and current scenes related to the municipality. Much of this mural work shows similarities to mural work done by Diego Rivera. From that time to the 1970s, Morales remained in obscurity, teaching art privately and for a UNAM affiliated preparatory school. In the 1970s, his work was discovered by Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo, when Morales was in his 50s. This later work was more surreal than that of the mural he painted when he was younger.  From the time of his discovery by Tamayo until 1986, Morales continued to work at the preparatory school even though his work was being sold in Europe, Mexico and the United States. In 1986, Morales retired from teaching to paint full-time. The production from this time period brought him fame and fortune, allowing him to sponsor civic projects in his hometown. In 1992, he established the Rodolfo Morales Foundation dedicated to fomenting the culture of Oaxaca and supporting the youth of Ocotlan. The artist died in 2001. Much of the restoration work in the monastery and church were done by Morales himself, including feminizing the angels and making the faces more solemn.
  While Morales is Ocotlán's best known creative mind, the town has been associated with crafts for generations. Some of the crafts still practiced here include basketry, textiles in the form of rebozos and other traditional clothing embroidered in silk thread, blade making, saddlemaking and miniatures in lead. The town is known for its red clay pottery, which is often painted in various colors. Octolan is part of a stretch of road on which are a number of crafts towns such as San Bartolo Coyotepec, San Martin Tilcajete, Santo Tomás Jlietza and Santa Ana Zegache.
caption: "Mujer con Niño" by Guillermina Aguilar Alcantara at the MEAPO Museum.
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