"Close your mouth"
Raquel Orzuj - also known as ms. orzuj - was a visual artist, editorial cartoonist, painter and cultural journalist from Montevideo, Uruguay. In her artwork, she used humor to cross cultural boundaries and address international human rights issues, especially violence against women and children.
Early life
Raquel Orzuj was born in 1939 in Montevideo into a Jewish family. Her father was Moisés Orzuj, an immigrant from Lithuania and founder of the Yiddish-language newspaper Folksblat, her mother a piano teacher. The Orzuj family had connections with many of the important people from the Jewish Uruguayan cultural community, and this environment inspired Raquel Orzuj to pursue a career in the arts, first writing, then visual arts. One of her father's friends, the artist and diplomat Zoma Baitler, encouraged thirteen-year old Raquel Orzuj to enroll at the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, and later also attend the Taller Torres Garcia art school as well as the Artigas Teachers Institute (Instituto de Profesores Artigas). In later interviews, Orzuj also credited her parents for being her spiritual guides and gurus, who taught her to stand her ground with humor and express herself as an artist. She has cited the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and the American caricaturist David Levine as important influences.
"Ecological Marketing"
Career
In her professional life, Raquel Orzuj created cartoons, caricatures, paintings, murals and more experimental artworks, while also working as journalist, cultural author and songwriter (for instance of the tango 'La Libertad de Ser'). To inspire others, she organized experimental art and humor workshops at Uruguayan institutions, but also abroad, for instance in the women's penitentiary of Madrid, Spain. One of her drives was to achieve creative freedom "in a libertarian Renaissance spirit". Important influences were historical times, for instance the Uruguayan dictatorship, which resulted in her 'Peace' series of ink drawings on long scrolls, and her 'Humorpeace' art series of caricatures, vignettes and strips. In 1988, she became an editor of the international humor magazine WittyWorld.
Between 1957 and 1962, Orzuj exhibited her work in the Torres Garcia workshop, then in galleries and Uruguayan museums. In 1977, she commenced her international activities by invitation of Robert La Palme, director of the Montréal Humor Pavilion. ms. orzuj's work has been represented in museums and galleries all over the world, including in Mexico, Italy, Germany, Former Yugoslavia, Korea and the USA. Her cartoons and comic strips have been featured in contests from Spain, Germany, Italy, England, Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel and Belgium. In 1994, Orzuj founded the International Exhibition of Graphic Humor for Women. In 2006, she compiled a book on the history of Uruguayan graphic arts ('Historia del Humor Gráfico en Uruguay', Milenio Publicaciones S.L.).
Recognition
Throughout her career, Raquel Orzuj won over 25 national and international awards. In Uruguay, she was awarded the Gran Premio Nacional De Pintura El Azahar and the Primer Premio Municipal De Pintura. Orzuj has been the subject of the documentary 'Resplandor de la Memoria - Vida y Obra de Raquel Orzuj' (2010), sponsored by the University of Alcalá, Spain, of the short celebratory documentary 'Ms. Orzuj' from the Uruguayan Film School.
"Ecological Time"