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 Eye Exam Going Chicanismo
Chicano art has come a long way since the César Chávez-influenced days
of such cornerstone cultural players as Gronk or the Los Four
collective's Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, Gilbert "Magu" Lujan and
Beto de la Rocha. In the sixties, seventies and through approximately
1985, Chicano art had a notable momentum throughout Southern California
and Texas. That drive seems to have since suffered significant
diminishment in the last decade or so. What Chicano art means today for
many seems a distant echo, for example, to the political and critical
work of Patssi Valdez and Chicano performance-art collective ASCO,
Spanish for "nausea." What brought about the waning of such
substantial
politico-cultural groups? It's a question worth asking. Now may be a
time for a critical assessment of the movement as a whole: and, as the
institutional center of gravity for the Pilsen neighborhood, the Mexican
Fine Arts Center Museum this week will undertake to accomplish just that
with the opening of "Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge."
On tour since November 2001, when the show first opened at the San
Antonio Museum of Art in Texas, its central theme is the influence and
range of Chicanismo.
Does this exhibition provide honest assessment of either the art or
the culture? With sponsors such as the archconservative Clear Channel
(who knew they had a department for art exhibits, but they do:
www.clearchannelexhibitions.com), the Hewlett-Packard Company and
Target
stores, this show reads like a juggernaut of feel-good public
relations.
Hell, they've even wired in a celebrity: actor Cheech Marin, from
whose
private collection eighty-some odd works were harvested as the core art
of this show. Despite the corporate rubber-stamping, however, given
the
rarity of such shows, it's worth viewing. There's quite a lot of
work
with a standard nationalist feel, such as the floating signifiers of
Melesio Casas' "Humanscape" series, in which a plate of brownies
replace
majestic mountainsides or a kitchen sink stands in as the symbol of
liberty behind a family posed for action. But there are also smaller,
more intimate, personal works such as Gronk's "Getting the Fuck Out
of
the Way!" depicting a bone facing down some stalactites in a dark
cave.
While there's a lot of humor, there's also a larger range of
landscapes,
mural-influenced painting and drawing and an amiable attempt to
represent the whole. It'll certainly be fun for the kids as well:
opening-night festivities include music, a display of low-rider cars
and
Marin himself will make an appearance. More information on the show and
a useful history of the artists included is available at chicano-art-life.com.
But if that's not enough to sate, don't worry: there's yet another
Chicano art exhibit opening this week. Not as pretty, "Art from the
Inside" shows another side of the cultural equation this weekend at
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Organized by the New
England Center for Contemporary Art's Martha V. Henry, on display are
121 handkerchiefs drawn on by Chicano prisoners. Most certainly a
grittier account of Chicano art, the handkerchiefs, known as
panos, were illustrated letters from inmates to their family
members on the outside, often comprised of "montages composed of
Pre-Columbian symbols, colonial religious icons, Mexican historical
figures and images from 20th century popular culture." In one image,
drawn by an artist known as "Snowman," a man with bandana drawn low
on
his brow holds his fists in the air, breaking the chain between his
wrists. Two women's heads float above and beside him, a low-rider car
in
the foreground. A security watchtower looms on the right, a grid of
cell
bars on the left from which dangles a surrealist melting watch over a
candle, pages of an endless calendar falling from the dripping wax. Young guns
This week the Hyde Park Art Center mounts its annual education
exhibit with "Homegrown: Selected Produce," including work in a
variety
of media such as "painting, drawing, photography, ceramics, stained
glass, sewing arts and more." Have a look at what students of the
Center
have been doing and consider picking up a class or two: this year
they've also opted to include work from their adult studio-art
classes,
omitted in recent years. Mea culpa
Last week's column stated that Tony Wight of Bodybuilder & Sportsman
Gallery lives in his space at 119 North Peoria. In fact, he moved his
living quarters out of the building this past January. Chicano Visions shows at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum,
1852 West 19th Street, (312)738-1503, through September 4. "Art From
the
Inside" shows at Intuit: the Center for Intuitive & Outsider Art, 756
North Milwaukee Avenue, (773)243-9088, through September 3.
"Homegrown:
Selected Produce" shows at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5207 South Hyde
Park Boulevard, (773)324-5520, through August 6.
Also by Michael Workman Tip of the Week
Eye Exam
Eye Exam
Tip of the Week
Eye Exam
Eye Exam
Eye Exam
Eye Exam
Tip of the Week
Tip of the Week
Eye Exam
Eye Exam
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