Viewing page 9 of 15

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[image]]
Louis Gutierrez-Construction Mr. and Mrs. E. Johnson Collection
[[image]]
Joel Ramirez-Santuario Collection the artist
[[image]]
Mel Cases-Humanscape No. 51-Auto-Erotic '69 Clean Well-lighted Place Gallery
molded, and made to respond to the artists touch, while in the process it may impose or suggest certain possibilities. He explains his approach by saying, "I bring into my work all the insights gained from structure, paintings, cinematography, and music, and by combining their resources and wedding these traditionally separate media through a single image, a new form emerges. My research, therefore, is not based on new ways of graphics per se, but in discovering a new meaning of art through graphics." Ponce de Leon's prints and his teaching have influenced artists from all parts of the country. Others who have gained some prominence in their home states are Joel Tito Ramirez (b. 1923), also from New Mexico, who explores all media, including steel and carved wood, in his assemblage paintings; Eugenio Quesada (b. 1927), from Arizona, who studied mural painting with Jean Charlot and lived in Mexico for five or six years. Quesada concentrates on easel paintings based on a figurative tradition, although he continues to be interested in murals. The third generation, which came to maturity in the '50's, represents the diverse directions that American art was beginning to take at the time. The works of Manuel Neri (b. 1930) and Ralph Ortiz (b. 1934), both sculptors, reflect the prevailing modes of the '50's and '60's respectively. Neri, a San Francisco artist, has continued to work in a figurative tradition, using plaster and paint in his relief and full-round pieces. The figural portions are generalized representations, with no attention paid to anecdotal detail, in which the expressive possibilities of the material used play an important role. This effective tension between medium and thematic structure is related to the Abstract Expressionist approach of the '50's. Ortiz, the leading destructive artist in this country, best exemplifies the artist of the '60's who has abandoned the concept of the artist as a constructor of objects. He, along with others, has sought to redefine the role of the artist and his work. He is best known for his "Piano Destruction" which he has performed on national television, in London, New York, Vancouver, and elsewhere. He explains "To realize our destructions within the framework of art is to finally rescue ourselves and civilization from the havoc reaped by our depersonalized psychologies. Destruction theater is the symbolic realization of those subtle and extreme destructions which play such a dominant role in our everyday lives, from our headaches and ulcers to our murders and suicides." His sculpture, exhibitions, concerts, and theatre performances have been seen, heard, and experienced in major cities of both coasts of Europe. He has lectured extensively in universities, on the radio, and on television. With all these activities and the publication of his manifestos, Ortiz has reached a vast audience here and abroad. Other Mexican-American artists of this generation working in the Southwest and other parts of the country include Ishmael Soto (b. 1932), a ceramist and sculptor who teaches at the University of Texas and Austin. His
[[image]] Ishmael Soto-Ceramic vase Collection of the artist
[[image]] Margaret Herrera Chavez-Highland Village Collection the artist
studio is well known throughout the area and is a meeting ground for patrons and young artists who are able to study and work there. Mel Casas (b. 1930), a painter who teaches at San Antonio College, paints large canvasses with garishly loud representations of amply endowed females in various settings, usually related to television and the movie screen. He calls these "Humanscapes." These works, with their strong thematic and pictorial tensions, draw us in, ask us to participate and identify with the passive viewer placed in front of the projected images. In California, there is Louis Guitierrez (b. 1933), who is noted for his low keyed collage painting based on geometric configurations in whites, grays, and off-whites, and recently in a richer palette. Esteban Villa (b. 1930), a teacher at Sacramento State College, is a leading member of a group of California artists that is actively seeking recognition of Chicano artists. Of the younger artists, Luis Jimenez, born in Texas in 1940 and now working in New York, is perhaps the outstanding example. Like Mel Cases, he uses the typical American phenomenon of the pop sex goddesses and the motorcycle, but adds an even more devastating dimension to his works. By concentrating on certain features of the human anatomy and exaggerating their proportions he creates satirical works comparable to some of the art of Rivera and Orozco; his large, shiny, polychromed sculptures are fashioned of fiberglass and epoxy. Other artists who should be mentioned are Emilio Aguirre (b. 1929), a San Antonio painter who uses pop-like imagery in some of his works; Michael Lopez (b. 1938), a ceramist and teacher at the Oakland School of Arts and Crafts who experiments with new as well as old materials and techniques in his work; Ray Chavez (b. 1938), a San Antonio painter; and finally, three young men Amado Peña (b. 1943), of Laredo; Glynn Gomez (b. 1945), of Santa Fe; and Rudy Treviño (b. 1945), of San Antonio. Serious students of contemporary art would find it difficult to identify an artist by nationality if confronted with the works and no other information. In this respect, American artists of Mexican descent, outside the small towns of northern New Mexico where artisans have continued to work in the old ways, are indistinguishable from other American artists. They have been affected by the same events which have revolutionized 20th century art. Still, antecedents have to be kept in mind. The Mexican-American artist straddles several traditions which at times seem irreconcilable. On the one hand he is indirectly related to the Spanish Colonial and Mexican Republican periods of American history and directly involved with American culture of the 20th century. On the other hand the ties with Mexico remain strong and in certain parts of the Southwest there appears to be a concerted effort to emphasize the latter more strenuously than ever before.