San Antonio College Library

From its inception in the 1960s to its present form, contemporary Mexican American or Chicano art has developed as an art of identity, asserting the uniqueness of Chicanos and their dual Mexican and U.S. American cultural backgrounds. Because it emerged as a social phenomenon, however, many people outside the Chicano community have perceived Chicano art as merely protest art or social commentary, and Mexican American artists have been largely ignored...

"Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art" brings into sharp focus the rich diversity of an art movement that is now achieving full recognition in the art community at large. These two volumes encapsulate the lives and careers of nearly two hundred artists -- from such established masters as Luise Jiménez and Yolanda López to emerging new talents Xóchitl Cristina Gil and Vincent Valdez -- and presents representative samples of their work, faithfully...

At the beginning of the 20th century a lively and profitable exchange developed between artists in the United States and Mexico. The Americans were full of enthusiasm for the Mexican synthesis of history and modernity and their social commitment, which contrasted strongly with the consumer culture in the U.S. The Mexican artists in turn found important financiers across the border. The volume shows through paintings, drawings, photographs and graphical...

Over the past twenty-five years, Chicano artists have made a unique contribution to public art in California, transforming thousands of walls into colorful artworks that express the dreams, achievements, aspirations, and cultural identity of the Mexican-American community. Signs From the Heart tells the inside story of this new and important American art form in four interpretive essays by noted Chicano scholars about its historical, artistic, and...

This first serious study of contemporary santeros working in northern New Mexico is amply illustrated throughout with beautiful color photographs. Laurie Beth Kalb examines the role and meaning of tradition in the work of a number of artists, both living and deceased, including Luis Tapia, Patrocinio Barela, Marco and Patricia Oviedo, Enrique Rendon, and many others. For each of these artists, the meaning of tradition varies, and the issues of self-representation,...

"In the five centuries since the historic encounter between the civilizations of the Old and New Worlds, Latin America has spawned a rich and varied range of artistic expression. This diversity is precisely the challenge the late Marta Traba had to face in writing Art of Latin America 1900-1980, a comprehensive look at artists and artistic currents in the southern part of our hemisphere. One of Latin America's most prolific and eloquent art critics,...

Among the lasting legacies of the Chicano Movement is the cultural flowering that it inspired -- one that has steadily grown from the 1960s to the present. It encompasses all of the arts and continues to earn acclaim both nationally and internationally. Although this Chicano artistic renaissance received extensive scholarly attention in its initial phase, the post-Movimiento years since the late 1970s have been largely overlooked. This book meets...

Just Another Poster? investigates the critical role posters and other graphic materials played in the Chicano struggle for self-determination in California, from the borderland of San Diego to the urban metropolis of San Francisco. This volume of essays by an interdisciplinary group of scholars and curators represents the first comprehensive study of the ways the poster, as a medium of expression largely relegated to the margins of art world display,...