Images of Resilience: Chicana/o Art and Its Mexican Roots
February 4, 2017 - May 28, 2017
Lightcatcher Building
Alfredo Arreguin; La Alameda, 2011; Oil on canvas, 58 x 42 in. Courtesy of the artist.
February 4 – May 28, 2017, Lightcatcher Building
Curated by Patricia Leach, Executive Director
Sponsored by Heritage Bank
Images of Resilience: Chicana/o Art and its Mexican Roots is an exhibition that explores the development of Chicana/o art, from its beginnings in Mexican art of the early 1900s, to the Chicana/o movement of the 1960s and ’70s, to its relevance today. Images of Resilience reflects how Chicana/o art has been a part of community building, history making, and cultural citizenship for Mexican-Americans and Chicana/os. The exhibition will feature artwork focusing on Mexican art trends in the early twentieth century, as well as artworks that arose from the Chicana/o civil rights movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Post-revolution Mexican art is typified by a shift from European academic styles to what we consider traditional Mexican art today, including illustrations of skeletons, or calaveras.
The exhibition features work from Los Tres Grandes—Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siquieros, and Jose Clemente Orozco, three internationally prominent artists originally hired by the Mexican government in the 1920s to create identifiably Mexican art. This new style emphasized their cultural roots with a respect for non-Spanish traditions and instilled a patriotic pride in the Mexican people. The Chicana/o movement of the ’60s and ’70s grew from a cultural reclamation and struggle for social justice. Drawing on styles created post-revolution, this era of Chicana/o art deals with rural themes—agriculture, religious holidays, folk heritage—and the new urbanized lives that the Mexican-Americans were living, shown through pop culture, cars, and Hollywood iconography.
PARTY > Members see it first at the member reception! Friday, February 3, 5 – 7 PM at the Lightcatcher building.
ARTIST LECTURE > Featuring Seattle-based artists Cecilia Concepción Alvarez and Alfredo Arreguín, Saturday, February 4, 2pm at Old City Hall.
DOCENT TOURS > Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 1:30 PM at the Lightcatcher building, beginning February 12, 2017.
FILM SCREENING > The Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival presents Chicano Legacy: 40 Años, Sunday, February 19, 2pm at Old City Hall.
LECTURE > Featuring artist and scholar Amalia Mesa-Bains, Wednesday, March 22, 12:30pm at Old City Hall.
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- Frank Romero; The Closing of Whittier Blvd.; 1990, Serigraph. Courtesy of The Mexican Museum.
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- Ester Hernandez; Sun Mad; 1982, Serigraph on paper. Gift to The Mexican Museum from Ester Hernandez. Courtesy of The Mexican Museum.
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- Carmen Lomas Garza; Tamaledera; 1990, Lithograph on paper. Courtesy of The Mexican Museum.
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- Patssi Valdez; The Altar, 1991; Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of The Mexican Museum.
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- Cecilia Concepcion Alvarez; Las Cuatas Diego/The Diego Twins, 1979; Oil on canvas, 20 x 27 x 2 in. Courtesy of the artist.
