Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge [Hardcover]

Cheech Marin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

Cheech Marin, well known for his three decades of work as a comedian, actor, director, and musician, has long championed Chicano artists and been a collector of their work. This breakthrough publication will be available in both hardcover and paperback formats. The exhibition features Marin's collection of over 30 artists' work, and their paintings that depict Hispanic culture, religion, and politics with brilliant color and emotion. Incisive essays by leading scholars describe the origins of Chicano art. In the same way that Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo redefined our understanding and appreciation of Mexican art, Chicano artists such as Gronk, Patssi Valdez, and Carlos Almaraz are putting Chicano art on the cutting edge of contemporary art.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It might be a challenge to think of a guy best known for enthusiastically inhaling (with Tommy Chong) as a serious art collector, but Marin has been acquiring paintings by Mexican-American artists for more than 20 years. Chicano Visions presents the work of 30 Chicano artists whose paintings will be exhibited at the Smithsonian and tour the country. The exhibition, which has major corporate sponsorship, is a breakthrough for a movement that has been largely excluded from museums and galleries, Marin notes. He defines the school as "a blending of influences-traditional Mexican and American Pop," and admires the spirit that drives these artists to show paintings "in restaurants, coffeehouses, or wherever there is a wall and an audience." There are 96 paintings in full color here, including Gronk's Hot Lips, a portrait in which a woman's large, loose curls of hair perfectly frame her title attribute, and Leo Limón's "Mas Juegos," in which a nude, smoking woman reclines on an ordinary couch, but daydreams extraordinary things.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Marin is an art collector and community activist as well as a director and actor (one-half of the Cheech and Chong duo and costar of Nash Bridges) and a pioneer in recognizing the vibrancy and significance of Chicano art. The Chicano school began evolving 30 years ago as artists sought to combine traditional Mexican imagery, themes, and styles with American pop, and it is now the source for some of America's most evocative, animated, brilliantly hued, inventive, and gripping contemporary painting. Marin's extraordinary collection forms the foundation for this exciting and invaluable showcase for the spiritually powerful and aesthetically diverse work of 30 seminal artists, including John Valadez, Gronk, Diane Gamboa, Patssi Valdez, Adan Hernandez, and Carlos Almaraz. Gorgeous color plates are accompanied by brief artist bios, Marin's impassioned introduction, and illuminating essays by art critic Max Benavidez, who traces the political, social, and artistic roots of the Chicano sensibility; curator Tere Romo, who concentrates on Chicana artists; and art historian Constance Cortez, who discusses the concept of Aztlan, "a geographic and a symbolic locale" that inspires many Chicano painters. Sensuous, cosmic, or satirical, Chicano paintings reflect our symbiotic, bicultural world in all its conflicts and soulfulness, sorrows and beauty. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch; 1 edition (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821228056
• ISBN-13: 978-0821228050
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,121,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An evocative and inspiring monograph of Chicano Art, December 2, 2002

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge (Hardcover)

Hats off to Cheech Marin for curating from his own collection, as well as museum and private and the artists' collections, a body of work that is one of the most interesting and challenging definitions of Chicano Art in the USA today. Not only is the book well designed and lavishly illlustrated with superb
paintings, the accompanying essays by Marin, Max Benevidez, Constance Cortez, and Tere Romo are enlightening, thought provoking, and serve to answer many of the questions as to why Chicano art is so unique a contribution to the art world, not only here in Los Angeles but across the country.

The paintings by such luminaries as Frank Romero, John Valadez, Margaret Garcia, Gronk, Eloy Torrez, and the late and much missed Carlos Almaraz only hint at what treasures are in store for the aficionado as well as the novice. The quality of color reproductions is good and the placement of the works in context with brief statements about the artist or the subject makes turning each page an adventure.

Chicano Art is recognized by the knowledgeable art critics as probably the most important single school of art to blossom in Los Angeles in the past 50 years. These artists express the heritage of the Hispanic (if that word may be used...) population - the struggle of the dream of El Norte, the magical realism of folklore, the passionate use of color and light, the incomparably complex compositions that layer not only images but experiential feelings on a single canvas, the joy for living, the response to music. Whether in the hands of photorealist John Valadez or the explosive expressionism of Carlos Almaraz or the grand scale and imagination of Frank Romero (whether dealing with his much collected Still Lifes or his panoramas of East LA past and present), these paintings leap of the page, involve us and demand attention.

This is an excellent homage to this excitingly rich art movement. It deserves to be in the collection of everyone who longs for validation of life as a reason for making and collecting art. Bravo to all concerned!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fearless, robust, and innovative art, June 27, 2004

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge (Paperback)

Some of the most innovative and brilliant art in America is being done by those in the Chicano art movement; the range of styles and techniques is vast, but they all share a vibrancy and vigor that is hard to find elsewhere in the art world.
Cheech Marin has accumulated a fabulous collection, and must be commended for bringing this art to fifteen cities the U.S. in the travelling exhibit, and to the world with this marvelous book. Marin also writes the insightful introduction, and there are excellent and informative essays by Max Benavidez, Constance Cortez, and Tere Romero, as well as mini bios of the 26 artists represented in the volume.

Among the highlights for me are the 4 pictures by George Yepes, that include his "La Pistola y el Corazon," which was the cover for the Los Lobos CD of the same title (pg. 144), the 10 pages of the glorious, impressionistic work of Carlos Almaraz, especially "Southwest Song," with its horse and rider and splashy moonlit sky (pg. 53), and Leo Limon, starting with his "Frida and Palomas" through his complex symbolic storytelling in "Los Muertos" (93-99). I recently had the opportunity to view Frank Romero's work at the Icaro Gallery in Long Beach, California, and was thrilled by his rich use of color, and his sense of humor, both aspects which are well illustrated on pages 108 through 117.

The layout of the this book is excellent, and the color reproduction superb; on thick glossy pages, the work comes alive, excites and inspires, and will not be forgotten. This is work that will stand the test of time, and as Marin writes, the viewer is "...transported to a place both timeless and immediate, that provides the ultimate validation for this new movement in art."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vibrant Visions of La Vida, September 13, 2003

By 

Daniel Olivas (West Hills, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge (Hardcover)

Though not as extensive as "Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art" from Bilingual Press, Cheech Marin's "Chicano Visions" is a vibrant, lusty and masterful introduction to Chicano art. If you're Chicano, you might recognize many of the faces and images represented here by such fine artists as John Valadez, Frank Romero, Ester Hernandez, and many others. If you're not a member of the Chicano community, you will nonetheless be dazzled by the powerful images and colors of the culture. The introductory essays by Max Benavidez, Constance Cortez and Tere Romo assist us in contextualizing the art that is often, but not always, steeped in the socio-political rumblings of el movimiento. Hats off to Cheech Marin for sharing these fine works with the world.