An interview of Alberto Mijangos conducted 2003 Dec. 5- 12, by Cary Cordova, for the Archives of American Art, in San Antonio, Tex.
Mijangos speaks of his family background, early childhood memories and early art education at San Carlos Academy of Art; the Air Force in Mexico; Los Tres Grandes, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros; coming to the United States; painting bull fighters; leaving Texas for Chicago; favorite paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago; moving to San Antonio; suspicion of being a communist; becoming a Mexican diplomat; working with Mel Casas who led Mijangos to abstraction; Con Safo; difficulty in achieving respect from Americans; moving to Oaxaca, working there and trying to fit in; returning to San Antonio, changing his lifestyle; changing inspiration, Mark Rothko and Mijangos new use for color; tee-shirt paintings; his relationship with galleries; the artistic community of San Antonio; his use of numbers and fabric in his paintings; interest and use of photography in his artwork. Mijangos also recalls Raul Gamboa, Rufino and Olga Tamayo, Gabriel Sanchez, Francisco Goitia and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Alberto Mijangos (1925-2007) was a Mexican born artist from San Antonio, Tex. Cary Cordova (1970- ) is an art historian from Austin, Tex.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hrs., 48 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Painters -- Texas -- San Antonio -- Interviews Search this
This interview is part of the series "Recuerdos Orales: Interviews of the Latino Art Community in Texas," supported by Federal funds for Latino programming, administered by the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives.
The digital preservation of this interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
