San Francisco State University -- Students Search this
Extent:
97 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1996 Aug. 15-16
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Jacinto Quirarte conducted 1996 Aug. 15-16, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art.
Quirarte discusses his professional and personal experience both as a Mexican-American growing up in the Southwest and in California, and as an art historian who was among the first to identify and study the Chicano art movement. He describes his family background, his attraction to figurative art as a student at San Francisco State University, his interest in Mexican muralists, and his fascination with pre-Columbian art which became his speciality. He further discusses his career in Latin America, particularly from the standpoint of multiculturalism and regionalism in his native country; the problem of overlapping political/cultural entities and the connection between pre-Columbian and Chicano situation; the notions of group identity, and shift from universalism to individual identity as part of the Chicano art evolution.
Biographical / Historical:
Jacinto Quirarte (1931-2012) is an art historian at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Quirarte is the author of several books on Latin American art, among them "Mexican American Artists" (1973), "Izapan-Style Art" (1973), and "Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States, 1920-1970" (1988).
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 7 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. Funding for the interview provided by the Smithsonian Latino Fund.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Art historians -- Texas -- San Antonio -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Mel Casas conducted 1996 August 14-16, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art.
Casas discusses his current work - dipped acrylic paintings in which technique and material become the subject; his involvement with Chicano art political issues and his own experience as a Mexican-American; a discussion of his family background; art education; early Abstract Expressionist painting; a shift to figuration; thirty years teaching at San Antonio College; the Chicano "movimiento"; and Chicano art and key figures, including Carlos Almaraz and Carmen Lomas Garza.
Biographical / Historical:
Mel Casas (1929-) is a painter from San Antonio, Texas.
General:
Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 3 hr., 5 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
An interview of Enrique Chagoya conducted July 25-August 6, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art.
The interview takes place at Chagoya's home in South San Francisco (sessions 1,2) and at Karlstrom's San Francisco office (session 3). Chagoya's wife, Kara Maria, joins in for the final portion of the interview. Chagoya discusses activities in Mexico and the U.S.; his involvement with the Galeria de la Raza and the Chicano Movement; his work, including books that are based on Pre-Columbian codices; his application of "reverse anthropology," the history of the Americas and Europe, as if Mexico conquered Europe; Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; the legacy of Mexican muralism and the union of art and ideology; the nature of his own interest in Pre-Columbian imagery; his sabbatical year in Paris; collaborations with his wife Kara Maria, including issues of self-projection into works of art; artistic responsibility; creation of hybrid cultures; the separation of his art from other Chicano art; and identity as a Mexican. Chagoya's wife, painter Kara Maria, discusses her training at UC Berkeley, meeting Chagoya; their evolving relationship as artists; his role as mentor; and her separate artistic identity.
Biographical / Historical:
Enrique Chagoya (1953-) is a Mexican American painter, graphic artist, and educator in San Francisco, California. Kara Maria (1968-) is Chagoya's wife.
General:
Originally recorded on 7 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 13 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hr., 43 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 -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews Search this
Printmakers -- California -- San Francisco -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Rupert Garcia conducted 1995 Sept. 7-1996 June 24, by Paul J. Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, at Rupert Garcia's home and studio, in Oakland, Calif.
SEPT. 7, 1995 SESSION: Session opens with a discussion of Garcia's exhibition, Aspects of Persistence (1993); the deaths in 1968 of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Marcel Duchamp; Garcia's self-conception and his two roles as political activist and artist; the influence on him of Sartre's "Being and Nothingness"; racism, power, control; his background and being a Mexican-American; need to establish ethnic identity; his realization in high school of wanting to become an artist; his lost opportunity for a scholarship at the San Francisco Art Institute; moving to San Francisco; enlisting in the Air Force and serving in Vietnam; ambivalence about war; experiences at San Francisco State University and his switch from painting to silkscreen; Artes Seis and Galerie de la Raza; artists in the Mission District.
NOV. 10, 1995 SESSION: Painting vs. graphic art; posters; Lucy Lippard; Chicano art; Los Four, Asco, and other artists groups and conferences; conflicts between San Francisco and Oakland groups; emergence of identity groups; Malaquias Montoya, Carlos Almaraz; making art from experience.
Rupert Garcia (1941-) is a painter and teacher from the San Francisco Bay area, Calif.
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, administrators. Funding for this interview provided by the Smithsonian Institution Latino Pool Allocation Fund.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
