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.
JUNE 24, 1996: Politics of culture; social progress; being optimistic but realistic; the Latino movement in the 1990s; Mexican attitudes toward Chicanos; the CARA exhibition at UCLA; Garcia's students at San José State; current work, interests and projects; interest in art history and other intellectual pursuits; and the art market, dealers, and galleries.
Biographical / Historical:
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.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
This interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with José and Malaquias Montoya, 1988 Feb. 28-June 2. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Interviews of brothers José and Malaquias Montoya conducted 1988 Feb. 28-June 2, by Eduardo Hernandez, for the Archives of American Art.
The Montoya's recall growing up as Mexican-Americans in a rural town in Colorado; moving to urban areas in California; their early education and development of their political awareness; and their artistic experiences, including their founding of the Royal Chicano Air Force, a group working primarily as muralists.
Biographical / Historical:
José Montoya (1932-2013) was a Mexican-American poet and artist in Sacramento, Calif. Malaquias Montoya (1938- ) is a Mexican-American artist in Oakland, Calif. He and his brother José founded Royal Chicano Air Force, a group working primarily as muralists
Premeditated : meditations on capital punishment : recent works : an exhibition organized by the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame / by Malaquias Montoya
