Cheech Marin owns one of the largest and most renowned collections of Chicano art in America, and perhaps in the world. He has shown works from his famous collection at many venues throughout California and the United States. Recently he began collecting small paintings because, as he says, the smaller format creates a more “intimate experience” for the viewer, “drawing you in” to engage you in a personal conversation with the work of art and its artist. “Chicanitas: Small Paintings from the Cheech Marin Collection” at the Museum of Monterey is a travelling exhibition of small paintings selected by Marin from his collection, all under 16 inches by 16 inches, featuring the work of 26 established and emerging new artists working in a variety of media. The subject matter of these small paintings includes portraits, landscapes, city and garden scenes, abstractions, photo-realism, and paintings that also incorporate traditional Latino symbols and artifacts. The exceptional quality and excellent technical mastery of all these artists make this an extraordinary exhibition to see and clearly demonstrate that Marin not only has a keen eye for artistic value but also a deep and discriminating knowledge of contemporary art. This exhibition is a lesson in contemporary Latino art and provides a survey of some of the best working Latino painters in America.
Each of the 26 artists and their 65 small paintings included in this show reveal the unique attributes and personal visions and messages they wish to convey; in other words, as Marin states, “size doesn’t matter.” These artists and their works include, to name a few: Carlos Almaraz, 4th Street Bridge (1985) and Morning Bridge (1985); Elsa Almaraz, a striking Nude Figure (1984); Jari Álvarez, Donkey Show (2008); Ana Teresa Fernández, “To Press I “ and To Press II (both 2007); Carlos Donjuán, El Segundo (2009 ) and Los Super Feos (2009 ); Adán Hernández, El Diablito en El Baile Grande (2008); “Gronk” Nicondra, three untitled portraits; Frank Romero, China Town and City at Night (both 2010); Ricard Ruiz, four portraits, La Dottie (2006), La Envidiosa (2009), La Mendiga (2009), and La Preciosa (2006); Eloy Torrez, four portraits, Keinezukunft (2008 ), Portrait of Artist’s Wife (2004 ), and portraits of two brothers, Randy Rodarte and Scott Rodarte (both 2004); John Valadez, three semi-nudes in swimming pools, Aqua Chella (2009), Red and Holding (2009), and Under Water Flects (2009); and Patssi Valdez, Cheech & Natasha’s Rose Garden (2009), My Bedroom (2004), Sweeping Broom (2004), and The Wedding (2009).
One of my favorite artists in this exhibition is Margaret García. She has seven paintings on view, all portrayals of local scenes in her neighborhood and environs of Los Angeles: Buzz Cut, Car Wash, Down Figueroa St, Finding Jesus at the Taco Stand, The Last Hour, From the Window, and Urban Field of Green, all painted in 2009. These intimate small paintings all have the presence and impact of large-scale paintings, with thick and quick impressionist color strokes and vibrant gesture and movement. Looked at up close, these works appear to be color abstractions, but they have the magic human scale and focus of the eye that when viewed from a distance their subjects “magically” reveal themselves. García has admirably mastered this familiar Impressionist technique and adapted it with particular force and meaning to her small-scale paintings. This is no mean feat, as it requires great confidence and painterly control to successfully manipulate these effects on such small canvases. They are bold and powerful.
Car Wash, for example, presents a vivid and colorful “impression” of an ordinary carwash in operation, with a red car emerging from the wash through the dryer with the white “swipers” sweeping across the car, which may still be covered with soap and foam. Nothing in this little painting (5 by 8.5 inches) is really distinct or “realistically” presented. In fact, the right-hand portion of the picture is painted with such thick colored impressionist brushstrokes that it looks like an abstract decoration or haphazard layering of vertical and horizontal swatches of beautiful color. From a distance, however, even for such a small painting, the shapes and colors all cohere and magically arrange themselves into an energetic and dynamic “carwash” in action. Her desire to portray and exalt her local Latino culture and ethos is very evident, particularly in such paintings as Finding Jesus at the Taco Stand, which presents a colorful and vivid local taco stand at night, with a couple seated at a table, a car parked at the curb, and a large street mural portrait of Jesus with glowing halo on the side of the building. Such paintings are at once intimate, personal, emblematic and typical, representative of their culture and time.
Patssi Valdez’s painting of Cheech and Natasha’s Rose Garden is also especially attractive and engaging for its intimacy and style, as are Ana Teresa Fernández’s beautifully executed erotic depictions of a woman sexually straddling and embracing her ironing board, part of her well-known series, Pressing Matters. This exhibition is certainly one that everyone should see, as it brings together a selection of works by an astute and knowledgeable collector who understands his artists, their cultural mores, and their personal visions and imaginative worlds and constructs.
This show also includes in a separate room a video of Cheech Marin talking about his collection and the current exhibition, a film made by Roberto S. Oregel.
As an added bonus, in the adjoining space next to the Marin collection, you can also see the exhibition “Flows to Bay: Consumerism, Plastics and the Ocean,” whose exhibition date has been extended. This show includes works by 14 artists who use the detritus and hazardous debris we dump into our oceans to make beautiful and powerful artworks that show the devastation our pollution has caused but also create beauty and value out of the chaos of blight and ruination we have visited on our oceans.
5 Custom House Plaza, Monterey, CA
December 10, 2011 – April 1, 2012
831.372.2608
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