Latino artist Luis Jiménez was born in El Paso, Texas, on this day in 1940.Although he works in many media, Jiménez is probably best known for his brightly colored fiberglass sculptures.
Happy Birthday, Luis!
Latino artist Luis Jiménez was born in El Paso, Texas, on this day in 1940.Although he works in many media, Jiménez is probably best known for his brightly colored fiberglass sculptures.
Man on Fire, a larger than life-size sculpture, was inspired by José Clemente Orozco's 1938–39 dome painting in the Cabanas Orphanage in Guadalajara, Mexico. The work, which evokes the story of Cuauhtemoc, the legendary Aztec warrior who was tortured to death with fire by the Spaniards soon after the Conquest of Mexico in 1521, also reflects Luis Jiménez's keen awareness of Vietnamese monks who practiced self-immolation as a protest against the war in the 1960s.
Jiménez combines size, color, and pose to create a dramatic and heroic effect in this impressive work. The flaming figure strikes a triumphant stance with legs spread apart. The flames swirl up from a container placed between the figure's legs, moving up the right side of the torso across the back, around the head, and finally over the entire surface of the extended left arm.
Although Jiménez is primarily a sculptor, he is also accomplished at color lithographs and colored-pencil drawings. He executes preparatory drawings to work out the conceptual and formal configurations of his sculptures, which are made of fiberglass cast in a mold, then painted and coated with epoxy.
To learn about another Jiménez sculpture, Vaquero, take a virtual tour with Smithsonian American Art Museum Director Elizabeth Broun.
Source: Hispanic-American Art (brochure, Washington: D.C., National Museum of American Art).
Pictured: Luis Jiménez, born 1940, Man on Fire, 1969, molded fiberglass on fliberglass base, 106 x 80 1/4 x 29 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Philip Morris Incorporated.