Pariah

Marcos Dimas, Pariah, 1971-1972, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.15, © 1971-1972, Marcos Dimas
Copied Marcos Dimas, Pariah, 1971-1972, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 in. (165.1 x 137.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.15, © 1971-1972, Marcos Dimas

Artwork Details

Title
Pariah
Artist
Date
1971-1972
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
65 x 54 in. (165.1 x 137.2 cm)
Copyright
© 1971-1972, Marcos Dimas
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure — bust
Object Number
2013.15
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2013.15

Artwork Description

The defiant figure in Pariah wears an indigenous amulet and has wavy black hair that suggests African ancestry. Dimas depicted his monumental figure using a range of paintings styles associated with abstract art that flourished in New York during and after the 1950s. He painted Pariah shortly after he cofounded Taller Boricua, an artists’ collective that shaped the cultural dimensions of the Puerto Rican civil rights movement in New York. These artists created works that affirmed the hybrid African and indigenous (or Taino) identity of Puerto Ricans.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013
Description in Spanish

La figura desafiante en Pariah lleva un amuleto indígena y tiene el cabello negro y ondulado sugerente de la ascendencia africana. Dimas utilizó la gama de estilos pictóricos relacionados con el arte abstracto que floreció en Nueva York desde la década de los cincuenta para representar esta figura monumental. El pintó Pariah poco después de co-fundar el Taller Boricua, el colectivo de artistas que formuló la plataforma cultural del movimiento a favor de los derechos civiles de los puertorriqueños en Nueva York. Estos artistas crearon obras que afirmaron la identidad africana e indígena (o taína) híbrida, de los puertorriqueños.

Videos

Exhibitions

Media - 2011.12 - SAAM-2011.12_1 - 77591
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
October 25, 2013–March 2, 2014
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge.

Related Posts

Media - 2013.15 - SAAM-2013.15_1 - 79450
Latinx ArtExhibitions01/24/2014
Our America: The Legacy of a King
The civil rights era is resonant in many works featured in Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, which remains on view until March 2, 2014. Several artists in the exhibition came of age during the 1960s and 1970s when the movement thrived and had ripple effects in communities across the United States. Not only did activists and organizers like César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and Antonia Pantoja build on Dr. King's legacy and demand Latino equal rights in the arenas of labor and education, some Latino artists created works and organizations that challenged traditional racial hierarchies that undergirded American society.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor