À La Mode

Asco, Gronk, Harry Gamboa, Jr., Patssi Valdez, Willie F. Herrón III, À La Mode, 1976, printed 2010, chromogenic print, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.44.2, © 1976, Harry Gamboa, Jr.
Copied Asco, Harry Gamboa, Jr., Gronk, Willie F. Herrón III, Patssi Valdez, À La Mode, 1976, printed 2010, chromogenic print, image: 12 3⁄4 x 18 3⁄4 in. (32.4 x 47.6 cm) sheet: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.44.2, © 1976, Harry Gamboa, Jr.

Artwork Details

Title
À La Mode
Artists
Asco
Photographer
Date
1976, printed 2010
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 12 3⁄4 x 18 3⁄4 in. (32.4 x 47.6 cm) sheet: 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x 50.8 cm)
Copyright
© 1976, Harry Gamboa, Jr.
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description
chromogenic print
Classifications
Object Number
2013.44.2
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2013.44.2

Artwork Description

The now-defunct conceptual art group Asco coined the phrase “No Movie” to refer to their fabricated film stills of nonexistent films. One such production, À la Mode, features a glamorous Patssi Valdez sandwiched between two men (Gronk and Harry Gamboa) as if to suggest a love-triangle movie plot. Asco circulated this image to news outlets where it was published as evidence of a real film. Asco’s media interventions, which placed Chicanos in control of their own public images, reveal the hunger for a broader range of Latino representations.

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

El grupo de arte conceptual ya desaparecido Asco acuñó la frase ​“No Movie” para referirse a sus fotogramas ficticios de películas inexistentes. Una de esas producciones, À la Mode, presenta a una glamorosa Pattsi Valdez rodeada por dos hombres (Gronk y Harry Gamboa) como sugiriendo una trama de película basada en un triángulo amoroso. Asco hizo circular esta imagen entre algunas agencias de noticias, donde fue publicada como si fuera evidencia de un filme real. Las intervenciones de Asco en los medios de comunicación, que dieron control a los chicanos sobre su propia imagen pública, revelan la avidez de los latinos por lograr una gama más amplia de representación.

Nuestra América: la presencia latina en el arte estadounidense, 2013

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.