Night Magic (Blue Jester)

Artwork Details

Title: Night Magic (Blue Jester)
Artist: Carlos Almaraz
Date: 1988
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 54 x 54 in. (137.2 x 137.2 cm) framed
Copyright: © 1988, Carlos Almaraz Estate
Credit Line: Gift of Gloria Werner
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Cityscape — time — night
Figure — nude
Object Number: 2011.12
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2011.12

Artwork Description

Almaraz was a pioneering Chicano artist who produced art for the United Farm Workers Union and cofounded Los Four, one of the earliest Chicano collectives. A later shift to expressionistic painting and graphics brought him national recognition. By the 1980s, his non-narrative images of Los Angeles addressed both his cultural affiliations and sense of isolation with living with AIDS. Night Magic (Blue Jester), inspired by velvet paintings sold on the U.S.-Mexico border, represents urban Los Angeles exploding with sensuous colors and populated by shadows suggestive of Almaraz’s lonely alter egos.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013

Almaraz, artista chicano pionero, produjo arte para la Unión de Campesinos y co-fundó a Los Four, uno de los primeros colectivos artísticos chicanos. Luego de adoptar un estilo expresionista en su obra pictórica y gráfica obtuvo reconocimiento a nivel nacional. Hacia los ochenta, sus imágenes no narrativas de Los Ángeles sugirieron tanto sus raíces culturales como el aislamiento que sentía al padecer del SIDA. Su obra Night Magic (Blue Jester), inspirada por pinturas sobre terciopelo vendidas en la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos, representa à la ciudad de Los Ángeles con una explosión de colores sensuales y poblado de sombras sugerentes de los alter egos solitarios de Almaraz.

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

Works by this artist (1 item)

Tom Kennedy

Artist

Alexander P. Kahle

Daten.d.

gelatin silver print

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.