Jesús Moroles’s Granite Weaving

Meet the Artists of Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art

Media - 1996.1A-F - SAAM-1996.1A-F_3 - 86430

Jesús Moroles, Granite Weaving1988, Georgia gray granite, Smithsonian American Art Museum

About this Artwork

Moroles’s granite sculptures originate deep in the earth, born of fire and the volcanic action that created the very crust of the planet. Moroles began “weaving” granite in the late 1980s. Although he speaks in terms of fabric, Granite Weaving also reads as the wall of a stepped pyramid in which horizontal stone slabs support, and in turn are buttressed by, small blocks of granite. This sculpture unites minimalist forms and the natural materials of land art to recall ancient structures found in Indonesia, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), and Mexico.

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      In this series, E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino art, discusses the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This episode looks at the sculpture Granite Weaving by Jesús Moroles.  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. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's pioneering collection of Latino art. It explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture.

      Meet the Artist

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          An interview with the artist Jesús Moroles. As a college student in North Texas, Jesús Moroles tried to carve granite with a hammer and chisel. After only thirty minutes, he recalls, "The stone took me over. It was so hard it barely showed what I had done to it . . . It controlled me. I fell in love with it." He began sculpting exclusively in granite, using a diamond-edged electrical saw capable of "tearing" the stone. Moroles went on to establish one of the largest stone-carving workshops in the country, which he runs with the help of his father, brother, and sister. In 2001, Moroles began to strike his sculptures, sometimes with batons, sometimes with his hands or his feet, creating a type of music one audience member called "an unearthly composition . . . that recalled the effect of the . . . Orient" (Adlmann, Moroles, 2003).