Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Luis Jiménez |
Title |
American Dream |
Date |
1972 |
Medium |
Color lithograph |
Dimensions |
24 1/2" x 34 1/2" |
Description |
Luis Jiménez American Dream, 1972 Color lithograph on paper, 24½" x 34½" A popular sculptor from El Paso, Luis Jiménez personifies the "American Dream" in the automobile, a symbol of material wealth and privilege in American society. The car is a product of the industrialized machine age, which provides a mode of transportation and is a status symbol. Here, a blond haired woman lies in an embrace with a sports car, a luxury for most Americans. He references Greek mythology in the legend of Leda and the Swan in which the wife of a king seduced by Zeus in the guise of a swan. Jiménez also interprets the story of the Olmec were-jaguar, born from the union of a jaguar and woman. Associated with the Pop Art movement in his early career, the artist produced a fiberglass sculpture of the same name in 1969 to speak to Americans and their intense obsession with their cars. Luis Jiménez was prominently featured in Dr. Jacinto Quirarte’s Mexican American Artists (1973), one of the first books on Mexican American/Chicano art. Luis Jiménez Proud of his Chicano roots, Luis Jiménez (1940-2006) was an El Paso, Texas native, best known for his large-scale, brightly colored sculptures immersed in the Chicano iconography of Texas and New Mexico. Jiménez studied art and architecture at The University of Texas in Austin and El Paso. He eventually traveled to Mexico to study the famous Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, and was also influenced by regionalists Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. After completing school, he went to work for his father making neon signs and car decals. In 1966 Jiménez moved to New York and joined the Pop Art scene, making painted fiberglass figurative works inspired by the everyday lives of Latinos living in the Southwest. His work shows his concern for working-class people and those who have suffered from discrimination. Jimenez was and remains respected in Latino communities for his perspective and narrative of the culture of Mexico and the Southwest. His artwork emulates popular Cholo car culture, demonstrated in his use of fiberglass, spray paint, and imagery consisting of Aztec emperors, border crossing, and vaqueros riding wild broncos. His works are in the collections of the Albuquerque Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the El Paso Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others. |
Object Name |
|
Search Terms |
Sexuality Border Nude Automobile Luis Jimenez |
Object Number |
2020.2.156.20 |
Collection |
Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr. Collection |