Luis Jiménez (sculptor)

Luis Alfonso Jiménez Jr. (July 30, 1940 – June 13, 2006) was an American sculptor of Mexican descent. Known for portraying Hispanic-American themes, his works have been displayed at the Smithsonian and at Denver International Airport.

Education

Born in El Paso, Texas, he worked at his father's neon sign studio as a child.

He studied art and architecture at the University of Texas in Austin and El Paso, earning a bachelor's degree in 1964. He moved to New York City in 1966 after completing his post-graduate work at Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City, D.F.

He became an accomplished artist and taught art at the University of Arizona and later the University of Houston.

Artistry

Jiménez was known for his large polychromed fiberglass sculptures usually of Southwestern and Hispanic themes. His works were often controversial and eminently recognizable because of their themes and the bright, colorful undulating surfaces that Jiménez employed.

Jiménez was influenced by the murals of José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera. He was very much a contemporary artist whose roots were in pop art, as much as they were in both the modernism of the Mexican muralists and the regionalism of Benton and Grant Wood. Heroic sculptures were Jiménez's forte, championing the common man in his work. Working in his father's shop, making neon signs, as well as lowrider car culture, and featuring brightly painted fiberglass bodywork, were also artistic influences.

Primarily a sculptor, he also created color lithographs and colored-pencil drawings. He would use preparatory drawings for his sculptures, which are made of fiberglass cast in a mold, then painted and coated with epoxy. One art expert has noted, "There was no surface on any Luis Jiménez sculpture that was ever any less than six different colors, each airbrushed separately adding a slightly different tone." Jiménez would also often use flake, that glittery quality often seen on lowrider cars, in his paint.

In 1993, Jiménez was a recipient of the New Mexico Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts. In 1998 he received a Distinguished Alumni award from the University of Texas in recognition of his artwork.

Health

As a child, his left eye was shot by a BB gun. Surgeries corrected his vision, but he developed persistent migraines and got a glass eye later in life.

As a young adult teaching art at junior high school, he was temporarily paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident.

In his later years, he had a heart attack and required hand surgery.

Death

On June 13, 2006, Jiménez died in an accident at age 65 in his studio in Hondo, New Mexico, when a large section of his 32-foot-high work ''Blue Mustang'', intended for Denver International Airport, came loose from a hoist and severed an artery in his leg.

Governor Bill Richardson ordered flags in New Mexico flown at half-staff June 15–16, 2006, in Jiménez's honor.

Family

Jiménez's daughter Elisa is a multimedia artist and fashion designer and was a contestant on season four of Bravo's reality television series ''Project Runway''.

Works

*
Man on Fire
', Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, 1969
* ''Progress I''
Albuquerque Museum
New Mexico, 1974
*''Progress II'', Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, 1976
*
Vaquero
', Moody Park, Houston, Texas, 1980
* ''Sodbuster'', Wichita State university as part of the Ulrich Museum of art outdoor sculpture collection, 1980–81
''Honky Ton''k
Wichita State University as part of the Ulrich Museum, 1981
* ''Southwest Pieta'', Longfellow Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1983 (declared a national treasure by President Bill Clinton in 1999)
* ''Howl''
Albuquerque Museum
New Mexico an
Ulrich Museum of Art
Wichita State University, 1986
* '' Border Crossing/Cruzando el Rio Bravo'', Santa Fe, New Mexico, Los Angeles, California, and Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, 1989
* ''Steelworker'', Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, 1990
*''Los Lagartos'', Downtown, El Paso, Texas, 1993
* ''Fiesta Jarabe'', University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1996
*''Assyrian Lion,'' Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, 2004
* ''Cleveland Fallen Firefighters Memorial'', Cleveland, OH, 2006
* ''Blue Mustang'', Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado, 2008

Collections

* Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
* Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, New Mexico
* Arizona State University, Nelson Fine Arts Center Tempe, Arizona
* Art Museum of Southeast Texas Beaumont, Texas
* Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
* Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
* Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin
* El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas
* Iowa State University, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Ames, Iowa
* Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri
* Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California
* McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada
* New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico
* Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota
* Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, New Mexico
* Saint Louis University, St. Louis University Museum of Art, Saint Louis, Missouri
* Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
* University of Arizona, Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
* University of Kansas, Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
* University of Oklahoma, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, Oklahoma
* University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
* University of Texas at El Paso, Library, El Paso, Texas
* University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas
* Utah Valley University, Woodbury Art Museum Orem, Utah
* Valley National Bank of Arizona, Fine Arts Department, Phoenix, Arizona
* Wichita State University, Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas
* Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
* Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL
* The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas
* Mcnay Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
* Ellen Noël Art Museum, Odessa, Texas
* The Sculpture Collection, Santa Monica, CA
* Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles
* Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO
* Numerous private collections

See also

* History of the Mexican-Americans in Texas

References

* Laguna Gloria Art Museum, ''Luis Jimenez,'' Austin, Texas: Laguna Gloria Art Museum, 1983
*Landis, Moore, et al., "''Man on Fire, Luis Jiménez, El Hombre en Llamas'', The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1994
*McHenry, Deni McIntosh. ''Luis Jiménez: Working-Class Heroes: Images from the Popular Culture,'' Kansas City, Missouri: Mid-America Arts Alliance, 1997
*Ramos, E. Carmen, "The Latino Presence in American Art," ''American Art'' 26 (Summer 2012): 7-13
* Storey, Natalie, ''Artist Dies in Studio Accident,'' The Santa Fe New Mexican, June 14, 2006, page 1

External links

Stewart, Jocelyn Y. "Luis Jiménez Jr., 65; Artist Whose Sculptures Are on Public Display Nationwide," ''Los Angeles Times'', Thursday, June 15, 2006.

Smithsonian American Art Museum biography


Image of ''Mesteño'', smaller version of the sculpture that killed him.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jimenez, Luis
1940 births
2006 deaths
American artists of Mexican descent
Artists from El Paso, Texas
University of Texas at El Paso alumni
University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture alumni
University of Houston faculty
University of Arizona faculty
Sculptors from Texas
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
American male sculptors
Accidental deaths in New Mexico
20th-century American printmakers