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, Texas, 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 University City of Mexico, 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 United States, 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 Jimenez, Elisa is a multimedia artist and fashion designer and was a contestant on season four of Bravo's reality television series ''Project Runway''.Works
*Collections
* Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico * Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, New Mexico, 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 collectionsSee also
* History of the Mexican-Americans in TexasReferences
External links