Rupert García (born in 1941), is an American
Chicano
Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement.
In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...
visual artist, and educator. He is known as a painter, pastellist, and screen printer. In the 1960s, he led a Chicano movement against 'Yankee' culture through the production and use of posters and screen prints. He worked in collaboration with many Chicanx artists at different printing and art studios in the Los Angeles area, and made many activist works in support of the Chicano movement.
In 1970, he co-founded the
Galería de la Raza in San Francisco.
He is a
professor emeritus
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
...
of art at
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
since 2011.
Early life and education
Rupert García was born in 1941 in
French Camp, an agricultural town in the
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...
.
He grew up in the nearby city of
Stockton, California.
García was raised mostly by his mother and grandmothers, and from them learned different styles and mediums of art and creativity.
García studied painting at a junior college, and enrolled at San Francisco State College (now
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
) to study
pop art. He graduated from with a BFA degree in painting in 1968. During his study in San Francisco State College, he joined the
anti-war movement
An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during con ...
and participated in the 1968 student strike organized by the
Third World Liberation Front
In 1968, the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), a coalition of the Black Students Union, the Native Students Room, the Latin American Students Organization, the Filipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) the Filipino-American Students Organiz ...
.
Through joining this movement, García also gained experience in printmaking, and began to incorporate it into his practice of pop and activist art.
In 1981, he received an MFA degree in printmaking, an MA degree in art history, and a PhD in art education from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
.
Career and key works
García served in the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, participating in
Operation Rolling Thunder
Operation Rolling Thunder was a gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign conducted by the United States (U.S.) 2nd Air Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) against North Vietnam from 2 ...
.
During his study in San Francisco State College, he joined the
anti-war movement
An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during con ...
and participated in the 1968 student strike organized by the
Third World Liberation Front
In 1968, the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), a coalition of the Black Students Union, the Native Students Room, the Latin American Students Organization, the Filipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) the Filipino-American Students Organiz ...
. García's involvement in this movement introduced him to screen printing and print making, and the prints produced were sold in order to bail out other activists that were arrested during the protests.
In 1968, he decided to stop painting and made political posters condemning violence against Latinos, blacks and other minorities in the United States.
He stopped painting until the mid-1970s, instead creating political posters denouncing violence against Latinos and Blacks in the United States.
Rupert García made the work ''¡LIBERTAD PARA LOS PRISONEROS POLITICAS!'' in 1971. The work is a screen print on paper, and utilizes bright colors and big, color blocked sections. In the work, García is calling for freedom of political prisoners, as is stated in the text displayed in all caps at the top of the composition. Additionally, the work uses the likeness of Angela Davis, a major political activist at the time of the works creation. The flatness of the composition, which all of the details of Davis being printed in black, serves to draw the viewer to her eyes and expression, which stand out. Davis is looking off to the side of the composition, with a hard set expression and a strong gaze.
This work is very aligned with García's style at the time. He favored working with portraits or historical photographs, especially from a close or intimate perspective. He also would frequently use bright colors in bold overlaid shapes, in order to make the subject further stand out. García also very frequently used text in his screen prints, often English or Spanish, or sometimes a mix of the two.
In 1970, Galería de la Raza was founded by artists including García,
Chuy Campusano,
Ralph Maradiaga,
Peter Rodríguez Pete(r) Rodríguez or Rodriguez may refer to:
* Peter Rodríguez (curator) (1926–2016), American artist, curator, and museum director
* Peter Rodriguez (economist) (born 1968), American economist and professor
* Peter Rodriguez and companions ( ...
,
René Yañez
René Yañez (19 September 1942 – 29 May 2018) was a Mexican-American painter, Assemblage (art), assemblage artist, performance artist, curator and community activist located in San Francisco, California. He was a well-known contributor to the a ...
,
Francisco X. Camplís, Gustavo Ramos Rivera, Carlos Loarca, Manuel Villamor, Robert Gonzales, Luis Cervantes, and
Rolando Castellón. It was a
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
art gallery
An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...
and
artist collective
An artist collective or art group or artist group is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything t ...
that featured Latino and Chicano artists in the
Mission District
The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as the Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name ...
of San Francisco.
In 1988, he taught in
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
, in the school of art and art history department and retired in 2010. Since 2011 to present, he is the professor emeritus of Art, in
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
.
In 2011, he exhibited at the
de Young museum
The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...
. His work is in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
,
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...
,
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery,
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
,
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...
,
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
,
Hood Museum of Art
The Hood Museum of Art is an art museum owned and operated by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth was in 1772, making the collection among the oldest and largest, a ...
, and the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts.
García printed the work ''Obama from Douglas'' in 2010. The work is printed inkjet on paper, and was made in collaboration with Magnolia editions, who García had worked with starting in the early 1990s. Printing with an inkjet, a fairly new process of printmaking at the time of the works creation, is removed from artist interaction, and requires no impact, but rather a spray of pigment onto paper by the machine. This method results in a higher quality print than that of traditional screen printing, as the color is more densely located. This also results in a work that looks photographic, making it effective in pieces such as this one that incorporates real, historical photographs.
The work is in a triptych format, with the leftmost of the three panels being an image of Barack Obama in a slightly abstracted, print graphic style. The middle panel is a composition with a white background crosshatched in many directions with lots of different, varied black strokes going across it. The image actually comes from a photograph that was taken of a print trimming mat. The mat was used by García as well as other artists used at the Magnolia editions Studio. The rightmost panel of the print is a photograph of Frederick Douglas taken in 1897 by George Kendall Warren. García's original idea for the work was to be a sole portrait of Barack Obama, and only later chose to incorporate Frederick Douglas and the print trimming mat in the final product. The final work then comes together to highlight and celebrate two black men with major impacts in American history. Additionally, both men are especially influential for their role in breaking barriers and making historical firsts, Douglas being the first African American to hold multiple positions in government, and Obama being the first African American president. The printing map between them draws connections and links between the two men, thought not perfectly straight or easy to follow connectors.
García made this work when he began to shift towards and embrace printmaking in a more digital way. Much of García's early work was created through hands on printmaking, or traditional screen printing. One advantage to digital printing is it is a much quicker process, and the specific stencils do not have to be hand designed and cut, and allows for a more intense and sometimes detailed composition.
''Obama from Douglas'' is one of the most well known and emblematic works of García's move to the digital sphere, but he did not stop making silkscreens. Many of his works, both those printed by hand and those printed digitally, draw on the styles of pop art, and many of them art activists or politically charged works. The transition to digital mediums expanded García's ability to express activist thoughts and incorporate detail and richness of color.
Solo exhibition
Publications
*
References
External links
*
Oral history interview with Rupert Garcia, 1995 Sept. 7-1996 June 24 from
Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...
, Smithsonian Institution
Digitized Interview with Rupert Garcia at California Revealed
{{DEFAULTSORT:García, Rupert
1941 births
Living people
20th-century American printmakers
21st-century American printmakers
American artists of Mexican descent
Artists from San Francisco
Artists from San Jose, California
Hispanic and Latino American artists
People from French Camp, California
People from Stockton, California
Painters from California
San Francisco State University alumni
San Jose State University faculty