Aztl谩n to Magulandia: The Journey of Chicano Artist Gilbert "Magu" Luj谩n
UC Irvine鈥檚 University Art Galleries (UAG) will present the first survey of
one of the most iconic figures of the Chicano art movement, Gilbert 鈥淢agu鈥� Luj谩n
(1940鈥�2011) and an accompanying publication. One of the founding members of the
Chicano artists collective Los Four, Luj谩n is known for his coloration and
visual explorations of Chicano culture and community that drew upon and brought
to life various historic and contemporary visual sources with startling results:
Pyramid-mounted low riders driven by anthropomorphic dogs traversing a newly
defined and mythologized L.A. He was part of a small group of dedicated artists
and intellectuals who set about defining a Chicano identity and culture as part
of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The UAG鈥檚 retrospective will focus on
creativity and invention in Luj谩n's work in a myriad of sketches and drawings,
paintings, and sculptures. Luj谩n combined two world-making concepts, Aztl谩n, the
mythic northern ancestral home of the indigenous Mexican Aztecs that became a
charged symbol of Chicano activism; and Magulandia, the term Luj谩n coined for
the space in which he lived and produced his work, and for his work as a whole.
Together, Aztl谩n and Magulandia represented both physical spaces and the complex
cultural, geographic, and conceptual relationships that exist between Los
Angeles and Mexico and served as dual landscapes for Luj谩n鈥檚 artistic philosophy
and cultural creativity.
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UC Irvine鈥檚 University Art Galleries (UAG) will present the first survey of
one of the most iconic figures of the Chicano art movement, Gilbert 鈥淢agu鈥� Luj谩n
(1940鈥�2011) and an accompanying publication. One of the founding members of the
Chicano artists collective Los Four, Luj谩n is known for his coloration and
visual explorations of Chicano culture and community that drew upon and brought
to life various historic and contemporary visual sources with startling results:
Pyramid-mounted low riders driven by anthropomorphic dogs traversing a newly
defined and mythologized L.A. He was part of a small group of dedicated artists
and intellectuals who set about defining a Chicano identity and culture as part
of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The UAG鈥檚 retrospective will focus on
creativity and invention in Luj谩n's work in a myriad of sketches and drawings,
paintings, and sculptures. Luj谩n combined two world-making concepts, Aztl谩n, the
mythic northern ancestral home of the indigenous Mexican Aztecs that became a
charged symbol of Chicano activism; and Magulandia, the term Luj谩n coined for
the space in which he lived and produced his work, and for his work as a whole.
Together, Aztl谩n and Magulandia represented both physical spaces and the complex
cultural, geographic, and conceptual relationships that exist between Los
Angeles and Mexico and served as dual landscapes for Luj谩n鈥檚 artistic philosophy
and cultural creativity.
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