|
Enrique Chagoya
Images of Superman and Olive Oyl are juxtaposed with Aztec gods and
symbols of Catholic sacraments in many of Chagoya’s complex paintings.
The Governor’s Nightmare, from a 1994 series of acrylic and oil
works on handmade Mexican paper, features a gory human sacrifice and a
blue-skinned deity seasoning Mickey Mouse with salt and chili peppers.
In his 1989 charcoal and pastel study of struggle and oppression,
Thesis/Antithesis, a hand and two bare feet attempt to rise from
a blood-red sea, only to be quashed by a powerful gloved fist and
well-heeled foot.
“Sometimes I don’t even know what they mean,” Chagoya says of these
images. “My works deal with a lot of opposites, and their interaction
produces a third element, a synthesis, that occurs in the mind of the
viewer.
“I put images together and the interaction creates an imagery that makes
its own kind of sense, like a dream or perhaps a nightmare.”
The Mexican-born painter and printmaker began teaching studio art at
Stanford in September 1995. His appointment as assistant professor is
the first of several faculty hires that signal a major shift in the
traditional focus of the university’s art department.
“Chagoya’s appointment is part of an effort to think of art in more
socially conscious, socially engaged terms,” says department chair
Richard Vinograd. “There’s a political edge to his art, as well an
inclusion of popular, contemporary culture.”
 hen
artists in the United States formed a
national coalition in 1983 to protest American involvement in El
Salvador and Nicaragua, Chagoya drew a giant editorial cartoon for an
exhibition at the San Francisco Art Institute. It featured President
Ronald Reagan, in Mickey Mouse ears, scrawling “Russkies and Cubans out
of Central America” in a red ink the color of blood.
“I wanted to do an image of a politician, but I didn’t want to make an
evil-looking monster with traditional shark teeth,” Chagoya says.
“Instead, I preferred a harmless look because that’s the way politicians
represent themselves to the public always with the best face. And
Ronald Reagan, to me, was a Mickey Mouse kind of character.”
|
