Carlos Almaraz

Carlos D. Almaraz (October 5, 1941 – December 11, 1989) was a Mexican-American artist and a pioneer of the Chicano art movement. He was one of the founder of the Centro de Arte Público (1977–1979), a Chicano/Chicana arts organization in Highland Park, Los Angeles.

Early life and education Almaraz was born on October 5, 1941, in Mexico City, Mexico to parents Roe and Rudolph Almaraz. His family moved when he was a young child, settling in Chicago, Illinois, where his father owned a restaurant for five years and worked in Gary steel mills for another four. The neighborhood Almaraz and his brothers Rudolph Jr. and Ricky were raised in was multicultural, which led him to appreciate the melting pot of American culture. During his youth in Chicago, the family traveled to Mexico City frequently, where Almaraz reports having his "first impression of art" that "was both horrifying and absolutely magical", in other words "Sublime".

When Almaraz was age nine, his family moved to Los Angeles on a doctor's recommendation that his father seek a warm climate to assuage his rheumatism, and also as a result of family problems, first settling in Wilmington, later moving to the then-rural Chatsworth, where they lived in communal housing with other Mexicans. and attended Los Angeles City College, studying under David Ramirez, and took summer classes at Loyola Marymount University. Loyola offered him a full scholarship, but he declined it in protest of the university's support of the Vietnam War and stopped professing the Catholic faith altogether. He attended California State University, Los Angeles (CalState LA), where he befriended Frank Romero.

He became discouraged by the structure of the art department at CalState LA. Almaraz began attending night courses at the Otis College of Art and Design (then known as Otis Art Institute), studying under Joe Mugnaini.

Almaraz studied arts at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Career

In 1965, Almaraz moved to New York City, By 1972, he was already involved with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW).

In 1973, he was one of four artists who formed the influential artist collective known as Los Four. In 1974, Judithe Hernández, who was a friend and classmate from graduate school at Otis Art Institute became the fifth member and the only woman in Los Four. With the addition of Hernández, the collective exhibited and created public art together for the next decade and have been credited with bringing Chicano art to the attention of mainstream American art institutions. He also painted for Luis Valdez's Teatro Campesino. In this suite, Almaraz "freed color to become arbitrary and expressive: orange stars in the right three panels became mostly green in the left panel. Echo Park is a celebration of beauty, wonder, and love. Most of the people are romantic couples; they are paired in boats, by the side of the lake, on the bridge, and even as a bride and groom in the center, under what could very well be a statue of Venus. Almaraz transformed Echo Park into an Island of Cythera, from which one never has to disembark. The thick, textured palm trunks in the center even evoke Rococo columns." Almaraz is Marin's favorite artist. Another 2 well-known Almaraz car crash scenes are Crash in Phthalo Green (1984) and Car Crash (1987), now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. And the other sold to a buyer for $20,000. Crash in Phthalo Green "features what appear to be at least five fiery vehicles (one assumes there are at least two that make up the flaming, smoking form on the left). One car is falling from the elevated freeway, and others might follow. This painting provided a model of energy, dynamism, bright color, and loose technique. It also demonstrated that one doesn’t have to render a burning car in much detail — smoke, fire, and a flying tire conveyed a catastrophic crash in a more effective manner. Almaraz’s car crashes express the [film] noirish concept that a deadly disaster can strike at any moment, even on a leisurely Sunday drive. A pair of vintage cars on the lower level of the highway are unaffected, though they might still be bombarded by debris or a flaming chassis."

In 1981, Almaraz married Elsa Flores, a Chicana artist. Flores continues to represent his estate.

An exhibition of his paintings, pastels, and drawings from the 70s and 80s opened in September 2011, in conjunction with the Getty Research Institute's "Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945-1980". Almaraz will also be featured in corresponding "Pacific Standard Time" exhibitions, including "MEX/LA: Mexican Modernism(s) in Los Angeles 1930-1985" at the Museum of Latin American Art, "Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement" at the Fowler Museum.

Almaraz was the subject of am 85 minute documentary, Carlos Almaraz: Playing With Fire (2020), which was directed by his widow Elsa Flores Almaraz, and actor and filmmaker Richard Montoya.

Almaraz and Flores's papers are preserved at the Smithsonian.

Notable work Examples of Almaraz's work can be found in Cheech Marin's collection of Chicano art housed at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry.