Rupert Garcia

Rupert García (born in 1941), is an American Chicano 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 of art at San Jose State University since 2011.

Early life and education Rupert García was born in 1941 in French Camp, an agricultural town in the San Joaquin Valley.

García studied painting at a junior college, and enrolled at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) 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 and participated in the 1968 student strike organized by the Third World Liberation Front. Through joining this movement, García also gained experience in printmaking, and began to incorporate it into his practice of pop and activist art.

Career and key works

García served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War, participating in Operation Rolling Thunder. During his study in San Francisco State College, he joined the anti-war movement and participated in the 1968 student strike organized by the Third World Liberation Front. 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. It was a non-profit art gallery and artist collective that featured Latino and Chicano artists in the Mission District of San Francisco.

In 1988, he taught in San Jose State University, 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.

In 2011, he exhibited at the de Young museum. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oakland Museum of California, Hood Museum of Art, 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.

Solo exhibition

Publications