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Imágenes e Historias/Images and Histories: Chicana Altar-Inspired Art

April 25-Aug. 4, 2000

This exhibition presents two- and three-dimensional artwork in a variety of media, inspired by the traditional Catholic altar. Artists with work represented in the show include Connie Arismendi, Santa Barraza, Barbara Carrasco, Tina Fuentes, Ester Hernández, Anna Jaquez, Delilah Montoya, Gloria Osuna Pérez, Celia Rodríguez, Marta Sánchez and Consuelo Underwood.

Within Hispanic cultures, personal altars have served as domestic extensions of larger counterparts found in colonial churches throughout the New World. These home-based sacred spaces traditionally fell within the creative realm of women, reflecting their faith as well as the specific desires and histories of the devotees and their families. Given the artistic and thematic versatility of the genre, it is not surprising that modified altars made the transition from private homes to public galleries in the early 1970s. In the past decade, a handful of exhibitions in the United States have focused on altar-inspired art, emphasizing the spiritual aspects of the contemporary altar and revealing that the works are sites of cultural memory and reclamation.

While fully recognizing both the spiritual and cultural aspects as motivating factors behind artistic creation, Imágenes e Historias also emphasizes the rich variety of concerns particular to women artists. Although the artists share many of these concerns, a great deal of variation exists in both the form and content of their works. These differences are, in part, the natural result of the artist's chosen medium, her individual focus, and her sensitivities to the political and social realities with which she contends on a daily basis. Imágenes e Historias also emphasizes differences born of intracultural diversity. The objective of the show is not only to present the historical position and diversity of expression of contemporary Chicana art, but also to clarify the visual language of this art to viewers from a variety of cultural backgrounds and geographic areas.

This traveling exhibition was curated by SCU Assistant Professor of Art History Constance Cortez, Ph.D. The show originated in fall 1999 and was organized and produced by the Tufts University Gallery, Medford, Mass., with partial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. It originated in 1999. The show features a catalog with color plates, scholarly essays, and artists' statements, edited by Cortez. The exhibition is realized at Santa Clara University with the participation of students who enrolled in Cortez's Chicano/a Art History class.