Just another poster? : Chicano graphic arts in California /

This important contribution to Chicana and Chicano art scholarship, created to accompany an exhibition of work by the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, is far more than the sometimes mundane exhibition catalog. In this fascinating introduction to the art, full-color reproductions are illustrative of the political implication of the words "Chicana" and "Chicano" and, equally valuable, of the cultural and aesthetic importance of the work. These posters are mass media and graphic art: the product of artists employing transnational, cross-cultural, and hybrid iconography--intriguing "postermodernism," to quote from the first essay. Because the work of artists Ester Hernandez, Louie Gonzalez, Richard Duardo, Yreina Cervantes, Malaquias Montoya, Jose Cervantes, Alma Lopez, Leonard Castellanos, and more are missing from our shelves, this volume will bring new work and new scholarship to all libraries. These important artists have much to say to us all. Equally intriguing are well-written, readable essays regarding the Movimiento Chicano, Chicana printmakers, and the cultural significance, expressiveness, and iconography of this art. Well-designed (and relatively inexpensive) example of the book arts. Spanish and English text. Enthusiastically recommended to all libraries. All levels. R. M. Labuz Mohawk Valley Community College

This publication, which accompanies a touring exhibition organized by the University Art Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sources the remarkable holdings of the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA), a permanent program of the university's Davidson Library. The book explores the profound role art played as a part of the Chicano movement in California and the effectiveness of the poster medium itself. The exhibition of 56 artists' works looks at Chicano graphic art since the 1960s, initially created as part of the Chicano civil rights movement. In these posters, which usually announce events or promote specific causes, artists try to recapture Mexican heritage and create Chicano identity, often using images and words from both their native and their adopted culture. The diversity of approach shows in the form and styles of the work itself, which ranges from silkscreen to digital and from traditional to postmodern pastiche. Over 30 color plates, a catalog of the exhibition, and an appendix about printmaking processes round out the text. As contributor George Lipsitz so aptly describes it: "The production of posters was not so much community-based art making as it was art-based community making." Recommended for large public libraries, academic libraries, and specialized art or Hispanic collections. Sylvia Andrews, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.