Chicano/a Art, the Getty, and Pacific Standard Time LA/LA

Introduction: Pacific Standard Time LA/LA and the Getty's Gap

Described as a "far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles," Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA aims to initiate a dialogue about the role of Chicano/a culture in the arts of Southern California across several generations. The J. Paul Getty partners with dozens of other California art institutions, galleries, and museums to develop the collection, which extends beyond visual art to include dance, music, and performance art. However, the Getty had already held two previous Pacific Standard Time events, the first of which received more than twice the funding of this edition focusing on Chicano/a art. Although the LA/LA exhibition is welcome, it is also long past due, and its secondary status symbolically reflects the role of Chicano/a artists within the Southern California canon, as well as the broader status and perception of Chicano/a culture.

The current exhibitions and permanent collections at the Getty Center do not reflect significant engagement with Chicano/a art, and no Chicano/a artists are prominently featured. Despite this absence, the social and political ethos that has consistently characterized the arts of Latin America finds its parallels in the Modernist pieces on display at the Getty. One example is French artist Jean-François Millet's Man with a Hoe, which depicts the titular, nameless figure as a man clearly beaten down by an exploitative labor system. As smoke rises in the distance, the man leans his full body weight on his hoe and appears on the verge of collapse from exhaustion. The color palette is dull and earthy, reflective of agricultural industry and the results of thankless labor. Although countless Latin American artists—particularly muralists like Diego Rivera—systematically set out to convey similar messages about labor exploitation, the Getty's collection lacks due homage to the contributions of art from south of the border. Vargas warns against stereotyping "Chican@" art as being solely consumed by political and social protest, but political themes have nonetheless been irrepressibly integral to the Chicano/a artistic corpus.

Modernism, Latin American Photography, and the Getty Collection

Somewhat of an exception to this general pattern appears in the Getty's photography collection, which houses a few samples of work by Latin American artists. Many of these works are not on display and must be viewed on the museum's website, such as Manuel Álvarez Bravo's The Good Reputation, Sleeping. Originally taken in 1938 and printed in the early 1970s, the image stands on the cusp of the modern and postmodern eras, containing all the analogical symbolism of the latter alongside some of the more straightforward sensibilities of the former. Modernists dealt directly with the potency of sexuality and the sexual response, leading to conflicts over censorship and social censure (Butler, Modernism). In The Good Reputation, Sleeping, the viewer immediately discerns the modernist tension between sexually liberated women and the rigid social norms that confine them—symbolized by the restrictive undergarments and, particularly, by the cactus prickles placed beside the woman's body. The cactus suggests barbed wire or other imprisoning barriers, yet because the woman is simply lying and sleeping, she is technically free to rise and leave at any time. Bravo thereby engages in a discourse about power, a core feature of the shift from modernism to postmodernism (Butler, Postmodernism).

More decisively modernist in its approach to power structures, class, and gender is Héctor García's photograph Islate de Injusticia en la gran Ciudad de México, in which a young girl sleeping on the street stares directly at the viewer. Here, the photographer depicts poverty in all its realism, much as Millet achieves in his painting of the man with the hoe. Rather than postmodern meta-analysis, both García and Millet simply present the raw imagery of class conflict. Postmodernists like Bravo add extra symbolic dimensions, drawing attention to the links among race, class, gender, and power on a global scale. It is important to note that Bravo and García are not Chicano artists; they are Mexican but do not represent the bicultural discourse embodied by Chicano/a culture in Los Angeles. Ostensibly, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA will begin to rectify the absence of Chicano/a art from the Getty's general collection.

Chicano/a Art, Political Themes, and Anglo Hegemony

The Getty's neglect of Chicano contributions to the arts and to the social and political zeitgeist of Los Angeles has roots in broader patterns of discrimination. As Gaspar de Alba points out, Anglo-American culture has presumed hegemony and exhibits "blatant ethnocentrism" (digital copy, no page). Chicano/a art has been instrumental in shaping the cultural landscape of California, which is why its omission from the Getty's collection reads as overtly biased. Modernist Chicano/a art may have been more concentrated on social and political protest, but postmodern contemporary work reflects the diversity and deep entrenchment of the community within California life. Second, third, and even fourth-generation Chicanos continue to shape the arts and challenge the presumptions of Anglo hegemony in Los Angeles.

Murals as Public Art and Postmodern Resistance

Outside the confines of the Getty Center, numerous examples of Chicano/a art can be found throughout the city. Murals are particularly emblematic of the Chicano community and can be viewed across Los Angeles. The Great Wall of Los Angeles and América Tropical are two of the most notable public art pieces by Chicano/a artists, showcasing the classic postmodern sensibility that fuses "high" and "low" art forms—something the Getty has failed to do within its regular collection and which the institution hopes to compensate for with the ambitious Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition. Central to postmodern discourse is an "attack on authority and reliability," as well as a "general loss of confidence within Western democratic culture" (Butler, Postmodernism, 110). The refusal to conform to traditional, modernist hierarchies in the art world makes way for vibrant and effective street art in urban cores like Los Angeles. In place of authoritative pronouncements about what qualifies as "fine art" worthy of inclusion in an elite institution like the Getty, Chicano/a artists rely on postmodern principles such as multiculturalism, pluralism, and relativism (Butler, Postmodernism, 120). There is social critique in a classical, modern sense in Chicano/a street art, but there is also an ironic sense of humor—placing a large proportion of the city's Chicano/a art on the razor's edge between modernism and postmodernism.

Conclusion

The Getty's Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition is a welcome, if overdue, acknowledgment of Chicano/a contributions to Southern California's cultural landscape. The institution's longstanding gap—both in its permanent collection and in its funding priorities—reflects broader patterns of ethnocentrism and Anglo cultural hegemony that Chicano/a artists have long worked to resist. From the political realism of early muralists to the postmodern pluralism of contemporary street art, Chicano/a artists have consistently shaped the aesthetic and social fabric of Los Angeles. The exhibition represents an opportunity for the Getty to begin closing that gap, but the deeper work of full institutional recognition remains ongoing.

Works Cited

Baca, Judith. "The Art of the Mural." American Family. PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/americanfamily/mural.html

Boehm, Mike. "Getty Gives $5 Million to Plan Next PST, on Latino/Latin American Art." Los Angeles Times. 5 May 2014. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-getty-pacific-standard-time-latino-latin-american-art-grants-20140502-story.html

Butler, Christopher. Modernism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Butler, Christopher. Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. Chicano Art. University of Texas Press, 1998.

Vargas, George. Contemporary Chican@ Art. University of Texas Press, 2010.