Malaquias Montoya

Malagwas Montoya provides an in-depth study of the internationally renowned artist, educator, and human rights activist. The artist's own voice and the voices of many of his colleagues are brought to the fore throughout this book, intertwining valuable first-person narrative with historical context and insightful analysis. Terezita Romo advances the "aesthetics of the message" as a critical framework for her nuanced analysis of the close ties between aesthetic decisions, content, and political engagement. This book offers an exemplary case study of the Chicano art movement, one that explores its often-overlooked internationalism and relationship to other art movements of social protest.-Holly Barnet-Sanchez, Professor, Department of Art and Art History, University of New Mexico

Malaquias Montoya, acknowledged as a principal architect and a key builder of the Chicano artistic paradigm, is the single most influential figure in the evolution of Chicano art in America. Over the past four decades he has excelled as a teacher, printer, muralist, and lecturer and has created an important body of work that continues to transform the Chicano art community.-Ricardo Romo, President, University of Texas at San Antonio

Working in a variety of media, from drawings and paintings to murals and the silkscreen prints for which he is best known, Malaquias Montoya has pursued a singular artistic vision for more than four decades. As a cofounder in 1968 of the Mexican-American Liberation Art Front, an influential artists' collective, he inspired a generation of artists and activists. Since the 1970's he has combined his role as a college professor with an ongoing commitment to community-based art making through talleres, or print workshops. For Montoya, making art cannot be distinguished from the artist's social role as an educator, as a community member, and as a world citizen. In this first major book on the artist, Terezita Romo offers a comprehensive exploration of Montoya's work, which continues to depict strength and resistance in the face of injustice.

Terezita Romo is the program officer for arts and culture at the San Francisco Foundation. An independent curator and scholar, she was previously arts director at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago and resident curator at The Mexican Museum of San Francisco, where she organized the exhibitions Patssi Valdez: A Precarious Comfort, Chicanos en Mictsn: Dia de los Muertos in California, and The Rosa and Miguel Covarrubias Collection. She has published essays on Chicana/o artists, art iconography, and graphics and is a co-curator of L.A. Xicano, a set of four interrelated exhibitions in Los Angeles.