🔥 Important RARE Mexican American Chicano Mural Painting, Chuy Campusano 1970s for Sale

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🔥 Important RARE Mexican American Chicano Mural Painting, Chuy Campusano 1970s For Sale

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🔥 Important RARE Mexican American Chicano Mural Painting, Chuy Campusano 1970s:
$3500.00

This is anImportant RARE Mexican American Chicano Mural Painting, oil on Masonite, attributed to pioneering San Francisco Mission District Muralismo painter, Jesus "Chuy" Campusano (1944 - 1997.) This piece depicts several Mexican Americans engaging in farm work and cultivating a gorgeous green landscape. The squatted figure on the left is dressed like fashionable 1970's "vato," and is likely volunteering with the efforts. This work is titled in Spanish at the lower edge: "Aqui Cultivado El Coraje," or in English, Here Cultivated Courage. Signed: "Chu," a variation of the nickname Chuy, in the lower right corner. Unfortunately, so little of Chuy Campusano's work has survived (much of it was in the form of public murals that were whitewashed or demolished, so there is no way to establish much of a signature comparison to his other work. Additionally, this piece is the only known artwork of Campusano's to ever be offered for sale. The theme and artistic style of this artwork closely resembles his most famous mural, "Homage to Siqueiros." This painting likely dates to his early career, when he was sponsored by Casa Hispana de Bellas Artes of San Francisco to spend two years at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City, where he studied the techniques of Siqueiros. During this time, he also studied with Pablo O'Higgins, who was a student of Diego Rivera. O'Higgins' stylistic techniques are clearly evident in this piece. Approximately 29 inches tall x 33 1/4 inches wide (including frame.) Actual artwork is approximately 28 x 32 3/4 inches. Very good condition for age, with some light scuffing and edge wear to the original period frame. This frame has bespoke leather fasteners in the corner of the frame, which is very unique and something I have never seen before. This important piece of Mexican American art history is priced to sell. Acquired from an old collection in Los Angeles, California. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks!
About the Artist:
Jésus "Chuy" Campusano

1944
1997

Jesús “Chuy” Campusano(1944–1997) was part of a generation of Latina/o artists in the Mission District who strived to create a cultural infrastructure that would support future generations of artists. He was one of a larger group of artists who founded Galería de la Raza, a pivotal organization for the support of Latina/o artists in the Mission. A key figure in the Mission’s community mural movement during the seventies, Campusano worked collaboratively with Luis Cortázar and Michael Riosto produce the iconic muralHomage to Siqueiros(1974), housed inside a local Bank of America branch. The production of the mural spawned an important friendship with Emmy Lou Packard, who advised the group based on her previous work assisting Diego Rivera. Packard and Campusano became good friends.Homage to Siqueirosexemplifies aesthetic and ideological links Chicano and Chicana artists drew to Mexico’s Tres Grandes (Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco). Campusano’s artistic training also connected him to this tradition. Early in his career, he was sponsored by the Casa Hispana de Bellas Artes of San Francisco to spend two years at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City studying the techniques and work of Siqueiros. During his time at the academy, he also studied with Pablo O’Higgins, who was a student of Diego Rivera. Soon after his passing in 1997, Campusano’s abstract muralLilli Ann(1982) was at the center of a legal battle regarding artist rights after the new owners of the building on which the mural was painted decided to whitewash it. Campusano’s family eventually won the court case, which marked an important victory for muralists in California and a small victory for anti-gentrification activists in the Mission District.

The contemporary mural movement : interview with Chuy Campusano (1977):

SYNOPSIS

This document is an interview between Ralph Maradiaga and Chicano muralist Chuy Campusano. It centers on the relationship between the Mexican and Chicano mural movements, their similarities and differences, as well as the influence of famous Mexican muralists, namely David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974). Campusano acknowledges the need for Chicano muralists to distinguish and separate themselves (thematically and stylistically) from their Mexican counterparts while still honoring their technical and historical contributions. Campusano presents the Mujeres Muralistas (a San Francisco collective of women muralists) as a good example of this balance. In the latter half of the interview, he focuses on the technical aspects of mural painting, specifically the skills that were utilized by Siqueiros and other Mexican muralists that were passed on.

Mission Mural Now a Whitewashed Wall

1998-08-05 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO-- Today, the side of the building at 17th and Harrison streets in the Mission District is just another wall. But for Andres Campusano, the sight of the stark, white empty space is heartbreaking.

Until July 25, the four-story- high wall displayed a mural designed by his late father, Jesus "Chuy" Campusano.Now, a layer of whitewash applied by the building's owner cloaks the 1986 artwork.

"This is devastating," said Andres Campusano, who has sued to have the mural restored. "It brings back all the feelings of last year when he died. It's hard to come back here."

Splashes of vibrant red, orange and purple in circles, triangles and other geometric patterns dominated Campusano's abstract mural. It stood apart from others in the Mission District, many of which illustrate social issues or honor the heritage of the painter.

"People tell me I'm anti-muralist because there are no flames and chains," Chuy Campusano, who died last year at 52, said in a 1988 interview. "A mural is just a big painting. It can be nonrepresentational and still be meaningful."

There are several other Campusano murals in the Mission District, the most notable of which, in the lobby of the Bank of America building at 23rd and Mission streets, has been valued at $1 million.

Campusano's children and Elias Rocha, who painted the mural at 2030 Harrison St. from Chuy Campusano's design, obtained a temporary restraining order on Friday from U.S. District Judge Charles Bryer,blocking the building's owner from applying further paint or chemicals to the mural. The plaintiffs, who hold the copyright for the mural, will seek a preliminary injunction tomorrow against further tampering until the lawsuit proceeds, said Brooke Oliver,attorney for Andres Campusano and his sister Sandra Campusano Camacho.Under the federal Visual Arts Rights Act, the owner of a building with artwork must contact the artist before changing or destroying the work.

"No notice was given to anyone," Oliver said.

The building is owned by the Robert J. Cort Trust.Cort did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday.

Oliver said the mural was whitewashed so a new tenant could advertise its business. The firm, University Games,which has leased two floors of the building and plans to move in by the end of the year, was unaware of the dispute until last week, said Naresh Kapahi, the company's senior financial officer.

"We're not even there yet," he said. "We don't want to be the bad guys moving into the neighborhood."

Oliver said she hopes the mural can be restored.

"We will try to remove the whitewash and restore the original mural," she said. "If not, we have the pictures and the original painter. We hope we can paint it over."

Nicknamed "Lilli Ann" for the garment factory that used to occupy the building, the mural has been valued at $500,000, Oliver said. The city gave $40,000 for the mural in 1986, the largest commission for a piece of art at the time.

Bill Samios works in the building and was the first to notify others that the mural had been whitewashed over.

"This is my day job, but I'm an artist," he said. "I couldn't believe it was gone."

A woman who owns a local business stopped when she saw the crowd gathered to find out what had happened to the mural.

"One day I just drove by and gasped," said Fran Miller."I saw it all the time and just thought, 'How could they?' It was such an institution in the area and a beautiful part of San Francisco."

By yesterday, a black glob of paint in the center of the whitewash, evidently thrown by vandals, was the most noticeable color on the wall.

"For 14 years, it was left alone because the community respected the mural," Oliver said. "Now we're left with this."

Public events presented withEmmy Lou Packard: Artist of Conscienceoffered the opportunity for audiences to dig deeper into Emmy Lou Packard’s artistry and influence.

Towards the end of her life Packard was admired by many young artists in San Francisco whom she mentored. Among these artists were Jesus “Chuy” Campusano, Luis Cortázar, and Michael Rios who called themselves “Los Tres.” Susan Cervantes, founder of Precita Eyes Muralists Association, was also a devoted mentee and friend, as were members of Las Mujeres Muralistas who painted the murals on the San Francisco Women’s Building.

For the exhibition the curators were able to borrow Packard’s original press, tools, and linoleum blocks from Precita Eyes. For a special public program master printer Art Hazelwood gave a demonstration of the press in action. With permission from Packard’s family, Hazelwood demonstrated Packard’s unique color-blocking technique using the linoleum block forSomeone Has to Suffer, Madam(1950s). This work depicts a businessman with a pig’s head with war contracts in his back pocket. The pig-man has his arm around the shoulders of a grief-stricken woman. This is one of Packard’s more overtly political works, which comments on the human cost of stock market greed especially during war times.

Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo
San Francisco's legendary Mission District boasts a greater concentration of street art than any other neighborhoodin the world. Beginning in the early 1970s as a form of social and political activism, a vibrant public mural movement has flourished in this dynamic, multicultural community. The result is a spectacular, ever-changing urban landscape transformed by the artistic convergence of traditional Mexican mural painting, folk art, Surrealism, Pop art, underground comics, advertising and graffiti. With 900 stunning photographs, this provocative book showcases more than three decades of work by a diverse array of artists, from the conspicuously anonymous to the internationally famous. Gronk, Rigo, Las Mujeres Muralistas, Barry McGee (Twist), R. Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Michael Rio, Chuy Campusano, Susan Cervantes and Neckface are among the many who have made the streets of the Mission their public gallery. Both reverent and subversive essays and commentaries by writers and artists involved with the movement document the artistic, social and political forces that have shaped Mission Muralismo.