![César A. Martínez, Serape: 28 IX 23, 2023](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1600,h_1600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/ruizhealyart/images/view/0c3e79d36bbba0ae0b561c520f56da29j/ruiz-healyart-c-sar-a.-mart-nez-serape-28-ix-23-2023.jpg)
César A. Martínez American, b. 1944
Serape: 28 IX 23, 2023
Acrylic on Arches watercolor paper
22.5 x 30 in
57.1 x 76.2 cm
57.1 x 76.2 cm
Inspired by traditional Saltillo Serapes (blanket/cloak), which dates back to Pre-Columbian Mexico, as an exploration of the Mexican American cultural experience. “Way back, in the sixties, when I was in...
Inspired by traditional Saltillo Serapes (blanket/cloak), which dates back to Pre-Columbian Mexico, as an exploration of the Mexican American cultural experience. “Way back, in the sixties, when I was in college, I would sneak into a prof’s office and sit there rapt, looking through his art magazines. I ran across the work of Gene Davis, the “stripe” painter. For the first time in my life, before any cultural notions of “Chicano” were on the horizon, I reacted to works of contemporary art from a cultural standpoint. ‘These are like serapes!’ I said to myself...Eventually, during my last year in college, I started doing some hard-edge “masking tape” paintings that were nothing like serapes or the Davis “stripe paintings” though that technique did inform what I was trying to do and years later, the technique led me to my own Serape series.” – César A. Martínez