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John Valadez Author(s): Luis Camnitzer Source: Art Journal, Vol. 51, No. 4, Latin American Art (Winter, 1992), p. 14 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777278 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 12:36 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:36:09 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Latin American Art || John Valadez

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Page 1: Latin American Art || John Valadez

John ValadezAuthor(s): Luis CamnitzerSource: Art Journal, Vol. 51, No. 4, Latin American Art (Winter, 1992), p. 14Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777278 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 12:36

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:36:09 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Latin American Art || John Valadez

John Valadez CHICANO

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John Valadez, Condemned, 1989, pastel on paper, 64 x 47 inches. Courtesy Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles.

Condemned is a piece that resulted from books and research I collected about the travel journals of Captain Cook in the Pacific Ocean, the Dutch in South Africa, and Cortes in Mexico. I was particularly struck by the "clash of cultures": the first impressions the groups had of each other as they tried to figure out who these strange people were. There were

misreadings on both sides. Cook went to many locations and saw people of very different features. Indigenous peoples saw

ships as floating "trees"; they saw the sailors (some with

scurvy) as scrawny men with three-cornered heads (their hats). The Aztecs believed the Spaniards were attached to their horses. The Dutch, at their first sight of pastoral South Africans who proudly covered their bodies with animal vis- cera, were incensed when the Africans' herds trampled their farms as they followed their annual migration routes. The

Africans were equally uncomprehending about the intruders. In Condemned, based on visual imagery from my books, I tried to show these two views by creating an apparition that

represented how Europeans might have been perceived by the indigenous people. The Europeans, for example, con- verted the benign serpent gods of native peoples into a

symbol of evil. Thus the main figure has serpent parts, a

three-part head, and various unexplained body swellings. He holds a chain of beads and trinkets, and menaces the four

crouching indigenous peoples with his sword.

JOHN VALADEZ, a Los Angeles painter, was included in "Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation" and "Le Dimon des

anges," and in 1987 was artist-in-residence, Fondation dArt de la Napoule, France.

WINTER 1992

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