Robles, Gissel (Week 8: Looking Backward)

I decided to read Looking Backward by Shifra M. Goldman out of all the PDF essays that were of option to read. In this essay, Goldman explains how despite Chicano art reaching new spaces (galleries, private collections, museums, critics, and art periodicals) and barriers being knocked down, it is freshly making its way into the art world as acceptable while questioning the dedication these artists put in. The question(s) remaining ask, “Should Chicano artists, at the cost of economic security and possible artistic recognition, continue to express themselves artistically around the same matrix of social change and community service that brought their movement into existence? Or should they, now that some of the barriers are cracking, enter the mainstream as competitive professionals, perhaps shedding in the process their cultural identity and political militancy? Or is there a middle path between the two?” (Goldman, 436). She delves into these possibilities by analyzing Califas: An Exhibition of Chicano Artists in California and Murals of Aztlán: The Street Painters of East Los Angeles where she presupposes that it lies within the subthemes they show; Goldman says, “…both shows simply focused on an older generation of Chicano artists” (437) in which Judithe Elena Hernández counter argues against. In the Califas art exhibition Goldman contends that their choice of media indicates their stance and their contributions with art institutions displays how they aim to “create an alternative cultural structure in the face of mainstream indifference or hostility during the evolution of contemporary Chicano art expression” (Goldman, 437). Furthermore, she believes that the Murals of Aztlán, both social and aesthetic problems arise.