Week 10 Post- Quarter Reflection and Artist Reflection

 I choose to take this course because I wanted to learn and branch and further my knowledge of Chicanx and Latinx Artists. As for Art history, there is, unfortunately, not a course on Chicanx or Latinx artists. When I found this course, I was excited because I knew I could learn about different artists. There is very little information taught in my contemporary art history classes regarding Chicanx and Latinx artists.

 I was also excited because this course focuses primarily on women. When we discussed why few women artists are mentioned or talked about in art courses, many people know about very few women artists. And I’m glad I took this course because I learned about so many artists that have now become my favorites, for instance. Ester Hernandez learning about her and her artwork that she’s been doing many Chicana artworks for a long time. Other artists I liked are Favianna Rodriguez and Barbara Carrasco. I really appreciate when the artist uses their artistry to talking about their community.

For the artist’s presentation, I found many of the presentations amazing, but what I found the most intriguing to me was the artist Johanna Toruno presented in-class presentations. I found this artist’s artwork interesting because of how the presenter expressed there is anti-blackness in the Latine community. I also liked her art because I saw many of her artworks as empowering to the Latinx community. I liked the message and contrast to the vibrant color. 

In this course, I enjoyed learning about Chicana futurists and  Rasquachismo, and Domesticana and the importance of Graffiti art from many of the other topics. These topics and others I felt really helped me as an artist spectator and in analyzing art further. I learned many things from learning the full meaning of Chicanx and what it means to be a chicane. I also learned about gender and how the art world views Chicano artists in the art space in expressing them as Folk artists. To learn about the Artists who paved the way for art in the Chicanx community, such as Ester Hernandez, Marion C.Martinez, Professor and Artist Alma Lopez, and others. . These artists helped push for future chicane artists to be taken seriously as artists and be further understood as artists.

Overall I'm glad I took this course because I want to pursue my art history degree in Curating museums and would definitely bring to the light of artists I learned. That otherwise wouldn't be discussed by Art historians who learned traditional academia since, unfortunately, this course isn't seen as an extra curriculum in the Art history department. I would argue that it is structured similarly to an Art history course and should be considered as one since I learned from a range of topics and artists than some of my other Art history courses.

Johanna Toruno Latinx Artists