Los Four/Murals of Aztlán
The Street Painters of East Los Angeles
Produced and directed by James Tartan
 

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Individuals: Contact support@chicano.ucla.edu

 

 

Chicano Cinema and Media Art Series, Volume 1
July 2004
46 minutes
English

 

Los Four. Documents the first exhibition of Chicano artists held at a major art museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 1974. Los Four (1973-1983) was an influential Chicano art collective that included Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert “Magu” Sanchez Lujan, Roberto de la Rocha, and Frank Romero. The documentary captures the group's debates over art, politics, and community, while it also reveals their experimentation with spray-can techniques, found object, and installation art as well as their self-conscious efforts to develop Chicano icons. 1974. 16mm. Color. 22:55.
 
Murals of Aztlán: The Street Painters of East Los Angeles. Documents the exhibition “Murals of Aztlán: The Street Painters of East Los Angeles” at the Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles in 1981. The exhibition featured portable murals in the gallery space painted by some of the leading Chicano and Chicana artists: Carlos Almaraz, Gronk, Judithe Hernandez, Willie Herron, Frank Romero, John Valadez, and the East Los Streetscapers (David Rivas Botello, Wayne Alaniz Healy, and George Yepes). 1981. 16mm. Color. 22:55.
 
James Tartan (1931-2010) was a veteran filmmaker who played a pivotal role in documenting Chicano Los Angeles and also training early Chicano filmmakers in the 1970s.
 
UPC: 
689076042451
"In both programs, filmmaker Tartan masterfully captures the artists discussing their roots in the barrio and technical and iconographic issues of Chicano streetscape art and the interaction with their collaborators and their newly found museum audience."
— Susan E. Annett, Santa Monica P.L., CA