Judy Baca and crew with Jim Kelly at LACMA, 2024
This is the eMail i received that got this series started. It’s from my good buddy Jim Kelly. He sent it to me back in June, 2024:
“Judy Baca and crew at LACMA today.
They have a working setup creating new mural panels for the LA river project. While I was there, they revealed the new templates that cover Queer history. They must have known I was coming, jejeje.“ -From James Kelley
They have a working setup creating new mural panels for the LA river project. While I was there, they revealed the new templates that cover Queer history. They must have known I was coming, jejeje.“ -From James Kelley
Judy Baca and members of SPARC working on The Great Wall of Los Angeles, 1981. Courtesy: Judith F. Baca and © SPARC archives; photograph: Gia Roland
Witness History Being Made:
Judy Baca at LACMA
By ARMANDO PULIDO
Armando Pulido is a writer and curatorial assistant at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, USA.
Featured in:
FRIEZE LOS ANGELES, Frieze Week Los Angeles 2024
Armando Pulido is a writer and curatorial assistant at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, USA.
Featured in:
FRIEZE LOS ANGELES, Frieze Week Los Angeles 2024
Judy Baca’s mural The Great Wall of Los Angeles has been nearly 50 years in the making.
Now, she’s working on it live in public at LACMA,
in a historic gesture of creative transparency
and cultural community
Judy Baca has transformed the Los Angeles County Museum of Art into her studio.
In the museum’s Resnick Pavilion, behind a railed platform,
a mural is taking shape, accompanied by archival photographs, site plans and a model of the Tujunga Wash in Los Angeles County’s San Fernando Valley.
The mural stretches along the wall on a giant scroll to allow it to be transported to its final site in the future.
This addendum to The Great Wall of Los Angeles, which Baca began in 1975, reprises the mandate for the original work, depicting the histories of marginalized communities in LA and the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s and ’70s.
And Baca does not shy away from telling the city some hard truths. In the exhibition
“Painting in the River of Angels:
Judy Baca and The Great Wall,”
the Chicana artist begins the blueprint for a new section of The Great Wall, tentatively titled:
'Farmworkers’ Movement, East LA Student Walkouts, Watts Rebellion, Watts Renaissance, Black Panther Party,
El Altar (2023–24).'
Judy Baca painting The Great Wall of Los Angeles, summer of 1983, photo courtesy of the SPARC Archives (SPARCinLA.org)
Nearby, one panel of the new extension is already fully rendered in color. The Great Wall of Los Angeles: Generation on Fire (2023) depicts the 1961 Freedom Riders, a group of activists who challenged segregation on US public transport. Protestors are forcefully hosed down to quell flames surrounding their bodies, alluding to an attack by an armed mob of Ku Klux Klan members that fire-bombed the protestors’ buses. The scene distills a moment in American history while, at the same time, pulling back to suggest a wider relevance—political activism against segregation, racism and war remains all too essential today—creating a remarkable throughline between past and present.
Paired with these panels are original site plans, tracing the history of the mural’s genesis in 1974, when the US Army Corps of Engineers contacted Baca about creating the work in the flood control channel of the Tujunga Wash, as part of a beautification process.
Originally assisted by artists, historians, at-risk youths and community members, Baca completed the initial phases covering prehistoric LA through to the 1950s with her piercing, corrective histories.
In 2022, the Mellon Foundation awarded Baca and the nonprofit organization she co-founded for the creation and preservation of activist and socially engaged art,
the Social and Public Art Resource Center,
$5 million to extend the work and bring its story up to the present day. Such funding marks a significant paradigm shift for Chicano muralism in Southern California, as these pieces have historically been erased, white-washed or destroyed,
as in the case of Baca’s own Hitting the Wall (1984) mural under the 110 freeway.
Paired with these panels are original site plans, tracing the history of the mural’s genesis in 1974, when the US Army Corps of Engineers contacted Baca about creating the work in the flood control channel of the Tujunga Wash, as part of a beautification process.
Originally assisted by artists, historians, at-risk youths and community members, Baca completed the initial phases covering prehistoric LA through to the 1950s with her piercing, corrective histories.
In 2022, the Mellon Foundation awarded Baca and the nonprofit organization she co-founded for the creation and preservation of activist and socially engaged art,
the Social and Public Art Resource Center,
$5 million to extend the work and bring its story up to the present day. Such funding marks a significant paradigm shift for Chicano muralism in Southern California, as these pieces have historically been erased, white-washed or destroyed,
as in the case of Baca’s own Hitting the Wall (1984) mural under the 110 freeway.
https://www.judybaca.com/art/hittingthewall/
Today, the (The Great Wall of Los Angeles) mural’s creation involves a different collaborative process.
Baca and her team have moved from working in the Tujunga Wash to studio spaces, or, in this case, the county museum.
It has shifted from being a primarily youth-driven collective
to a smaller team of historians, artists and activists, but it nonetheless still poses larger questions about who gets to witness history—especially marginalized history.
What does it mean for museum goers to be present at the creation of one of the world’s most vivid depictions of the Chicano Movement, a story that is often only told within Chicano communities?
What does it mean for a Chicana artist to occupy a municipal museum’s central space and command the attention of everyone who walks through its doors?
The political dimension of Baca’s work cannot be ignored, especially as it calls out fascism, which we see on the rise today throughout the world.
The artist reminds us that, though these histories may seem removed from us, they still need a narrator, especially one who has stood unapologetically by her beliefs throughout her decades-long career.
Baca’s practice also reminds us to remain steadfast in a collective stance against injustice and to continue to use our voices.
Baca and her team have moved from working in the Tujunga Wash to studio spaces, or, in this case, the county museum.
It has shifted from being a primarily youth-driven collective
to a smaller team of historians, artists and activists, but it nonetheless still poses larger questions about who gets to witness history—especially marginalized history.
What does it mean for museum goers to be present at the creation of one of the world’s most vivid depictions of the Chicano Movement, a story that is often only told within Chicano communities?
What does it mean for a Chicana artist to occupy a municipal museum’s central space and command the attention of everyone who walks through its doors?
The political dimension of Baca’s work cannot be ignored, especially as it calls out fascism, which we see on the rise today throughout the world.
The artist reminds us that, though these histories may seem removed from us, they still need a narrator, especially one who has stood unapologetically by her beliefs throughout her decades-long career.
Baca’s practice also reminds us to remain steadfast in a collective stance against injustice and to continue to use our voices.
Judy Baca on scissor lift at The Great Wall of Los Angeles, 1983. Courtesy: © SPARC Archives; photograph: Linda Eber
The artist collective Asco demonstrated this belief with their notorious Spray Paint LACMA intervention in 1972,
in response to a claim that Chicanos made graffiti, not art.
It wasn’t until 1974—the same year that The Great Wall of Los Angeles was conceived—that the Chicano artist group known as “Los Four,” made up of Carlos Almaraz,
Gilbert “Magu” Luján, Roberto Isaac “Beto” de la Rocha and Frank Romero, was the subject of the first exhibition of Chicano art at LACMA.
For a city with a predominant Latino presence,
it was long overdue. Nearly 50 years later, Baca has reclaimed that space, involving the public in the expansion and ongoing story of one of the world’s longest murals,
which arguably tells a more accurate and compelling history than that found in American textbooks.
Further Information:
To keep up to date on all the latest news from Frieze,
sign up to the newsletter at frieze.com, and follow @friezeofficial on Instagram, Twitter and
Frieze Official on Facebook.
From:
https://www.judybaca.com/art/great-wall-of-los-angeles-1974-present/Restoration
“The restoration of the Great Wall of Los Angeles is a massive undertaking. Every segment of the 2,750ft is cleaned, examined and treated to bring it back to its original state of brilliant color. Within the three-month dry season in the Los Angeles River the work must be completed racing against a clock that is determined by the difficult conditions of heat, water flow, rain and other factors of the unique site in the Los Angeles flood control channel. The site channels the main water flow through the San Fernando Valley to the ocean and becomes extremely perilous in a rain storm so weather watches and evacuation methods are a constant worry for the 30 members of the restoration team composed of professional muralist, interns from universities around the country, local volunteers and past participants of the Great Wall productions.”
https://www.judybaca.com/art/great-wall-of-los-angeles-1974-present/Restoration
“The restoration of the Great Wall of Los Angeles is a massive undertaking. Every segment of the 2,750ft is cleaned, examined and treated to bring it back to its original state of brilliant color. Within the three-month dry season in the Los Angeles River the work must be completed racing against a clock that is determined by the difficult conditions of heat, water flow, rain and other factors of the unique site in the Los Angeles flood control channel. The site channels the main water flow through the San Fernando Valley to the ocean and becomes extremely perilous in a rain storm so weather watches and evacuation methods are a constant worry for the 30 members of the restoration team composed of professional muralist, interns from universities around the country, local volunteers and past participants of the Great Wall productions.”
From:
https://www.judybaca.com/art/great-wall-of-los-angeles-1974-present/
A Personal Message from UCLA Professor Judy Baca, Creator of the Great Wall of Los Angeles and SPARC’s Founder/Artistic Director:
“In 1975 when the Great Wall was still a dream, I never imagined it would lead me, the more than 400 young “Mural Makers” and the 35 other artists on my team through such a moving set of experiences. Nor could I have imagined that 27years from the date the first paint was applied to the wall that it would still be a work in progress.
When I first saw the wall, I envisioned a long narrative of another history of California; one which included ethnic peoples, women and minorities who were so invisible in conventional text book accounts. The discovery of the history of California’s multi‑cultured peoples was a revelation to me as well as to the members of my teams.
We learned each new decade of history in summer installments; the 20′s in 1978, the 30′s in 1980, the 40′s in 1981, and the 50′s in 1983. Each year our visions expanded as the images traveled down the wall. While our sense of our individual families’ places in history took form, we became family to one another. Working toward the achievement of a difficult common goal shifted our understandings of each other and most importantly of ourselves.
I designed this project as an artist concerned not only with the physical aesthetic considerations of a space, but the social, environmental and cultural issues affecting the site as well. I am not a social worker, though people mistakenly call me one and I am not a teacher although I have teaching skills. I draw on skills not normally used by artists. I’ve learned as much as I’ve taught from the youth I’ve had the good fortune to know by working alongside of them. They’ve taught me among other things how to laugh at myself, how to put play into hard work, and how not to be afraid to believe in something.
I am extremely grateful.
Perhaps most overwhelming to me about the Great Wall experience has been learning of the courage of individuals in history who endured, spoke out, and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It was true both of the people we painted about and of ourselves the Mural Makers.”
– Judith F. Baca
From: https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/painting-river-angels-judy-baca-and-great-wall-0
Painting in the River of Angels:
Judy Baca and The Great Wall
Oct 26, 2023–Jul 21, 2024
For the first time in her practice, Judy Baca transforms a museum into a studio. She and artists from the Social and Public Art Resource Center expand The Great Wall of Los Angeles into the 21st century, painting three sections of the mural at LACMA. LACMA’s exhibition presents murals from the 1960s and 1970s depicting the Chicano Movement, Watts Renaissance, the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement, and archival materials that have never been exhibited, revealing Baca’s process and innovations to muralism. Baca conceived The Great Wall (1975) as a monument to the people of California, featuring moments from prehistoric times to the 1950s. She collaborated with 400 youth and community members to design and paint the mural on the walls of the L.A. River to tell history from the perspective of those erased from it.
After the artists complete the paintings at LACMA, they will add them to The Great Wall, creating a mile of visual history.
Painting in the River of Angels:
Judy Baca and The Great Wall
Oct 26, 2023–Jul 21, 2024
For the first time in her practice, Judy Baca transforms a museum into a studio. She and artists from the Social and Public Art Resource Center expand The Great Wall of Los Angeles into the 21st century, painting three sections of the mural at LACMA. LACMA’s exhibition presents murals from the 1960s and 1970s depicting the Chicano Movement, Watts Renaissance, the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement, and archival materials that have never been exhibited, revealing Baca’s process and innovations to muralism. Baca conceived The Great Wall (1975) as a monument to the people of California, featuring moments from prehistoric times to the 1950s. She collaborated with 400 youth and community members to design and paint the mural on the walls of the L.A. River to tell history from the perspective of those erased from it.
After the artists complete the paintings at LACMA, they will add them to The Great Wall, creating a mile of visual history.
This exhibition was organized by the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036
© MUSEUM ASSOCIATES 2024
Major support provided by
The Claire Falkenstein Foundation,
Berta and Frank Gehry,
and Mellon Foundation.
Generous support provided by
Fabian Newton Family,
Carmela and Miguel Koenig,
Cheryl Gora,
and an anonymous donor.
Premier sponsorship provided by Snapchat
All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund.
Major annual support is provided by
The David & Meredith Kaplan Foundation,
with generous annual funding from
Louise and Brad Edgerton,
Edgerton Foundation,
Mary and Daniel James,
Justin Lubliner,
Alfred E. Mann Charities,
Kelsey Lee Offield,
Koni and Geoff Rich,
Lenore and Richard Wayne,
and Marietta Wu
and Thomas Yamamoto.
RSS Feed