Over the past decades we have seen her work, in Boyle Heights, downtown LA, and now in Riverside, at the Cheech Marin Museum for Chicano Art. Do not miss this Retrospective, which moves out of Riverside after August 3!
Hernandez may be one of the most influential women artists to emerge from the Chicano movement of the l960’s, putting together a classical drawing background with traditional Mexican culture all fermented in the activism of mid twentieth century. Her retrospective reveals the evolution of art, feminism and history, in an amalgam of Chicano art, reform, the rising consciousness of colonialism, gender patterns and racial injustice.
Hernandez art is presented in vibrant color (reminds me of Gaugin) and with the depiction of women in a touching combination of power and vulnerability. I saw Gaugin’s tropical foliage mixed with Frida Kahlo’s stern gaze. But that quickly was supplanted by references to ancient Mexico, to Aztlan.
Contemporary elements make this retrospective a commentary on feminism today…Hernandez is clearly playing with “the female archetype,” that she inherited from art history, Mexican tradition and modern life. Starting from the dual view of women as either weak and powerless or as goddesses to be worshiped, her art insistently portrays women as bringers of life and death, as warriors or as “casualties of war.” Her women are beautiful, powerful and still tender and nurturing, despite being hemmed in by imperialism, patriarchy and tradition. The women she portrays exert creativity, strength and humanity.
Judith Hernandez, the Retrospective, is on the second floor of the Cheech. It is only here for another month…don’t miss it!