Art Brings Us Together

This weekend, I had an encounter with two works on paper at the wonderful exhibit “¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics 1965 to Now,” showing at the Frist Art Museum through September 29.

I saw Poli Marichal’s linocut print “Sanctuary” (2018), and I was mesmerized. I did not know this Puerto Rican artist. I had heard of her father (Carlos Marichal, a famous artist on the island from way back) but was blissfully ignorant of the life and work of his daughter.

As a long-time resident of Nashville, it felt special to visit the Frist, and learn about the life and work of a Puerto Rican artist I did not know. I was struck to find her eloquent piece about LA and “sanctuary cities,” in a show that celebrates Chicano printmaking. The encounter made me think about the strange and uncanny ways our Latino traditions cross national boundaries, and meet, in the rich and sometimes rough tapestry of the US.

Another work that spoke to me from the exhibit was Linda Zamora Lucero’s “Lolita Lebrón, ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!” Zamora Lucero was the co-founder in 1971 of La Raza Graphics Center. She made the screen print of the famous Puerto Rican in 1975, four years before Lebrón was pardoned by President Carter.

Lebrón was imprisoned for a Nationalist attack on Congress in 1954, which left several Congressmen wounded, including Clifford Davis, a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and a Democratic Congressman for the TN district that included Memphis from 1940-1965.

Zamora Lucero’s screenprint suggested to me a kinship between political causes, across our shared national territory, and across the vexed local histories that divide us. Zamora founded La Raza Graphics Center in San Francisco, CA. Lebrón was serving a 25-year sentence in Alderson Federal Penitentiary in West Virginia.

When my mother passed away in 2016, I inherited a part of her art collection. It included works on paper by several Latina artists like “In My Backyard” (1980), a silkscreen print by Myrna Baez, “Casita” (1980), an etching by Analida Burgos, and “La Pensatrice” (1999), a drawing in grease pencil by Susana Herrero-Kunhardt.

They are all political pieces. Some are critical of the status of Puerto Rico, others are critical of the place of women in art and thought. Some are humorous, others are shocking and angry. They are all confident, masterful and colorful.

I brought these works home from Puerto Rico not long ago, and I hung them around my house. Together, they felt like an isolated archipelago in my southern landscape.

But today, thanks to the exhibit, I felt that this archipelago of Latina art works extends well beyond my home. It reaches the Frist Art Museum and touches the history of Tennessee.

This week, I’ll bring my classes to the exhibit. The Frist has generously offered to give us a curated tour. I’ll be proud to repeat to my students the revolutionary slogan: ¡Art Can Bring Us Together!