Luis Jiménez

Luis Jiménez was born in Texas to parents who had emigrated from Mexico to the Unites States; he would later dedicate his 1989 sculpture  Border Crossing  to his father, who had entered the country without authorization. The elder Jiménez was a neon sign designer in El Paso, and Luis worked with him as a youth. His experience working in the neon shop would become a major influence on his art career. Jiménez studied architecture at the University of Texas, Austin (UTA), and also took art courses in which he first created sculptures with wood, steel, and fiberglass. In 1964, Jiménez received his B.S. in art from UTA, and he continued his studies at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City.

Drawing on his early experiences, Jiménez creates works that come from a border perspective, one that draws upon the hybridity bred by culture clashes. Often socially and politically informed, his works speak not only in regional terms--those germane to the southwestern United States-- but to broader, more global issues as well. They exhibit a profoundly Chicano aesthetic and sensibility, one that is informed by Mexican and Mexican American traditions, North American popular culture, Chicano cultural icons, and images and themes unique to the Southwest. His use of bold colors and lines, a legacy of his father's work as a neon sign maker, lends a sensuality to his work. Many of Jiménez's works correspond to scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto's definition of the Chicano aesthetic of rasquachismo, a lowbrow sensibility that appeals to the working class in that it applies to objects that subvert expression of the mainstream or dominant culture.

In an effort to promote and celebrate the fine art of Mexican American artists in Arizona and around the country, the Hispanic Research Center commissioned several Mexican American artists, including Jiménez, to create a set of lithographs. From those commissions, Jiménez created "Cholo and Van with Popo and Ixta" and also donated another lithograph, "Abuela," to the Center's collection. These two lithographs remain a vital part of the HRC collection of Mexican American and Chicana/o art.

Here at the Hispanic Research Center, we are inspired by  Visual Thinking Strategies  (VTS), a visual and discussion-based facilitation method that seeks to foster collaborative, inclusive, community-building dialogue grounded in the visual arts.

Below, we draw on VTS and the pedagogical method known as "What's going on in this picture?" to explore two lithographs by Luis Jiménez: "Cholo and Van with Popo and Ixta" (1997) and "Abuela" (1997).

To begin, watch  this video introduction  to "What's going on this picture?"

Then, encourage students to look closely at the following two lithographs by Jiménez and answer the following three questions:

1. What's going on this picture?
2. What do you see that makes you say that?
3. What more can you find?

Respond to student comments with paraphrasing and affirmation of their observations. To extend the discussion, students can individually write a "blog post" that summarizes their responses. Students can then read each others' posts and reply to their peer's observations.

Following the group discussion, share information about  Luis Jiménez , including his life story and the  additional resources  from the HRC archive available to supplement this lesson. Encourage students to consider how learning his backstory might influence how they see the images. Next, share the image analysis of ASU art historian,  Dr. JoAnna Reyes , shown in the following section.

Instructions: Navigate through Dr. JoAnna Reyes' answers to "What's going on in this picture?" by scrolling through the lithograph below.

Be sure to click "unmute background audio" so you can hear Dr. Reyes' voice. As you zoom in and out of the image, you can always click on the image itself to see it in its entirety.

Instructions: As you did with the lithography above, navigate through Dr. Reyes' analysis of Luis Jiménez's "La Abuelita" by scrolling through the lithograph below. Be sure to click "unmute background audio" so you can hear Dr. Reyes' voice.

Primary sources related to Luis Jiménez's artist practice from the HRC archive. Scroll through the resources below or  click here  to view and download these resources.

This project was built using using ArcGIS StoryMaps and with support from the  ASU Humanities Institute.  

The opening text under "About: Luis Jiménez" is borrowed from volume two of the art book  Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture, and Education , which was published in 2002 by Bilingual Review Press of the ASU Hispanic Research Center.

Thank you to the HRC team, particularly Anita Huízar-Hernández and Santiago Morrato, for their insights and collaboration.