Images, from top to bottom
Asco, Cinearte 76 (detail), 1976, black and white photo and collage on board,UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Library
Ricardo Valverde, Asco Days of the Dead Performance, Termites y Guerrero,1975, photograph, Collection of Esperanza and Christopher J. Valverde, Los Angeles,California
Asco, Instant Mural, 1974, photograph, Courtesy Harry Gamboa, Jr.
The Chicano art group Asco at the LACMA LACMA presents ‘Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987’, the first retrospective devoted to the Chicano performanceand conceptual art group Asco (1972–1987)
September 4 — December 4, 2011
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Source: LACMA / theartwolf.com
Asco was formed by a team of artists (Gronk, Willie F. Herrón III, Harry Gamboa, Jr., and Patssi Valdez) who met in and around Garfield High School in East Los Angeles in the late 1960s. In its fifteen years of existance, the group “explored and exploited the unlimited media of the conceptual“, the museum says in a press release.
The exhibition features nearly 150 artworks, including painting, sculpture, video, photography, performance, collage, and a series of works that have been commissioned on occasion of the exhibition. “Asco: Elite of the Obscure” features a large selection of “No Movies”, described by the Museum as “signature images created for the camera that imbue performance art with acinematic feel“.
Rita Gonzalez, LACMA’s curator of contemporary art, said that this exhibition is “the first opportunity to expose the nearly fifteen-year output of this important yet underrated art group“. C. Ondine Chavoya, Williams College associate professor of art and co-organizer of the exhibition, added that it will “provide revelations and surprises for both those who are familiar with Asco’s work, as well as those just discovering it“.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by Hatje Cantz. Following its exhibition at the LACMA, “Asco: Elite of the Obscure” will travel to the Williams College Museum of Art from February 4 through July 29, 2012.
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