Biography

Drawing from his experiences living on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border, Enrique Chagoya juxtaposes secular, popular, and religious symbols in order to address the ongoing cultural clash between the United States and Latin America. He uses familiar pop icons such as Mickey Mouse to create deceptively friendly points of entry for the discussion of complex issues. Through these seemingly harmless characters, Chagoya examines the recurring subjects of colonialism and oppression that continue to riddle contemporary American foreign policy.

Chagoya was born and reared in Mexico City. His father, a bank employee by day and artist by night, encouraged his interest in art by teaching Chagoya to sketch at a very early age. After high school, Chagoya enrolled in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where he studied the political economy and contributed political cartoons to union newsletters. He later relocated to Veracruz, Mexico, following graduation and worked on rural-development projects, a time he describes as “an incredible growing experience … [that] made me form strong views on what was happening outside in the world.”1 This growing political awareness would later surface in Chagoya’s art. At age 24, he immigrated to the United States and settled with his new wife in McAllen, Texas. After eight months working as a union organizer for farm workers, Chagoya moved to Berkeley, California, and began working as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. Disheartened by what he considered to be the narrow political scope of economics programs in local colleges, Chagoya turned his interests to art. He enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute, where he earned a B.F.A. in 1984. He then pursued his M.A. and M.F.A. at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1997.

During his studies and his subsequent years as a professor at UC Berkeley and Stanford, Chagoya continued to follow the political and economic policies of the United States and Latin America with close attention. In 1984, in response to writer/activist Lucy Lippard’s “Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America,” Chagoya crafted his first overtly political piece. Having worked as a political cartoonist in Mexico during the 1970s, Chagoya was familiar with the power of newsprint to communicate political views. Concerned that the small scale of a traditional cartoon would disappear on the walls of an art gallery, he expanded the size of his work to nearly seven feet. Their Freedom of Expression … The Recovery of Their Economy (1984), a seminal work from this period, was produced in response to the Reagan administration’s covert decision to support guerrilla activity in Nicaragua. Using the colors of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, Chagoya presents President Reagan as Mickey Mouse scrawling the words “Russkies and Cubans out of Central America” on the wall in red paint. The human foot protruding from the bucket of paint suggests that bloodshed would result from the conflict. Below the figure of Reagan stands a small-scale Henry Kissinger. Like the President, Kissinger is dressed as Mickey. He scribbles ironically, “By the way keep art out of politics.” Chagoya’s depiction of Reagan and Kissinger as Mickey Mouse is central to the success of the work. As he explains, “I wanted to do an image of a politician but I didn’t want to make an evil-looking monster … I preferred a harmless look because that’s the way politicians represent themselves to the public—always with the best face.”1 Similar to its function in the work of artist Llyn Foulkes, Mickey Mouse represents corporate corruption, but for Chagoya the character also symbolizes cultural imposition. Thus, the seemingly benign image of Mickey Mouse becomes a vehicle for the discussion of the issues that surround the intersection of American and Latin American sociopolitical policies. —L.W.

1. Enrique Chagoya, quoted in Steven Nash, “Borders of the Spirit,” Triptych (October/November/December 1994): 24.

(SJMA Selections publication, 2004)

Born in 1953 in Mexico City, Chagoya became in interested in art and politics while in high school. From 1973-76 he attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he studied economics. In 1977, Chagoya moved to the United States, first to Texas and then to Berkeley, where he worked as a free-lance illustrator and graphic designer for various publications and organizations. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984 and then became an art instructor at San Francisco County Jail. In 1987 he earned an MFA from UC Berkeley and became involved with the Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco. Chagoya currently teaches art at Stanford University. His work is included in the collections of the Whitney Musuem of American Art, SFMOMA, the M.H. deYoung Memorial Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. He was recently featured in the SJMA exhibition Un/Familiar Territory. SJMA will be organizing the first mid-career retrospective of this important Bay Area artist in 2007. This will be the first work by Chagoya to enter the collection. (SJMA Collections Committee, 2003)
Enrique Chagoya lives in San Francisco, CA.
Active in San Francisco, CA. (Getty ULAN). Professor at Stanford University.

From the SJMA website: Press release regarding Enrique Chagoya lecture:
Enrique Chagoya to Speak at SJMA May 17

SAN JOSE, California (Thursday, May 17, 2012)— Artist Enrique Chagoya, whose works are included in the current exhibition Mexicanisimo through Artists’ Eyes, will speak at the San Jose Museum of Art on Thursday, May 17, 2012, at 7 PM. Chagoya will be joined in conversation by Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz, assistant professor of art and art history at Stanford University. They will discuss the diverse aspects of culture and traditions that Chagoya explores in his paintings and prints. Tickets to the program, part of the Museum’s Creative Minds series, are $10 ($6 for members), and include admission to the Museum, which is open until 8 PM on May 17. Tickets are available online at LiveSV.com

Drawing from his experiences living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border in the late 1970s, and also in Europe in the late 1990s, Enrique Chagoya juxtaposes secular, popular, and religious symbols in order to address the ongoing cultural clash between the United States, Latin America and the world as well. He uses familiar pop icons to create deceptively friendly points of entry for the discussion of complex issues. Chagoya is currently a professor at Stanford University’s Department of Art and Art History. His work can be found in many public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the San Jose Museum of Art.

Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz is an art historian with expertise in African and Caribbean artistic, visual, and religious practices. Born and raised in Cuba, Martínez-Ruiz taught Art History at Havana’s High Institute of Art for five years prior to coming to the United States. Martinez-Ruiz has both curated exhibitions on contemporary and African art and presented his own multimedia work in solo and group exhibitions in New York and Alabama. Martínez-Ruiz completed his masters and doctoral studies in the History of Art department at Yale University in 2004.

Third Thursday evening hours are generously supported by grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation, and the Koret Foundation.

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