Malaquias Montoya

“As a Chicano artist I feel a responsibility that all my art should be a reflection of my political beliefs —an art of protest. The struggle of all people cannot be merely intellectually accepted. It must become part of our very being as artists, otherwise we cannot give expression to it in our work.”—Malaquias Montoya

 

Working over four decades in a variety of media, from drawings and paintings to murals and the silkscreen prints for which he is best known, Malaquias Montoya has pursued a singular artistic vision that promotes the dignity of labor, exposes assaults on human rights, and provokes resistance in the face of injustice. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1938 and raised in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Montoya cofounded the influential Chicano artist collective known as the Mexican-American Liberation Art Front in 1968, inspiring a generation of artists and activists and continuing to do so today through his teaching and by widely exhibiting his overtly political and visually arresting works.

 

In this new volume of the groundbreaking A Ver series, Terezita Romo offers a comprehensive, lavishly illustrated monograph on one of Chicano art's seminal artists whose art has served as a voice for the disenfranchised peoples of the world.

Terezita Romo is curator of exhibitions at the Mexican Museum in San Francisco and the author of Patssi Valdez: A Precarious Comfort.