Los Four

Los Four was a seminal and influential Chicano artist collective during the 1970s and early 1980s in Los Angeles, California. The group was instrumental in bringing Chicano Art to the attention of the mainstream art world.

Brief history and significance

The Chicano artist collective Los Four originally consisted of Frank Romero, Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert Luján and Roberto de la Rocha. Judithe Hernandez became the official fifth member of Los Four after the group's history-making exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA). Judithe Hernandez had become acquainted with Carlos Almaraz when they attended graduate school at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and he introduced her to the group. The addition of Judithe Hernandez as the "fifth" member of Los Four made Los Four one of only two major Chicano artist collectives to include a woman, the other being ASCO (Willie Herron, Harry Gamboa, Gronk, and Patssi Valdez).

Although, after the untimely death of Carlos Almaraz in 1989, the group has shown together less actively, the remaining members were renunited in 1994 for an exhibition entitled Los Four: Twenty Years Later. All of the members of Los Four have enjoyed successful solo careers as visual artists and have exhibited extensively in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Each artist of this historically significant group is responsilble for bringing well-deserved recognition to Chicano Art and, in no small way, helped pave the way for the Chicano/Latino artists that have followed.

Individual artworks by Carlos Almaraz, Judithe Hernandez, Frank Romero, Gilbert Luján, and Roberto de la Rocha have been exhibited in museums in France, Sweden, Spain, Japan, England, and other countries.

Exhibitions and murals

After having had well-received exhibitions in the Los Angeles area, the group's breakthrough came when LACMA made the decision to mount a major Los Four exhibition titled Los Four: Almaraz, de la Rocha, Lujan, Romero (Feb. 26–Apr. 7, 1974). In doing so, LACMA became the first mainstream museum to recognize the importance of Chicano Art as a unique school of American art.

Along with their exhibitions, the members of Los Four are responsible for many of the most well-known murals of the period. Frank Romero painted several murals around Los Angeles, including Going to the Olympics on a wall of the Hollywood Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.

Judithe Hernandez painted no fewer than nine murals in the Los Angeles area between 1968 and 1983, and she collaborated on two with Carlos Almaraz. She was one of the artists who created the first 1000 feet of the Great Wall of Los Angeles mural in 1976, and she was commissioned in 1981 by the Los Angeles Bicentennial Committee to paint the official mural commemorating the founding of the City of Los Angeles in 1781.

Carlos Almaraz also painted numerous significant murals in the Los Angeles area. With John Valadez, he painted the 200-foot-long Return of the Maya in Cypress Park, La Adelita in the Ramona Gardens Housing Project with Judithe Hernandez, and California Dreamscape (completed after his death). He also painted murals for Cesar Chavez and the United Farmer Workers Union.

A 1984 film, Los Four, was dedicated to the painters that composed this group and their arts [1].

Trivia

Roberto de la Rocha is the father of alternative metal band Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack

External link

v t e Chicano and Mexican American topics
Terms	Chicano Mexican American La Raza Cholo Pachuco Pinto Blaxican Xicanx
Pre-Chicano Movement	1917 Bath riots Bisbee Deportation Bracero program Korean War La Matanza Mexican Repatriation Operation Wetback Plan de San Diego Porvenir Massacre Sleepy Lagoon trial Zoot Suit Riots
Chicano Movement	Aztlán Católicos por La Raza Centro de Arte Público Chicanismo Chicana feminism Chicano Blowouts Chicano Moratorium Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts PCUN Plan Espiritual de Aztlán Plan de Santa Bárbara Farm workers' rights campaign Land grant struggle Colegio César Chávez Los Siete de la Raza Los Seis de Boulder Occupation of Catalina Island
Post-Chicano Movement	Aztlán 1985–1987 Watsonville Cannery strike 1992 Drywall Strike 2019 El Paso shooting Abolish ICE Arizona SB 1070 Castro 2020 DACA Great American Boycott IRCA Justice for Janitors Killing of Adam Toledo Murder of Selena Party crews Proposition 187 Xicanx
Culture	Anti-Mexican sentiment Caló Chicano art Chicano cinema Chicano literature Chicano names Chicano poetry Chicano Park Chicano rock Chicano rap Cinco de Mayo Estrada Courts murals Lowrider Mexican-American cuisine Mexican-American folklore Mexican-American women's fashion Mexican muralism New Mexican cuisine New Mexico music Paño Regional Mexican Skull art Teatro Campesino Tejano music Tex-Mex cuisine Tortilla art Zoot suit
Chicana/o Theory	Barrioization Coyolxauhqui imperative Gringo justice Nepantla New tribalism Rasquachismo Spiritual activism Vergüenza Youth control complex
Supreme Court cases	Botiller v. Dominguez Hernandez v. Texas San Antonio I.S.D. v. Rodriguez Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Co. U.S. v. Brignoni-Ponce Plyler v. Doe Medellín v. Texas Flores-Figueroa v. U.S. Leal Garcia v. Texas Mendez v. Westminster Bernal v. Fainter DHS v. Regents of the Univ. of Cal.
By city and region	Arizona Tucson California (Los Angeles • San Francisco • San Diego) California (Californios) Colorado (Denver) Illinois (Chicago) Kansas Maryland (Baltimore) Michigan (Detroit) Nebraska (Omaha) New Mexico (Nuevomexicanos) New York (New York City) Oklahoma Pennsylvania Philadelphia Texas Dallas–Fort Worth Houston Texas (Tejanos) Utah (Salt Lake Valley)
Lists	Chicano films Chicano poets U.S. communities with Hispanic majority Mexican Americans Writers List of Hispanic and Latino Americans Bibliography List of Mexican-American communities List of Mexican-American political organizations
Category:Chicano Category:American people of Mexican descent