Mark Vallen

Last updated
Mark Vallen
MarkVallen.JPG
Mark Vallen at an exhibition in Eagle Rock, California, December 2005
Born1953 (age 7071)
Nationality American
Education Otis Parsons Art Institute
Known for figurative realist painter, blogger
Notable workNuclear War?! ... There goes my career!

Mark Vallen (born 1953) is an American activist with Chicano and other issues, curator, figurative realist painter, and blogger, who runs the Art for a Change web site; he founded The Black Moon web site for Japanese culture.

Contents

Life and work

Mark Vallen was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He studied art at the Otis Parsons Art Institute and was influenced by the African American artist, Charles White, [1] but considers himself largely self-taught, with influences from Goya, Daumier, German Expressionists and Mexican Muralists. [2]

By the age of 17, his cartoons had been published in the Los Angeles Free Press and the Black Panther Party newspaper, and he had printed a (pre-Watergate) street poster, proclaiming, "Evict Nixon!". [2] He worked on Slash, and produced art work based on the early punk scene. [3] He participated in Penelope Spheeris' punk rock documentary The Decline of Western Civilization (1981). [1] At the end of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, Vallen was involved in the Los Angeles Punk scene and the civil rights movement. He advocated for the neglected Central American refugee community, and was the first person to distribute on the streets of Los Angeles political posters in support of that community. These posters used his artwork with bilingual text (the latter a practice derived from the 1960 Chicano Arts movement). [2] In 2001 he gave the International Workers' Association the right to use his image and poster Ningun ser Humano es Illegal (No human being is illegal). [4]

Paul Von Blum said in the Journal of American Studies of Turkey:

A key figure in Southern Californian socially conscious art is Los Angeles-based Mark Vallen, a renowned Chicano artist-activist whose works have addressed pressing social and political issues for more than three decades. [5]

I Am Not the Enemy, pencil drawing by Mark Vallen Vallen-Enemy.jpg
I Am Not the Enemy, pencil drawing by Mark Vallen

Vallen is a figurative realist painter. Much of his work documents California's labor movements, depicting their "dignity and struggle". [6] As a response to racial profiling after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Vallen made a pencil drawing of a Muslim woman, titled I Am Not the Enemy; prompted by the Iraq war, he reproduced the drawing as a poster for wide distribution, with the title at the bottom in bold upper case. [5] He deplored the increase of racial hate crimes following 9/11 and stated, "Moslems, Arabs, and people of Middle Eastern descent are not the enemy. Many people from the Middle East have come to the United States to escape repression, terror, and war. The fact that these innocent people would now be targeted by misguided Americans is a cause for great shame." [7]

Vallen's art was in the traveling show at UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the Oakland Museum of California, the Merced Multicultural Arts Center, the Crocker Art Museum, the Jersey City Museum, and Galería de la Raza; his art was in the opening show at the Kantor Gallery, and in the exhibition At Work: The Art of California Labor at Pico House gallery; a solo retrospective, More Than A Witness was at the A Shenere Velt Gallery, Los Angeles. [2] He was included in the show Fundamental (addressing religious fundamentalism) in Manchester in 2007. [8]

Nuclear War?! ... There goes my career!, poster by Mark Vallen, 1980 Vallen-Nuclear.gif
Nuclear War?! ... There goes my career!, poster by Mark Vallen, 1980

Vallen was inspired to create Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career! after the election of Ronald Reagan in the fall of 1980. Still some years before Robbie Conal gained fame for his scathing caricatures of Reagan, Vallen's piece appealed not only to the aesthetics but the pragmatics of activism in Los Angeles. Vallen modeled his figure in part on Wonder Woman, and with its obvious nod to Lichtenstein’s pop art, his piece was both aesthetically familiar and initially non-threatening to the viewer. The deceptively brief text undercut the familiarity of the image with a deeply ironic commentary on the priorities of the average American citizen. It offered a grim view of American complacency in the face of the nuclear threat. [9]

Both Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career! (1980) a front cover graphic for LA Weekly [10] and We're Number One (1984) were shown as part of the Yo! What Happened to Peace? traveling exhibition, whose venues included the Los Angeles Transport Gallery and the Parco Museum in Tokyo in 2005. [11] [12] [13] Two of his prints, including Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!, were included in an exhibition of political poster art at the Museum of Modern Art. [2] [11]

Vallen's illustrative work includes Slash magazine, the LA Weekly , LA Reader, California Magazine, The Progressive , Mother Jones , and South End Press,. [2] It has frequently been used for the cover of the Santa Monica Review. [14] His art is in the book, Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California. [2] He contributes art to the web site Xispas, which covers Chicano culture and is edited by the writer, Luis J. Rodriguez. [2] [15] Vallen designed the cover for Rodriguez's poetry book, My Nature Is Hunger, published in 2005. [16]

He lives in North Hollywood. [3]

Art philosophy

He has commented on art:

What I disparage is the postmodernist emphasis on form over content, or process over result which has led to an imbalance in modern art. As for the question of realism in painting, for years we’ve been told by art world elites that figurative painting is passé, some have even gone so far as to say "painting is dead." No one is ever taken to task for making such ludicrous remarks, but as an advocate of figurative realism I’m continually accused of being a reactionary who hates modern art and wishes to impose realism upon everyone - which is utter nonsense. My position is that figurative realism has largely been excluded and shunned by the art world in favor of conceptual, performance, video and installation art. In calling for the re-establishment of painting to its former respected position, I’m seeking equilibrium but I’m not looking for a return to the past. To quote a phrase from the Stuckists, we cannot paint as if space travel, computers, and punk rock never happened. I think painters must also offer exceptional content, so I’m thinking in terms of superior technique coupled with interesting narratives or messages. On a personal level, I have a lot to say to my audience, and figurative realism affords me the best way to make my intentions clearly understood. [3]

He has taken issue with Fred Ross of Art Renewal Center, disagreeing with his Ross's unstinting admiration of the French 19th century Salon artist, William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Vallen admires Bouguereau's technique, but considers he was "imprisoned by his extremely conservative vision of what painting could be". [17] Vallen also stated that Ross and his followers "are not incorrect when noting the follies of modern art, but their total rejection of it is beyond the pale and thoroughly reactionary." [17]

Web sites

In 1997, Vallen founded The Black Moon web site as a forum for anime and Japanese culture. [18]

He now publishes the web site Art for a Change, which promotes the socially transformative role of his own and other artists' work, and acts as a forum and resource facility; [19] he is a "popular arts blogger", [20] In 2004 he campaigned against the threatened closure of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, calling Mayor James Hahn's budget team "vulgarian accountants and hack bureaucrats" and "gray-suited Philistines." [21] In 2007, he criticised the $25 million BP sponsorship of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as a blatant PR maneuver, observing that since 2002 BP had paid $125 million in settlements for environmental violations. [22]

Shows

This list is incomplete

Notes and references

  1. 1 2 "Mark Vallen", RTEA. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Material sourced from "150 Dia de los Muertos" Archived 2008-06-11 at the Wayback Machine , Arts Council of Sonoma County, retrieved 8 September 2007. The information is no longer on that site as of 26 January 2008. The same text can be found at "2nd City Council: Dia de los Muertos", 2nd City Council Gallery, retrieved 26 January 2008, now , retrieved 13 September 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Crew, Adrienne. "LAist Interview: Mark Vallen" Archived 2007-08-07 at the Wayback Machine , LAist, 20 February 2006. Retrieved 8 September 2007.
  4. "Ningun ser Humano es Ilegal: No human being is illegal" Archived 2007-07-23 at the Wayback Machine , International Workers' Association, 2001. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  5. 1 2 Blum, Paul Von. "Southern California Artists Challenge America", Journal of American Studies of Turkey, Fall 2004. Retrieved from Ege University web site 9 September 2007.
  6. Spicer, Tracy. "Art for a change" Archived 2006-10-17 at the Wayback Machine , Pasadena Weekly, 6 July 2006. Retrieved 8 September 2007.
  7. Vallen, Mark. "I am not the enemy: Mark Vallen 2001", art-for-change.com. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  8. Kelly, Angela. "Exploring the dogma of war", Metro News Manchester, 7 September 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  9. Moravec, Michelle (2010). "Topographies of Anti-Nuclear Art in Late Cold War Los Angeles". International Journal of Regional and Local Studies. 6 (1): 58–71. doi:10.1179/jrl.2010.6.1.58. S2CID   154562727.
  10. Vallen, Mark. "Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!: Mark Vallen 1980" Archived 2007-09-14 at the Wayback Machine , art-for-a-change.com. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  11. 1 2 Vallen, Mark. "Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!" Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine , art-for-a-change.com, 6 August 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  12. "Yo! What happened to peace?" Archived 2007-08-10 at the Wayback Machine , Paco Museum (mostly in Japanese). Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  13. "'Offensive and aggressive': The war against art" Archived 2007-09-14 at the Wayback Machine , Adbusters, 11 May 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  14. "Celebrating SMC's Literary Journal as It Begins 20th Anniversary" Archived 2007-05-23 at the Wayback Machine , Santa Monica College, 1 May 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  15. "Events for the month of October, 2004" Archived 2008-06-10 at the Wayback Machine , Tia Chua's Cafe Cultural, 2004. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  16. "Events for the month of November, 2005" Archived 2008-01-06 at the Wayback Machine , Tia Chua's Cafe Cultural, 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  17. 1 2 Roth, Mark. "Gifted artist? Bouguereau's work controversial more than a century after his death", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 21 August 2007. Retrieved 8 September 2007.
  18. "The Black Moon: mission statement and staff information", theblackmoon.com. Retrieved 25 January 2008.
  19. "Art for a change" Archived 2007-07-09 at the Wayback Machine , New Village Press, 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  20. Westervelt, Amy, "High Art, Low Art...or No Art?" Archived 2007-08-16 at the Wayback Machine , Global Journalist. Retrieved 8 September 2007.
  21. Greene, Robert. "Art in jeopardy: Not a pretty picture for Mayor Hahn" Archived 2008-06-09 at the Wayback Machine , LA Weekly, 17 March 2004. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  22. "Stink over BP/LACMA deal", artnet.com, 16 March 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2007.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheech Marin</span> American comedian and actor (born 1946)

Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin is an American comedian, actor, musician, and activist. He gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s with Tommy Chong, and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez, on Nash Bridges. He has also voiced characters in several Disney films, including Oliver & Company, The Lion King, The Lion King 1½, the Cars franchise, Coco, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shepard Fairey</span> American contemporary street artist, graphic designer activist and illustrator

Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Williams (artist)</span> American painter and cartoonist

Robert L. Williams, often styled Robt. Williams, is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine. Williams was one of the group of artists who produced Zap Comix, along with other underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, and Gilbert Shelton. His mix of California car culture, cinematic apocalypticism, and film noir helped to create a new genre of psychedelic imagery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elmer Bischoff</span> American painter (1916–1991)

Elmer Nelson Bischoff, was an American visual artist, from the San Francisco Bay Area. Bischoff, along with Richard Diebenkorn and David Park, was part of the post-World War II generation of artists who started as abstract painters and found their way back to figurative art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruben Salazar</span> Mexican-American civil rights activist and journalist; killed by riot police in 1970

Ruben Salazar was a civil rights activist and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He was the first Mexican journalist from mainstream media to cover the Chicano community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gronk (artist)</span> American painter (born 1954)

Gronk, born Glugio Nicandro, is a Chicano painter, printmaker, and performance artist. His work is collected by museums around the country including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Gilbert "Magu" Luján was a Chicano American sculptor, muralist, painter, and educator. He was a founding member of the Chicano collective, Los Four that consisted of artists Carlos Almaraz, Beto de la Rocha, Frank Romero and himself. In 1974, Judithe Hernández became the "fifth member," and only female member of Los Four.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yolanda López</span> Mexican-American painter and activist (1942–2021)

Yolanda Margarita López was an American painter, printmaker, educator, and film producer. She was known for her Chicana feminist works focusing on the experiences of Mexican-American women, often challenging the ethnic stereotypes associated with them. Lopez was recognized for her series of paintings which re-imagined the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe. Her work is held in several public collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self Help Graphics & Art</span>

Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc. is a community arts center in East Los Angeles, California, United States. The building is a mix Beaux-Arts and vernacular architecture built in 1927, and was designed by Postle & Postle. Formed during the cultural renaissance that accompanied the Chicano Movement, or Self Help, as it is sometimes called, was one of the primary centers that incubated the nascent Chicano art movement, and remains important in the Chicano art movement, as well as in the greater Los Angeles community, today. SHG also hosts musical and other performances, and organizes Los Angeles's annual Day of the Dead festivities. Throughout its history, the organization has worked with well-known artists in the Los Angeles area such as Los Four and the East Los Streetscapers, but it has focused primarily on training and giving exposure to young and new artists, many of whom have gone on to national and international prominence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert de la Rocha</span> American artist, father of Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha

Roberto Isaac "Beto" de la Rocha is a Mexican-American painter, graphic artist, and muralist. He was part of the Chicano art collective Los Four for a few years. De la Rocha was also influential in re-establishing the traditional Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead in Los Angeles. He is the father of Rage Against the Machine vocalist and lyricist Zack de la Rocha.

Diane Gamboa has been producing, exhibiting and curating visual art in Southern California since the 1980s. She has also been involved art education, ranging from after-school programs to college and university teaching. Gamboa has been "one of the most active cultural producers in the Chicana art movement in Los Angeles." She actively developed the Chicano School of Painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Renewal Center</span> Arts organization and online museum

The Art Renewal Center (ARC) is a non-profit, educational organization, which hosts an online museum dedicated to realist art. The ARC was founded by New Jersey businessman, author, and art collector Fred Ross.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judithe Hernández</span> American Chicana artist

Judithe Hernández is an American artist and educator, she is known as a muralist, pastel artist, and painter. She is a pioneer of the Chicano art movement and a former member of the art collective Los Four. She is based in Los Angeles, California and previously lived in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Fairrington</span> American painter

David Fairrington is an American artist. Mostly associated with his realistic portraits, Fairrington paints a variety of subjects including landscapes, still life, and western art in a range of styles including abstract, conceptual, fantasy, figurative, impressionist, pop art and romantic. He attributes artist John Singer Sargent and famed illustrator Norman Rockwell as significant influences in his work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicano art movement</span> Movements by Mexican-American artists

The Chicano Art Movement represents groundbreaking movements by Mexican-American artists to establish a unique artistic identity in the United States. Much of the art and the artists creating Chicano Art were heavily influenced by Chicano Movement which began in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shifra Goldman</span> American art historian

Shifra Goldman was an American art historian, feminist, and activist. She had a probing intellect and a sense of "brutal" honesty. She also had an "encyclopedic" knowledge of art history and a passion for Chicana/o art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew Struzan</span> American illustrator

Drew Struzan is an American artist, illustrator and cover designer. He is known for his more than 150 movie posters, which include The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as well as films in the Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and Star Wars film series. He has also painted album covers, collectibles, and book covers.

Garland Kirkpatrick is an American designer, educator, and curator based in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture</span> An American academic center and art museum

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, known as The Cheech, is a museum in Riverside, California. It is part of the larger Riverside Art Museum. The center is focused on the exhibition and study of Chicano art from across the United States. This is a collaborative effort between Cheech Marin, the City of Riverside and Riverside Art Museum. Cheech Marin is a stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and collector. He has donated or promised his collection of more than 700 pieces of Chicano art. Riverside provides the old Riverside public library to house the collection and the Riverside Art Museum manages the center. The Cheech strives to be a world-class institution for the research and study of "all things [related to] Chicano art". It is the first North American museum facility dedicated exclusively to Mexican-American and Chicano art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberto Valdés (painter)</span> Mexican American artist

Alberto Valdés (1918–1998) was a Mexican-American artist, who relished experimentation, excelled at abstraction, and was fearless in his love with the very act of painting.