The Art and Life of Chaz Bojórquez
Curated by Marco Klefisch & Alberto Scabbia
“THE ART AND LIFE OF CHAZ BOJÓRQUEZ” is the first monograph on Charles “Chaz” Bojórquez, an artist of Mexican origin who at the end of the 1970’s started out in his district of Los Angeles, following the tradition of Cholo graffiti which was widespread in the suburbs of the Californian metropolis.
Chaz Bojórquez soon found a style of his own that has influenced whole generations of street artists, writers and tattooists. His symbol or “tag”, created in 1969, is a stylised skull called Senor Suerte (Mr Luck): inspired by Mexican folklore and especially by the cult of Holy Death it is one of the first examples of stencil art applied to the street and it subsequently became an image for protection against death among the street gangs.
The other feature of this artist’s aesthetic is calligraphy: in fact Bojrquez was one of the first writers to employ special typographical characters, hard to read but of great aesthetic impact, creating an original synthesis of psychedelic style, Fraktur and Chinese calligraphy. Bojórquez was also one of the first to pass successfully from street art to the galleries: today his works are in the permanent collections of American museums such as the National Museum of American Art and the Orange County Museum of Art, inasmuch as they are considered expressions of South Californian Latino culture.
The book is in three sections: the first opens with introductory texts by Greg Escalante, François Chastanet and the editors, followed by an interview in which Chaz Bojórquez goes back over the milestones in his artistic formation.
The second part deals with Bojórquez’s drawings and works in black and white, while the third is dedicated to his paintings. The editors have also included several photographs that document certain crucial moments in the artist’s life.
March — Friday 5th — 2010
Official release with booksigning by the artist
RADIO — Via Pestalozzi, 4 — Milano
from 6 pm to 9 pm
supported by: Damiani Editore and Carhartt
By Marco Klefisch & Alberto Scabbia