Cheech's Downtown
Date2011
MediumSerigraph on paper
Dimensions20 x 26 in. (50.8 x 66 cm)
ClassificationsPrintmaking
Credit LineGift of The Hilbert Collection
Object number2020.221
DescriptionCertainly one of today’s mot celebrated living artists, Frank Romero grew up in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was a member of the famed Chicano artists’ group Los Four (with Carlos Almaraz, Roberto de la Rocha and Gilbert Luján) during the height of the Chicano rights movement of the 1970s. The politically charged events of that era heavily influenced his artworks. He also eloquently (and often whimsically) portrays his home city of Los Angeles – often from a Chicano viewpoint and almost always with a huge helping of affection, focusing on the neighborhoods, the car culture, and the people, animals and landmarks he grew up with, lives with and loves. One of Romero’s best-known works is “Going to the 1984 Olympics,” a mural on the 101 Freeway in L.A. that he created in honor of the city’s hosting the Olympic Games, which is still seen by hundreds of thousands of drivers every day. “Cheech’s Downtown,” named in honor of Romero’s friend (and avid art collector), actor Cheech Marin, portrays the iconic freeway system of Los Angeles: twisting, turning, on its way simultaneously to everywhere and nowhere in particular – the pulsing veins and arteries of a complex, thriving, multi-faceted city.
Romero was the subject of an encyclopedic retrospective in 2019 at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. Mark and Janet Hilbert loaned three Romero pieces from their collection to the MOLAA exhibition.
Mary Platt, Director
On View
Not on view
2004
