Multiculture Harvest (1991)
Oil on canvas
Gilberto Guzmán (b. 1932)
Santa Fe
Capitol Art Selection Committee Purchase
Capitol Art Collection, Capitol Art Foundation
Originally from Los Angeles, Gilberto Guzmán moved to Santa Fe in the early 1970s, where he became part of a group of artists known as “Los Artistas Guadalupanos de Aztlan,” who painted images of barrio life on walls around the community. After the group disbanded, Guzmán continued to work on murals independent of others, choosing to be free to follow his own artistic direction and make a unique, personal contribution to the art world.
While studying in the late 1960s at the San Francisco Academy of Art, Guzmán was deeply influenced by the muralists he met there. He says: “I enjoy getting up on walls, and I enjoy working outside. I need to be able to use my whole body in my art. And I enjoy painting big. Even before I ever painted a mural, I enjoyed working on large canvases.”
Although Multiculture Harvest is not a mural, in it we can see the mural techniques for which Guzmán is known—a unique style marked by the distortion of forms and figures. “I use color and distortion to emphasize—to make a powerful statement.” He believes that art should be a function of social and moral consciousness. In this painting, the harvest is a symbol for the creative energy of the human spirit.
It continues to be the goal of the Capitol Art Foundation to build a permanent collection of New Mexican masterworks that reflects New Mexico’s rich and diverse cultural and artistic traditions.
