Night Magic (Blue Jester)
- Night Magic (Blue Jester)
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Carlos Almaraz, Night Magic (Blue Jester), 1988, oil, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Gloria Werner. © 1988, Carlos Almaraz Estate. Reproduced courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, from “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.”
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Carlos Almaraz was born in Mexico City in 1949 and grew up in Chicago and Los Angeles. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, and later earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Otis College of Art and Design in 1974. In 1973, Almaraz and three other artists co-founded Los Four, a local art collective whose collaborations brought Chicano street art to the attention of the Los Angeles mainstream art community. Almaraz also created murals, banners, and other artworks for César Chávez and the United Farmworkers Union. Although Almaraz died in 1989, his pastels, paintings, and murals remain a major influence on younger Latino artists. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will put on the most comprehensive exhibition of his work in 2017.
