His work leaves me flat.
Posted on 06/30/2006 4:37:46 PM PDT by robowombat
New Mexico artist crushed by own sculpture
14 Jun 2006
Luis Jimenez, a Latin American sculptor whose work adorns public places across the U.S., has died after being crushed by his own sculpture. Part of the sculpture fell and pinned the 65-year-old artist against a steel support while it was being moved with a hoist at Jimenez's studio in Hondo, New Mexico, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff's office.
Jimenez was pronounced dead at a nearby medical centre.
His death is being termed an industrial accident and is under investigation, authorities said.
Jimenez, a native of El Paso, Texas, was often controversial because he crafted sculptures that touched on hot political topics.
"It is not my job to censor myself," Jimenez once said, according to the Associated Press. "An artist's job is to constantly test the boundaries."
His 1969 work Man on Fire was a sculpture of a man in flames that drew its inspiration both from Buddhist monks in South Vietnam who immolated themselves and the Mexican story of Cuahtemoc, set afire by Spanish conquerors.
That work was displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. His work has also been seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and is on display in public sites at the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque's Martineztown.
His 1996 sculpture Fiesta Dancers, in front of the El Paso's Fine Arts Centre, is a colourful fibreglass work that depicts fiesta dancers. Several Jimenez sculptures are civic landmarks in his hometown.
Works spurs arguments
Jimenez often reflected on Latin American history and culture with sculptures of a mourning Aztec warrior, steelworkers and illegal immigrants. He liked to portray people in their everyday lives.
It was work that often started arguments and spurred emotions.
"I think Luis shared this border region with the world. Those images will continue to live on," El Paso art gallery owner Adair Margo told the El Paso Times. "You look at the images he left us, you realize he was a voice that mattered, that gave form to this region and communicated it with people."
Jimenez learned to paint and fashion large metal images in his father's sign shop in El Paso. He studied fine arts at the University of Texas in Austin and spent time working in New York.
Recently, Jimenez completed a mud casting of firefighters with fibreglass flames as part of a memorial for the City of Cleveland. He was working on a piece destined for Denver International Airport.
"Luis Jimenez's loss to the United States, to New Mexico, to the Chicano community is great," his friend David Hall told Albuquerque TV station KRQE. "He was an icon, he was a very famous and well-respected artist. ... We will dearly miss him."
http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/06/14/luiz-jimenez-obit.html
How do we know this isn't process art?
I wonder what the sculpture he was working on was.
Though I am not a fan of art and artists, my prayers for his soul.
You mean performance art
Deadly art ping...
His work leaves me flat.
Correct. I think I need to take a break from the keyboard.
Was it the male or female statue that fell on him? If it was the female, at least he can say he got some on the way out.
To each his own. Looks like some cheap ceramic that one would find at a flea market.
His last thought......Jason Pollack, eat your heart out.
See my reply #13. Link has a pic of the work that killed him.
It sounds like he died like he "preached".He tested the boundaries and found the edge.[however, this action did "censor" himself]
Paleo Conservative
Correct. I think I need to take a break from the keyboard.
Actually it could be either. Below is a definition of "Process Art" fron the Guggenheim museum website.
Process art emphasizes the “process” of making art (rather than any predetermined composition or plan) and the concepts of change and transience, as elaborated in the work of such artists as Lynda Benglis, Eva Hesse, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Alan Saret, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, and Keith Sonnier. Their interest in process and the properties of materials as determining factors has precedents in the Abstract Expressionists’ use of unconventional methods such as dripping and staining. In a ground-breaking essay and exhibition in 1968, Morris posited the notion of “anti-form” as a basis for making art works in terms of process and time rather than as static and enduring icons, which he associated with “object-type” art. Morris stressed this new art’s de-emphasis of order through nonrigid materials, pioneered by Claes Oldenburg, and the manipulation of those materials through the processes of gravity, stacking, piling, and hanging.Process artists were involved in issues attendant to the body, random occurrences, improvisation, and the liberating qualities of nontraditional materials such as wax, felt, and latex. Using these, they created eccentric forms in erratic or irregular arrangements produced by actions such as cutting, hanging, and dropping, or organic processes such as growth, condensation, freezing, or decomposition. http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/movement_works_Process_art_0.html
From looking at the model, this work would have been pretty decent. I reckon he is going to miss another deadline on this one...
Everything's a critic!
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