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Jun 14, 2022 · As the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture debuts, its founder hopes to inspire a renaissance in a region of California lacking public arts funding.
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- Overview
- Art beyond what was 'put in a box'
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A young woman with a ponytail leaned in to take a closer look at “Dreamers,” an oil painting by Rosy Cortez. “Oh, that’s interesting,” the woman mused to her companion. Nearby, a group of senior citizens gazed at a multilevel installation featuring the Aztec earth goddess Coatlicue. “It’s fantastic!” one senior exclaimed.
These visitors were taking in the artwork at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, known as “The Cheech.”
Marin, a comedian, actor and activist, Marin has been learning about art since he was an 11-year-old looking at books at the library. A collector of Chicano art since the 1980s, he’s exhibited his collection in over 50 museums across the country. Now the star of TV's “Nash Bridges” and several Cheech and Chong movies has gifted approximately 500 works by Chicano artists to the Riverside Art Museum, which has provided the paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs with a permanent home.
“This is the most positive thing I’ve ever been involved in, in my whole career,” Marin said in an interview with NBC News.
Marin hopes that the museum, a public-private partnership with the Riverside Art Museum and the City of Riverside, will introduce more people to Chicano art. He is especially proud that the new museum is in Riverside, a community about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles that is 53% Latino. Many visitors to the museum, Marin said, have “never been in any museum before, anywhere.”
Chicano art can encompass imagery that may be familiar to Mexican Americans and others, such as representations of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Lotería cards or lowrider culture. It can also be provocative, sophisticated and surprising. “Really, all you have to do is see it,” Marin said. “There’s no great mystery or story that goes with it. All you have to do is look at the art.”
“Chicano” is a term associated with the Mexican American civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early '70s. It was organized around issues like fair wages for farm workers, self-determination and cultural representation in public schools. Today, some Mexican Americans identify as Chicano, while others do not.
Marin said that Chicano art is not necessarily political. “It started out in the political movement. It was the graphic images of that whole movement that was happening with the farmworkers and Cesar Chavez and (playwright) Luis Valdez ... as artists entered that arena, their work was like news from the front.” The artists, Marin explained, were telling the world about their lives and their struggles, often through murals and silk-screened posters.
Since then, Chicano art has continued to evolve. To Marin, it reveals el sabor, or the flavor, of the community.
Many Chicano artists have long been overlooked by traditional institutions, Marin said. “These artists are really great, and why aren’t they getting any shelf space? So that became my goal when I started collecting, and now we’re part of a vast wave across the nation.”
“Cheech’s collection has brought unprecedented attention to Chicano art,” said María Esther Fernández, artistic director of The Cheech. “That’s what has been at the core of his collecting; he recognizes the importance of these works, and he believes in Chicano art as an important American art movement.”
According to Fernández, after the civil rights era of the late 1960s and '70s, known as el movimiento among Chicanos, Chicano art became defined as the movement’s visual manifestation. “But then, Chicano art was put in a box. The mainstream art world saw Chicano art only as cultural affirmation or representation.”
- 4 min
- Raul A. Reyes
Dec 19, 2022 · Richard "Cheech" Marin, of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong, is not only renowned for stoner comedies — he's also an aficionado of Chicano art, which he started collecting around 1985.
- 8 min
- Anthony Mason,David Morgan
Nov 9, 2021 · Collector Cheech Marin's forthcoming art and research center in Riverside, California, is changing the game for Chicanx art.
- Maximilíano Durón
Mar 9, 2024 · Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong talk new doc 'Cheech and Chong's Last Movie' that documents the Cheech & Chong's rise in comedy and their break-up.
- Mia Galuppo
Mar 27, 2024 · The comedy legend talks about his film's impact, immigration, voting and his upcoming movies at the San Diego Latino Film Festival. He also receives a tribute award for his contributions to the Chicano/a/x community.
Jun 22, 2022 · The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, or ‘The Cheech’ as it’s called, houses nearly 500 paintings, drawings, and sculptures donated from comedian, actor and art collector Cheech...
