Many strive to peel away labels

When it comes to labels, artists are no different from actors or musicians in that they all become a tad defensive. Their reputations are at stake, and creative minds tend to feel caged when their work is pigeonholed, especially according to their ethnic identities.

Artists who are minorities usually have little trouble identifying with their ethnicity and culture, but some take exception when their work is categorized as strictly South American art, Asian art or African art. On the flip side, many artists don’t object to these attachments to their work and proudly display their art in exhibitions with a specific cultural theme in mind.

“Artists have always had that conflict or that ambivalence,” said Professor Barbara Drucker, chair of the art department. “They want to be seen as an artist. They don’t really want, often times, to have those adjectives next to their names, describing their work. On the other hand, (ethnicity) is just a reality.”

Drucker, who is involved with a group of artists who are Jewish, recounts the instance when she decided against lending some of her art to the group’s Jewish-theme exhibition.

“(The artists were) going to make a show that basically says ‘Jewish artists look at Jewish identity and Jewish art and Jewish something.’ That’s too much. I happen to be Jewish, but my work doesn’t say that it’s Jewish. My themes aren’t necessarily Jewish,” Drucker said. “I don’t want to be framed in that way because it distorts what my work is about.”

Exhibitions with certain cultural themes are hardly an underground trend, especially in Los Angeles’ multicultural climate. Such shows are not nearly as prevalent as style-based or form-based exhibitions, but their status as a popular exhibition framework is undeniable. Gilbert Vicario, curator of UCLA Hammer Museum’s latest exhibition “Made in Mexico,” points to the focus on multiculturalism, beginning in the late ’80s and early ’90s, as an impetus to this type of framework.

“There’s really been an explosion in the number of artists that are engaged in the practice of making contemporary art everywhere from Asia to South Africa to Senegal to almost every country in Latin America. As a result of that, there’s been ongoing discourse about how to approach it: do you negate it or do you celebrate it?” said Vicario.

It’s a question that continues to linger in artists’ minds. Raoul De la Sota, a UCLA alumnus and professor emeritus in Mexican art history at Los Angeles City College, believes today’s artists, as opposed to those of the past, tend to distance themselves from labels.

“About 20, 30 years ago, people were quite proud to be categorized as particular kinds of artists, like for instance Chicano artists,” said De la Sota, who is the first Chicano artist to be awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. “Nowadays, people are moving away from that. They would much rather be known as the 10th-best artist in Los Angeles instead of the 10th-best Chicano artist in Los Angeles.”

De la Sota admits he’s had a lot of trouble with labels in his own career, because he doesn’t paint the same iconography as other artists in his circle.

“Any cultural movement will have certain symbols and signs that it constantly uses because those are its identifying marks,” said De la Sota. “I’ve shied away from those. My marks had to do with mythology, with a sense of the earth and the connection of man to earth, which does not have much to do with the urban realization of life as many Chicano artists have created. I was at odds.”

According to De la Sota, some artists get caught in a vicious cycle of producing work that they’re famous for, and they can’t escape that because it’s in demand.

“It’s more fearsome when you’re famous,” said De la Sota. “Maybe that’s why I have more freedom, because I’ve never pushed myself to become one of the known people. Though they talk to me about being a veteran of the Chicano art scene, I’ve never put myself in that situation where the market is going to rule what I do.”

De la Sota’s work, along with those of other Chicano artists, is on display in fourth-year world arts and cultures student Joy Anderson’s senior project “Balancing Beliefs: Urban Healing Visions.” The exhibition is moving from Avenue 50 Studio to Highways Performance Space for the WAC Student Festival of Works, and will run June 10-12.

“It’s a big issue within the whole Chicano art genre,” said Anderson. “Outside of Chicano art, are (these artists) going to be accepted in the arts community?”

Artists and curators share the same sentiments.

“If you’re multi-sided, that’s what you’re going to show. If not, so be it, because many people are very comfortable being locked into a particular category and that’s fine,” said De la Sota.

“You can argue both sides of it. You kind of go around in circles,” said Vicario. “There’s always going to be that artist who’ll refuse to go into that sort of exhibition framework and will resist the labels. In the end, there just has to be space for both types of thinking.”