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Oral history interview with Frank Romero

Archives of American Art

Object Details

General
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 27 min.
Interviewee
Romero, Frank
Interviewer
Rangel, Jeffrey J.
Names
Los Four (Art group)
Oral History Interviews with Chicano artists in California and San Antonio, Texas
Otis Art Institute -- Students
Almaraz, Carlos
Mugnaini, Joseph A.
Rocha, Roberto de la
Sanchez Luján, Gilbert
Sheets, Millard, 1907-1989
Voulkos, Peter, 1924-2002
Occupation
Muralists -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews
Topic
Painters -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews
Mexican American artists
Latino and Latin American artists
Mexican American art
Street art
Mural painting and decoration -- 20th century -- California -- Los Angeles
Chicano art movement
Chicano artists
Provenance
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Interviewee
Romero, Frank
Interviewer
Rangel, Jeffrey J.
Sponsor
This interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
Biographical / Historical
Frank Romero (1941- ) is a painter from Los Angeles, Calif.
Extent
99 Pages (Transcript)
Date
1997 January 17-March 2
Archival Repository
Archives of American Art
Identifier
AAA.romero97
Type
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Genre/Form
Sound recordings
Interviews
Scope and Contents
An interview of Frank Romero conducted 1997 January 17-March 2, by Jeffrey Rangel, for the Archives of American Art, in Romero's studio, in Los Angeles, Calif.
Romero discusses his growing up in East Los Angeles and his large extended family; his earliest art studies in the public schools; attending the Otis Art Institute where he studied with Joe Mugnaini and had contact with Millard Sheets and Peter Voulkos; the "very polyglut culture" of East Los Angeles; the influences of television, western movies, rock-and-roll, and rhythm and blues on his early musical/artistic taste; time spent in New York; returning to Los Angeles in 1969; and his marriage and family.
He describes his move into Carlos Almaraz's house which became the informal meeting place of the artist group Los Four (Almaraz, Romero, Gilbert Sanchez Lujan, and Roberto "Beto" de la Rocha); the Los Four show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1974; and the stylistic aesthetics of Los Four.
Romero describes the "boys club" nature of Chicano art centers; his contributions to the Chicano art movement; his relationship to the Chicano/Mexican culture and mainstream U.S. culture; murals done by members of Los Four for the Inner City Mural Program; his work for the Metropolitan Transit Authority; the Murals of Aztlan exhibit in 1981 at the Craft and Folk Art Museum; and his shows at the ARCO Center for the Visual Arts. He concludes with his assessment of the Chicano arts movement, the relationship between economic and art cycles, and the role of the more established artists to those of a younger generation.
Restrictions
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1596376853934-1596376853937-0
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9bc1ddc95-30e4-44a7-936f-fd8e1c2eb6a0
View Oral history interview with Frank Romero, 1997 January 17-March 2, Transcript
Oral history interview with Frank Romero, 1997 January 17-March 2, Digital Sound Recording (Excerpt)
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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