双语有声阅读：加扎的艺术作品

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Garza's Art Works

 

Carmen Lomas Garza's eloquent¹ etchings, lithographs², and gouache paintings depict³ primal⁵ images of the rural environment and communal⁶ cultural experience of Mexican decended people in the United States. In an introspective and personal language, she describes the customs, traditions, a nd ways of life of her Texan Mexican heritage.By 1972, Lomas Garza had evolved her distinctive⁷ monitos, paintings of stylized figures in culturally specific social environments. She transposes images and scenes from her past, combining cultural documentation with invention in an interplay of fact and fiction. Through selection, emphasis, and creation, these monitos delineate facets⁸ of experience, expressing deeper truths. Oral tradition is a mainstay of Chicano culture. In both urban and rural communities, a rich and varied⁹ repertoire¹⁰ of ballads¹¹, tales, and poetic¹² forms is preserved in memory and passed from generation to generation. Lomas Garza's monitos function as an oral tradition in visual form. Her unique art of storytelling employs iconographic elements to create a concentrated narration¹³. Visual episodes within an unfolding epic⁴ tale of cultural regeneration, the monitos keep alive the customs and daily practices that give meaning and coherence¹⁴ to Chicano identity. Their basic aim is to delight and instruct. For those outside Chicano culture, the precise and minutely detail ed monitos provide a glimpse into the rich and vibrant¹⁵ lifestyl e of the largest Spanish speaking cultural group within the United States society. Although her art has an innocent earnestness and folkloric¹⁶ affinity¹⁷, Lomas Garza's expression is neither naive¹⁸ nor instinctive¹⁹. The artist is highly trained academically, but has chosen to remain independent of dominant²⁰ artistic²¹ trends in order to work toward a private aesthetic²² response to social concerns. While her work does not posit²³ an overt²⁴ political statement, it originates from a desire to respo nd to the contemporary situation of Mexican Americans by expressing positive images of their culture.

 

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