Mark Santarelli and Linda Arreola Collection of Magú Materials, circa 1999-2004
CSRC.2016.014
Finding aid prepared by David Platt and Xaviera Flores
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
193 Haines Hall
Box 951544
Los Angeles, CA., 90095-1544
310-825-2364
csrcinfo@chicano.ucla.edu
November 1, 2016
Title: Mark Santarelli and Linda Arreola Collection of Magú Materials
Identifier/Call Number: CSRC.2016.014
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.0 linear feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1999-2004
Abstract: The Mark Santarelli and Linda Arreola Collection of Magú Materials consists of items related to the short film documenting
the art and activism of Gilbert "Magú" Luján. Materials date roughly from 1999 to 2004. This collection includes audiovisual
materials, electronic formats, and production papers.
Physical Location: Collection stored off-site at SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center for paging information.
Arrangement Note
This collection is Arranged in the following series: I. Audiovisual, II. Digital (Hard Drive), and III. Production Materials.
Conditions Governing Access
OPEN FOR RESEARCH. Audiovisual materials may not be immediately available due to formatting issues. Portions of this collection
are born digital. All requests to access these materials must be made in advance. Access with permission of CSRC librarian.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user
must assume full responsibility for any use of materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication
rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.
Scope and Content
The collection contains production materials from the 2003 documentary Magú: Portrait of an Artist. It was directed and produced
by Mark Santarelli and Linda Arreola. Showcased at the Silver Lake Film Festival in 2004, the documentary follows the career
of influential Chicano painter, sculptor and activist Gilbert ‘Magú’ Luján. The collection is largely made up of audiovisual
resources in the form of U-Matics, Betacam SP, and DV cassette, but also contains compact discs, hard drives, and production
papers from various Magú projects Santarelli produced. The audiovisual materials document several of Magú’s installations
used in the film; extra film footage; and the film itself, which captures Magú speaking on Chicano Art; the Chicano movement;
and being one of Los Four. The collection dates from 1999-2004.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], [Box #/Folder #], Mark Santarelli and Linda Arreola Collection of Magú Materials (Collection 2016-014).
Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles.
Lujan, Gilbert (Biography)
Gilbert Luján popularly known by the moniker Magú, was an influential Los Angeles painter and sculptor, best known for bringing
Chicano art to widespread public attention both through his own work and the founding of Chicano art collective Los Four.
Magú’s paintings, murals and sculptures were grounded in the textures and objects of daily Chicano life and pop-culture, most
recognizably lowriders, often with bright paint jobs and driven by Aztec warriors. A self-proclaimed “ethnic artist” and cultural
nationalist, Magú elevated folk art to fine art in an attempt to address, firstly, all fellow Chicanos with art that articulated
Chicano identity and individuality and was relevant to the common folk and, secondly, the mainstream art audience by proclaiming
the cultural legitimacy of Chicanismo and a uniquely Chicano worldview.
Lujan, Gilbert (Biography- EXTENTED)
Gilbert Luján (b. 10/16/1940; d. 07/24/2011), popularly known by the moniker Magú, was an influential Los Angeles painter
and sculptor, best known for bringing Chicano art to widespread public attention both through his own work and the founding
of Chicano art collective Los Four. Magú’s paintings, murals and sculptures were grounded in the textures and objects of daily
Chicano life and pop-culture, most recognizably lowriders, often with bright paint jobs and driven by Aztec warriors. A self-proclaimed
“ethnic artist” and cultural nationalist, Magú elevated folk art to fine art in an attempt to address, firstly, all fellow
Chicanos with art that articulated Chicano identity and individuality and was relevant to the common folk and, secondly, the
mainstream art audience by proclaiming the cultural legitimacy of Chicanismo and a uniquely Chicano worldview.
Luján grew up in East LA, a place he compares to Tijuana with the shacks and dirt roads that characterized it at the time.
Regarding his poor upbringing he states, “Abraham Lincoln had a log cabin. I had a tin shack.” This instilled in young Gilbert
an affinity, both cultural and political, with blue-collar, working class citizens. After first attending East Los Angeles
College, where he began to pursue art with more seriousness, he earned his B.F.A. in Ceramic Sculpture from Cal State Long
Beach and his M.F.A. in Sculpture from UC Irvine. Soon after graduating, he began curating and exhibiting and quickly realized
the importance of ethnic identity in his work, although he describes his output at this time as rooted in culture, not politics.
But of the East LA Walkouts of 1968 Luján says, “the politics swept us all up and changed the dynamics of everything,” adding,
“The walkouts just exploded and then we were at war, and we knew we were at war.” From then on, the politically awakened Magú
focused his efforts on art that was defined, at its core, as Chicano nationalist, curating politically-themed exhibitions
and networks of Chicano artists. This culminated in the formation of Los Four in 1973, which Magú describes as “the result
of a continued effort by me to put artists together and make cultural statements about being Chicano and the importance and
relevance of us selling to the public our cultural expositions, our cultural way of looking at the world.”
The other members of Los Four were not based in Chicano ideology, but Magú’s strong political influence shifted the group’s
focus to a more powerful engagement with their community’s marginalization in American society. Within a year of its founding,
Los Four became the first members of the Chicano art movement to exhibit at a major gallery, LACMA, with exhibitions across
the West Coast following soon after. The collective also painted murals across Los Angeles, transforming urban spaces into
spheres of dialogue about Chicano identity and legitimizing Chicano art in mainstream consciousness.
It was in the 1980s that Magú’s solo work became known for his paintings of bright, absurdly proportioned lowriders, anthropomorphic
animals and, among other motifs, celebrations of Mesoamerican heritage. In 1990 he was commissioned to design the aesthetics
of the Red Line station at Hollywood & Vine, the colourful and fun personality of which reflects Luján’s Southern California
upbringing and stands as a monument to his unique view of Los Angeles. Magú remains one the most influential artists of the
Chicano movement, without whose political desire much of that movement’s popularity and many of its victories might never
have been achieved. He continued to work with emerging artists until his death in 2011, always working to define what it means
to be Chicano.
Sources:
Clothier, Peter. "About Gilbert "Magu" Lujan by Peter Clothier." Magulandia. Accessed November 01, 2016. http://magulandia.com/about-gilbert-magu-lujan-peter-clothier/.
Johnson, Reed. "Gilbert 'Magu' Lujan, influential Chicano artist, dies at 70." Los Angeles Times. July 25, 2011. Accessed
November 18, 2016. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/07/gilbert-mag%C3%BA-luj%C3%A1n-a-painter-muralist-and-sculptor-whose-whimsical-slyly-humorous-art-works-frequently-evoking-a.html.
Los Four (Biography)
Los Four was an influential Chicano art collective, seen as having been at the forefront of the Chicano movement for over
a decade. They gained widespread recognition for Chicano culture and paved the way for future artists. Los Four was founded
by Magú in 1973, consisting originally of himself and artists Frank Romero, Carlos Almaraz, Roberto ‘Beto’ de la Rocha and,
later, Judithe Hernández. The members were all college-educated and their art reflected an intellectual engagement with the
Chicano movement and the need to assert Chicano identity and culture through art, both to a mainstream audience and to their
own community. The group’s breakthrough came with an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1974, widely seen
as the first-time Chicano art was legitimized as the first ever exhibition of Chicano art at a major gallery. Apart from their
extensive exhibitions over the next decade and a half, they are also well-known for murals painted across Los Angeles, including
the Los Angeles Metro stations designed by Luján, Romero and Hernandez.
Santarelli, Mark (Biography)
Mark Santarelli has lived in the predominately Latino neighborhood of El Sereno in Los Angeles since 1997. Raised in Texas,
Santarelli went to college at Texas Tech in Lubbock and graduated in 1980. He then lived in New Mexico at a co-ed Benedictine
community where he studied CG Jung. In Santa Fe, he apprenticed to a documentary filmmaker and worked on a film about New
Mexican Chili. Santarelli later studied film at San Francisco State. He moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and worked on low budget
movies as an assistant cameraman and an assistant editor. Santarelli met Linda Arreola in 1995 and she introduced him to her
mentor, the artist Gilbert Luján, better known as Magú. Arreola inspired and collaborated with Santarelli to make “Magú: Portrait
of an Artist.” After receiving his licensing in psychotherapy in 2000 and graduating as a psychoanalyst in 2012, Santarelli
now has a private practice in South Pasadena, CA.
Related Materials: UCLA
CARA: Chicano Arts: Resistance and Affirmation Papers 1985-1994 (Collection 10), UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, University
of California, Los Angeles.
Patricia Correia Gallery Collection 1991-2008 (Collection130), UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California,
Los Angeles.
Roberto Gutierrez 1960-2005 (Collection 74), UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles.
Related Materials: California
Centro Cultural de la Raza Archives, CEMA 12. Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Collection of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG).
Ester M. Hernandez Papers, M1301. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Harry Gamboa Jr. Papers, M0753, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Harry Shunk and Shunk-Kender photographs, 1957-1987, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2014.R.20
Royal Chicano Air Force Archives, CEMA 8, Department of Special Collections, University Libraries, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Rupert Garcia and Sammi Madison Garcia Collection, CEMA 101, Department of Special Collections, University Library, University
of California, Santa Barbara.
Self-Help Graphics and Art Archives,CEMA 3. Department of Special Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Shifra M. Goldman Papers, CEMA 119, Department of Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Provenance
Materials donated by Mark Santarelli and Linda Arreola (2016).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Four (Art group)
Lujan, Gilbert, 1940-2011
Mexican American art
Mexican Americans--California--Los Angeles
Box 1
Series I. Audiovisual
circa 2002, undated
Box 1
Magú: Portrait, compact disc,
undated
Box 1
Magú: Portrait of an Artist, BETACAM,
undated, August 2
Box 1
Magú - No. 12, Los 4 Magú, LACMA, U-matic,
undated
Box 1
Magú Menudo No. 1, Tape No. 10, U-matic,
undated
Box 1
Magú: Portrait of an Artist master, U-matic,
undated
Box 1
Magú Studio 2/23/02 No. 8, U-matic,
undated
Box 1
Magú Station No. 1, Red No. 9, U-matic,
undated
Box 1
Magú, Mental Menudo, DV cassette,
2003 March
Box 1
Magú station, DV cassette,
2002 March
Box 1
2/23/02 Magú, DV cassette,
2002 February 23
Box 1
Magú, Alter, DV cassette,
undated
Box 1
Series II. Digital (hard drive)
undated
Box 1
Series III. Production
1999, 2003-2004, undated
Box 1
Production notes and permissions
2003 March 8, undated
Box 1
Silver Lake Film Festival filmmaker pass
2004 September 27
