Serigraphy
Gallery
Castillo's
first experience with serigraphs was in 1963. Done in 1988, the image to the
left is a detail of "Resistance to Cultural Death: An affirmation of my
Past". This was chosen to represent the Midwest in a National Workshop
at Self-Help Graphics in LA, California. UCLA's Wight Art Gallery curated this
in preparation for the traveling "CARA" art exhibition, "Chicago
Art: Resistance and Affirmation".
This print is from the artist's Chupicuaro period. It makes use of Mixtec, Aztec,
Maya, Toltec, Tonala, and Hindu symbolism.
Screen printing is an ancient art. The Japanese improved this process during
the middle ages. Serigraphy as we know it started to evolve with the British
inventor, Samuel Simon in 1907. The term serigraph differentiates the fine art
print from commercial silk-screen prints.
Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, and Edward Ruscha found serigraphy appealing and
made use of it.
In
this piece Castillo directly appropriates pre-Columbian imagery into his work.
Prior to this and going back to 1974, he had only dealt with an imagined ideal
of Aztec and Maya art, purposely avoiding any specific reference to any given
work.
