Description: This is a seldomly seen and Important RARE Vintage Modern Royal Chicano Airforce Mexican Mural Oil Painting on Masonite, by legendary Chicano Movement artist, and co-founder of the Royal Chicano Airforce, Juanishi Villa Orosco (1945 - 2023.) This artwork depicts a stylized Aztec Warrior running forward, carrying a shield with the Yin and Yang symbol in his right hand, and a small pennant flag in his left hand. A flaming horse head hovers over him, and he is adorned with an elaborate feather headdress with parrot motifs and covered in intricate body paints. This artwork might have possibly been incorporated into a mural. Perhaps you know more about this piece? Signed: "Juan Ishi" on the verso. This artwork likely dates to the late 1960's - early 1970's. Approximately 13 x 16 1/2 inches (including frame.) Good condition for age and storage, with some moderate scuffing and edge wear to the original period wood frame, and a few light scratches to the painted surface (please see photos.) Juanishi Orosco's original artworks very rarely surface on the market, and after his recent passing in September 2023, his legacy is more relevant than ever. His impressive and historically important murals can still be seen all across the state of California. Acquired from a prominent Chicano Art collection in Orange County, California. Priced to Sell. If you like what you see, I encourage you to make an Offer. Please check out my other listings for more wonderful and unique artworks! About the Artist: Juanishi Orosco Juanishi Orosco (1945-2023) is an American artist. He is known for his prints and murals associated with the Chicano Movement. He is a member and co-founder of the Royal Chicano Air Force art collective. Major American art museums hold Orosco's work in their collections, such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and murals by Orosco may be found across California. Juanishi Orosco was born in Sacramento in 1945. He attended California State University, Sacramento. In 1969, Orosco and similarly minded artists Jose Montoya, Esteban Villa, Ricardo Favela, and Rudy Cuellar, started the Royal Chicano Air Force. He and other RCAF members created posters for the United Farm Workers. Orosco has engaged in arts education and community outreach alongside the RCAF since its formation. His work was featured in the famous Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation exhibition in 1990-1993 alongside other major Chicano artists. Murals contributed to Leyes, Chicano Park (1975). San Diego, California.Mandala, Chicano Park (1975). San Diego, California.Amphitheater Mural, Southside Park (1980). Sacramento, California.Metamorphosis, 3rd and L Streets (1980). Sacramento, California.The History of the Farmworker, CAPACES Leadership Institute (2013). Woodburn, Oregon.Flight, Golden 1 Center (2018). Sacramento, California. R.I.P. Juanishi Orosco, Co-Founder of the Royal Chicano Airforce Art Collective: (September 22, 2023) We are saddened to hear this week of the passing of the great artist, Juanishi Orosco, co-founder of the Royal Chicano Airforce Art Collective and major pillar in the mural and Chicano art movement in California. Initially called the "Rebel Chicano Arts Front," it was meant to "foster the arts in the Chicano/Latino community, to educate young people in arts, history, and culture, promote political awareness, and to promote support for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in the heavily agricultural Sacramento-Davis area." As Galeria de la Raza notes, "Orosco is known for his vivid murals depicting his Mexican, Chicano, and indigenous cultural roots. Orosco is also an arts educator providing outreach and training to hundreds of young artists throughout Northern California. ROYAL CHICANO AIR FORCEThe Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) is an artistic collective based in Sacramento. Initially named the Rebel Chicano Art Front, the RCAF was founded in 1969 to express the goals of the Chicano civil rights and labor organizing movement of the United Farm Workers. Its mission was to make available to the Chicano community a bilingual/bicultural arts center where artists could come together, exchange ideas, provide mutual support, and make available to the public artistic, cultural, and educational programs and events.The founding members of the RCAF include Jose Montoya, Esteban Villa, Juanishi V. Orosco, Ricardo Favela, and Rudy Cuellar. Montoya and Villa knew of each other through their involvement in the Mexican American Liberation Art Front and the California College of Arts and Crafts. During the Chicano Movement students pressured colleges and universities to diversify their faculties. As a result, Montoya and Villa were hired as professors of art at California State University, Sacramento. Their academic positions gave them the creative freedom to initiate programmatic exchanges between the university and the barrio community. Through this effort they initiated many programs including the Barrio Art Program, which required university students to go out into the community including senior centers to teach art courses.The RCAF created in 1972 the non-profit Centro De Artistas Chicanos. This community-based organization became the spring-board for all types of Sacramento community programs, such as La Nueva Raza Bookstore (with its Galeria Posada), Aeronaves de Aztlan (Automotive Repair Garage), RCAF Danzantes (Cultural Dance venue), Barrio Art Program, and the RCAF Graphics and Design Center. By 1977, the Centro de Artistas Chicanos and Breakfast for Ninos Program (a community non-profit program that fed children before school) joined forces to create the Cultural Affairs Project, which further funded their many community services.The RCAF is best known for its mural paintings, poster art production, and individual artistic contributions. The artists of the Centro have produced murals and exhibitions from San Diego to Seattle. RCAF is significant as a collective that has maintained a twenty-five year history of engaging communities to express their Chicano culture, history and struggle for equal rights.While the "RCAF" originally stood for the Rebel Chicano Art Front, people confused the letters with the acronym for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Montoya and his fellow officers capitalized on the misunderstanding, and in good humor adopted the name Royal Chicano Air Force. This new identity found its way into their wardrobe, as well as their highly successful silk-screen poster program, which began to disseminate the World War I aviator and barnstorming bi-winged planes as icons. The RCAF gained a well-deserved reputation for outrageous humor, fine art posters, murals, and community activism. Their pioneering spirit throughout the 1970s and early 1980s was well known in the California Chicano community, and continues to the present. Mural At Golden 1 Center Honors Royal Chicano Air ForceSACRAMENTO (CBS13) – In the north entrance of the Golden 1 Center now stands a 27-foot tall mural and many say it's more than just a beautiful display of colors and shapes."It really turns the space into something different, something really special," said Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna.The art work is called Flights, and it honors the Hispanic heritage rooted from those in Sacramento known as The Royal Chicano Air Force."For me, it really represents kind of a new momentum," he said.The project idea came from Serna who wanted to acknowledge the profound legacy of the RCAF.Its history dates back to the early 1970s as a group of artists and activists who began to educate and promote political awareness through art."Our community quite frankly stands for the celebration of diversity. It's not something to be shunned or something to be sanitized or dismissed; it's really something to be celebrated," he said.Serna, the son of the RCAF's co-founder and Sacramento's first Latino mayor Joe Serna, Jr, said the unveiling is a sign of inclusion and solidifies the sanctuary city status."Against the backdrop from some of the ugliness that we see with the immigration debate, this probably couldn't come at a better time," Serna said.Created by RCAF co-founders Esteban Villa, Stan Padilla and Juanishi Orosco, Flight is the latest large-scale public artwork to grace Sacramento's world-renowned arena. Each of the three artists worked with their sons, daughters, and grandchildren to complete the mural.In a room full of close family and friends who are familiar with the culture, they hope it sparks the community to ask what it is."They will see it asked the question who is the RCAF? I think the inspiration that brings is really one of its more important characteristics," Serna said."I think they're going to say wow Sacramento has the most amazing artists, the most amazing artists and look at what they've done," said Gina Montoya, daughter of the RCAF.It's a colorful message during a controversial time, and they hope it will live on through generations who pass by. Royal Chicano Air Force: Originally named the Rebel Chicano Art Front, this artist collective was founded at California State University, Sacramento in 1970 by Esteban Villa and Jose Montoya to foster the arts of the Chicano/Latino community, educate young people in Chicano culture, promote political awareness and foster support for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. The RCAF was instrumental in leading the Chicano Movimiento’s push for social and political rights and is best known its murals and art posters, though they were also active in music and the literary arts. Montoya’s posters helped define the United Farm Workers Movement in California’s Central Valley from the 1960s to 1980s and collections of RCAF posters have been donated to CSU Sacramento and CSU San Jose. At CSU Sacramento, Montoya and Esteban taught silkscreen printing, drawing and mural painting to a generation of artists. Their Barrio Art Program continues today at the Washington Neighborhood Center in downtown Sacramento. The RCAF also established programs that bring the arts to youth offenders within the California Youth Authority. The La Raza Galeria Posada continues to operate in Sacramento. In 2014 artworks by Villa, Orosco and Padilla were featured in an exhibition at the Matsui Gallery in Sacramento City Hall. Esteban Villa: Esteban Villa is a professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento who also taught at Washington State University and University of California, Davis. He has conducted art programs in the prisons system and his artwork played a key role in the Chicano movement of the late 1960s and 70s. In addition to “Metamorphosis,” Villa has created murals for Sacramento’s Southside Park, and Chicano Park in San Diego. His work has been exhibited at the Crocker Art Museum and the Galeria Posada, both in Sacramento. Juanishi Orosco: Juanishi Orosco taught with Villa and Montoya at CSU Sacramento and created numerous poster designs for the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. In the 1995 documentary on RCAF entitled "Pilots of Aztlán," Orosco stated "Cesar (Chavez) recognized early on the importance of the artists' community and how to best utilize them for the United Farm Workers movement."Known for his vivid murals depicting his Mexican, Chicano and indigenous cultural roots, Orosco is also an arts educator who has provided outreach and training to hundreds of young artists throughout Northern California. In addition to his work on the mural “Metamorphosis,” Juanishi helped to restore the Chicano Park mural in Barrio Logan, San Diego. He completed the mural “Capaces,” for the Chicano Service Center in Woodburn, Oregon in 2013. Orosco's paintings are in permanent collections at Harvard, Yale and the Smithsonian Institution, and he has overseen mural projects in New York, Chicago and Miami, among other cities. Stan Padilla: Stan Padilla is a multi-media artist whose disciplines include drawing, painting and silversmithing. Stan is also an educator and social activist who for many years has worked to promote multi-cultural and cross-cultural exchange. He is an arts coordinator for a Chicano and Native American gallery in northern California and maintains an art studio in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in northeastern California. Royal Chicano Air Force CollectionThe California Historical Society’s newest additions to its digital library highlight the legacy of Sacramento’s Royal Chicano Air Force and their use of art to advance the cause of social justice.Royal Chicano Air Force CollectionThe California Historical Society (CHS) is pleased to announce the addition of seven Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) posters to our digital library. The RCAF was created by California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) art professors Esteban Villa and Jose Montoya, and students Ricardo Favela, Juanishi V. Orosco, and Rudy Cuellar, to express the goals of the Chicano civil rights and labor organizing movement of the United Farm Workers (UFW). This influential group of artists and activists used colorful posters, murals, and other artistic expressions to educate the public and promote political awareness.The curious name for the artist collective was born from a simple misunderstanding. The “RCAF” initialism originally stood for the Rebel Chicano Art Front, but people confused it for the Royal Canadian Air Force. The collective took advantage of the misunderstanding by changing its name to Royal Chicano Air Force. The new name gave way to aviation-inspired imagery, which began showing up in everything from the RCAF’s well-known poster art to its members’ wardrobe choices.The RCAF gained a reputation for outrageous humor, fine-art posters, murals, and community activism. The collective’s work throughout the 1970s and early 1980s was well known in the California Chicano community, and it continues to the present. One of its latest projects was the 2018 large-scale mural titled “Flight” at the Golden 1 Center arena in Sacramento.CHS’s collection of RCAF posters announces fundraisers, actions, and events related to the UFW causes during 1975.
Price: 3500 USD
Location: Orange, California
End Time: 2024-04-25T20:24:54.000Z
Shipping Cost: 25 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Artist: Juanishi Orosco
Signed By: Juanishi Orosco
Size: Medium
Signed: Yes
Period: Contemporary (1970 - 2020)
Material: Oil, Masonite
Region of Origin: California, USA
Framing: Framed
Subject: Animal Head, Birds, Dancing, Eagle, Figures, Masks, Men, Monument, Mythology, Parrots, Mexico, Aztec
Type: Painting
Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original
Item Height: 13 in
Style: Americana, Chicano, Contemporary Art, Figurative Art, Illustration Art, Mexican, Modernism, Mural, Muralism, Muralismo
Theme: Americana, Animals, Art, Astrology, Conflicts & Wars, Continents & Countries, Cultures & Ethnicities, Exhibitions, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, History, Mythological, Nature, People, Portrait
Features: One of a Kind (OOAK)
Production Technique: Oil Painting
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Handmade: Yes
Item Width: 16 1/2 in
Time Period Produced: 1970-1979
