Review: Tatiana Reinoza and Karen Mary Davalos. Self Help Graphics at Fifty: A Cornerstone of Latinx Art and Collaborative Artmaking. Oakland CA: U of California Press. 2023. Link.
Michael Sedano
The “garage sale” at Self Help Graphics drew hundreds of people, an energetic assembly convening collectors waving dollars, artists showing wares, neighborhood visitors enjoying the festive ambiente.
During the year, SHG hosted artist ateliers and other community-centered art-making endeavors, building inventory for its annual sale. People like me browsed stacks of serigraphs aiming to take home original arte at prices under $300.
Tatiana Reinoza and Karen Mary Davalos share the story of Self Help Graphic’s inception and institutional praxis, its influential place in Chicanarte, and Chicanarte’s place in the art marketplace. It’s a serious, scholarly work that deserve the time it takes.
The anthology collects nine scholarly articles centered upon a venerable Los Angeles community arts organization founded in 1970 and formally incorporated in 1973. The book offers insights into Chicanarte’s place in art history, Self Help Graphics (link).
Davalos observes one raison d’etre for SHG’s ongoing influence in helping inform understanding of Chicanarte, the organization privileged “social values and ethical practices not authorized by the art market or museum world.” Another reason emerges when reading between the lines for SHG’s longevity and leadership: the people running the place know what they’re doing.
Founder Sister Karen Boccalero, then Tomas Benitez, ran the place as a thinking artist’s refuge. Art-making began with talk, with community, with agreement. There’s an interesting insight into an unspoken conflict between the organization’s interests and artists’.
At first, SHG wanted artists to sign over the © to the organization. Under that model, SHG would sponsor the creation of a silkscreen, publish a run of multiples, share the money with the artist, and SHG own the ©. Yolanda Lopez objected, others agreed, and the policy was changed so artists owned their own work.
Benitez is quoted as saying SHG’s © status quo ante was to the artist’s benefit, but the article doesn’t explain the argument beyond that. In what ways is depriving an artist ownership of one’s own work an advantage to the artist?
Despite this one perplexity, the anthology will be a welcome addition to any collector’s library. Reading the essays will help organize ways to understand one’s own collection and find directions to expand, even if its origin is not SHG, nor serigraphs.
Davalos’s “Contributions” essay enumerates SHGs contributions to art history including west coast conceptualism, punkero and goth aesthetic, queer art, rasquachismo, abstraction, minimalism, domestiacana, psychedelia. She doesn’t discuss graffiti, spirituality, pop, expressionism, and abstraction, but says the subjects merit study.
The final essay in the anthology addresses the elephant in the room when assessing the nature, growth, and effectiveness of any arte, and that’s sales. “Creating Infrastructures of Value: Self Help Graphics and the Art Market—a Conversation with Arlene Dávila.” While the conversation doesn’t offer solid advice on pricing, representation, and making a living selling your own art, artists will appreciate the chapter’s professional point of view.
University of California Press does art a favor, printing on coated paper that adds depth and detail to the numerous color and B&W plates illustrating the essays.
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