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Judithe Hernández, 2010 (photo: Gil Ortiz)

 
Judithe Hernández's career began in Los Angeles during the socially and politically turbulent 1960's as one of the artists in the vanguard of the Chicano Art and Los Angeles Mural Movements. Regarded as one of the leading visual artists of the period, she was also the only female member of the seminal and influential East Los Angeles artist collective known as "Los Four". 
 
"It is safe to say that this grouping of artists, known collectively as Los Four, legitimized Chicano art in the Anglo American art world......Today, Frank Romero, Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert Lujan, and Judithe Hernández represent a group of Chicano artists that have obtained international respect and are admired for producing original and exceptional bodies of work throughout their artistic careers.."  Reflections on the Chicano Art Movimiento: A Primer by Armando Vazquez. 
 

 Los Four - Beto de la Rocha, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero,

& Judithe Hernández (circa, 1976)

 

 

My studio, Chicago, IL, (June, 2010)

After Judithe joined Los Four (1974), the group would work together for the next ten years creating public art and exhibiting as a collective. During that  period they mounted no fewer than 10 major group exhibitions, participated in and created work for social causes, 
taught, and painted several of Los Angeles's most historic murals.
 
In March, 2009 the British visual arts magazine Creative Review noted in an article about the legendary East Los Angeles print studio Self-Help Graphics: 
 
"Some critics would say this is where the visibility of that movement (Chicano Art) began, .......It begins with Los Four, the collective of local artists (Frank Romero, Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert Lujan, Beto de la Rocha, and later Judithe Hernández) who are widely credited with creating the Chicano visual vocabulary during the 1970’s".

 

In her solo career, Judithe has exhibited extensively in the U.S.and internationally, including the ground-breaking first exhibition of contemporary Chicano Art in Europe: Les Démon des Anges

 

Her public works include the Los Angeles Bicentennial Mural. Recuredos de Ayer, Sueños de Mañana was the only mural commissioned to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the city's founding. From within the El Pueblo State Historical Park it overlooked the downtown area for nearly 20 years. In contrast to her well known public art, her studio work has always been pastel on paper. The lush color and haunting imagery prompted one art critic to compare it to two legendary artists, saying of her work: "it is beautifully drawn and richely painted, reminiscent of Gauguin and Rivera".

Judithe & daughter Ariel - Rastros y Cronicas: Women of Juarez exhibition, National Museum of Mexican Art (Dec, 2009)

 

 
Committed to the education of the next generation of Latinos, she spent 30 years teaching, lecturing, and in administration at several major universities in California and Illinois, including: California State University Long Beach; the University of California at Santa Barbara, Occidental College; the University of Illinois at Chicago; and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 
 
In 2010, Judithe's exhibition schedule will culminate with a major exhibition of new work at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.
 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010

La Vida Sobre Papel  / Life on Paper - National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL

What Dreams May Come / Qué Sueños Quizás Vengan - Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL

1983 

Judithe Hernandez: Works on Paper, Cayman Gallery, New York, NY
1980 

A Decade of a Woman's Work - Solart Gallery, San Diego, CA
1979 

Virgen, Madre, Mujer: Imágenes de la Mujer Chicana - Casa de la Raza, Santa Bárbara, CA
1978 

Mi Arte, Mi Raza - Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery

 

 

TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS

 

2009

Judithe Hernández and Sergio Gomez: Through the Labyrinth - Chicago State University - President's Gallery
 

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITONS

 

2010

Road Trip - Vincent Price Musuem of Art, Los Angeles, CA

After Adelita - Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL

Indigenismo: Ancient Roots in Mexican Art, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ

Light and Dark Drawings - Fremont Gallery, So. Pasadena, CA

Body Language - Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA

Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret the Mexican Muralists, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago

A Prayer for Juarez - A Curse on the Killers - Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles, CA

2009

Miradas - Mexican Art from the Bank of American Collection, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago

32nd Bradley International Print & Drawing Exhibition (Juried), Bradley University, IllinoisCatalog published

12th International Open Exhibition (Juried), Woman Made Gallery, Chicago

Women's Works 2009 Exhibition (Juried), Old Court House Arts Center Gallery, Woodstock, IL

Her Mark 2010 (Juried), Woman Made Gallery, Chicago

Bearing Witness: Art as Social Action (Juried), ARC Gallery, Chicago  DVD catalog published

Women Imaging Women: A Study of Female Portraiture, Robert Morris University, Chicago, IL

Layer Cake: Tales of a Quinceanera, Columbia College - C33 Gallery, Chicago, IL

66th Annual Salon Show, (Juried), South Shore Arts, Munster, IN

Rastros y Cronicas: Women of Juarez, the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL

2008

Feminist Ecology: Women and the Earth (Juried). Koehnline Museum, Chicago, IL

11th Annual Chicago Art Open (Juried), Catalog published

La Vida Sin Fin - Day of the Dead 2008 - National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL

Gallery Artists. Ogilvie/Pertl Gallery, River East Art Center, Chicago, IL

Reforming US: Immigration Through Art - (Juried), Crown Center Gallery, Loyola University Chicago, IL

Chicago ARTEAhora - River East Art Center, Chicago, IL

Chupacabras! Artists Reinvent the Myth (Juried), National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL

2004 

Mexican Otis - Otis College of Art Design, Los Angeles, CA
2003 

Reflections of the Soul - Day of the Dead 2003 - Natonal Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL

1995 

California Connections - Gallery 1078, Chino, CA

1994 

The Mystical in Art - Carnegie Museum of Art, Oxnard, CA

Los 4: Twenty Years Later - Robert Berman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1989-90 

Les Démon des Anges -  First European exhibition of contemporary Chicano Art. Cities and art institutions to where the exhibtion traveled included: the Halle du Centre de Recherche pour le Developpement Culturel, Nantes, France; Centro de Arte Contemporano Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain, Kulterhuset, Stockholm, Sweden; Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain, Lyon, France (Catalog published)

1989

Contemporary Latin American Artists - California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA

The Murals of Aztlan - University of Houston, Texas

1983 

Cal Poly Faculty Exhibition - California State Polytechnic University. Pomona, CA
1982 

Califas on Paper - Fondo del Sol, Washington, D.C.
1981 

The Murals of Aztlan - Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
1980

Six Chicano Artists - Roberts Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

Chicanindia - Galería Capistrano, Capistrano, CA

1979 

Arte Chicano - Galería Pentagano, Mexico City
1978 

The Aesthetics of Grafitti - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (Catalog published)

1977

Los For por el Pueblo - California State University Los Angeles

Los Four Banners and Paper - Mount San Antonio College, Walnut Grove, CA

Los Four en Fresno - California State University Fresno

Los Four en Sacra - California State University Sacramento

1976 

In Search of Four Women...Four Cultures - California Institute of Technology, Baxter Gallery (Catalog published)
Arte Picante -
Mandeville Gallery, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Las Chicanas -
Mechicano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Las Chicanas: Venas de la Mujer -
The Women's Building, Los Angeles, CA

1975 

Los Four - Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA (Catalog published)

Imagination - Inaugural Exhibition. Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
1974 

In Search of Aztlan, Crocker Art Museum (State of California Collection), Sacarmento, CA

Fantasy, the Dark and Light Side - Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Los Four en Fresno - California State University at Fresno. Fresno, CA

Los Four en Longo - Long Beach Museum of Art (Catalog published)
Los Four -
Self-Help Graphics, East Los Angeles, CA
Los 4
- University of California at Santa Barbara

1973 

Point Gallery - Venice, CA

1965

Ester Robles Gallery - Los Angeles, CA

 

 

PUBLIC ART

 

1982 

Recuerdos de Ayer....Sueños de Mañana - City of Los Angeles Bicentennial Mural. Commissioned by the Los Angeles 200 Committee. El Pueblo State Historical Park. (Demolished 2001)

1981 

Sueños Oaxaqueños - Mural on canvas. Commissioned by  the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles 

1977 

Homenaje a Las Chicanas de Áztlan - Assisted by Carlos Almaraz. Ramona Gardens Housing Project, Los Angeles

La Adelita - Assisted Carlos Almaraz. Ramona Gardens Housing Project, Los Angeles

Los Four por El Pueblo - Temporary mural California State University Los Angeles

1976 

The Great Wall of Los Angeles Mural - Flood Control Channel Van Nuys, California. Designer of "Mexican Rule", 4th section of the first phase of the Great Wall
El Mundo del Barrio Sotel -
Stoner Recreation Center, Los Angeles. (Restored 1997, demolished 2002)
1975 

United Farmer Workers Mural - Co-designer. 2nd Annual Constitutional Convention, UFW Headquarters La Paz, CA
Ave 43 Mural -
Collective mural with Frank Romero, Leo Limon, and Carlos Almaraz. Highland Pk, CA

1974 

El Teatro de la Vida - Century Playhouse Theater. Inner City Mural Program. Commissioned by the County of Los Angeles and funded by the National Endowment of the Arts

1973 

Los 4 Placa Mural - Portable mural for KCET-PBS. Los Angeles, CA
1969 

The World: Past and Future - First Unitarian Church. Los Angeles, CA

 

 

HONORS / AWARDS

 

2009 

Woman Made 12th International Open - First Prize

32nd Bradley International Print & Drawing Exhibition - Honorable Mention

Women's Works 2009 Exhibition - Second Prize

2007 

Otis College of Art and Design - Designated Outstanding Alumni
2002 

The Smithsonian Institution- Archives of American Artists - Oral biography added to archives

1989 

Les Démon des Anges - One of sixteen contemporary Chicano artists selected for the first major European exhibition of Chicano Art. Jointly sponsored by France's Centre de Recherche por le Developpement Culturel and Spain's Centro de Contemporaneo de Santa Monica

1983 

University of California - Selected one of California's 500 Hispanic Women Leaders
1980 

Comision Femenil Mexicana Nacional - Honored for Achievement in the Fine Arts

   

   COLLECTIONS

 

PRIVATE 

 

Susan Alexander

Elsa Flores Almaraz
Isabel & Lawrence Bischop

Lupe & David Botello

Charlene & Charles Boxenbaum

Oscar Castillo

Karen Mary Davalos

Fernando de Necochea

Barbara & Emery Dowell

Veronica & Javier Esparza

Rae & Fred Feldman

Maria Elena Gaitan

Lynn & Abe J. Goldsmith

Wayne Alaniz Healy

Mary Dowell & Jaime Hernández

Francisco Jimenez

Maria & Howard Kim

Archie Nedelman & Helen Page Camp

Marguerite & Lawrence Neikrug
Patric G. McCoy

Raymond Mota

Chon Noriega

C.C.H. Pounder
Joe D. Rodriguez, Sr.

Sharon & Frank Romero

Tere Romo

Oscar Sanchez

Frederick Schwarts
Hrair Shekerjian

Kent Twitchell

Jesus Trevino

Patssi Valdez

Jacquelyn & Stanley Wilson
Edith Wyle
 

 

PUBLIC

 

Bank of America Collection

Craft and Folk Art Museum

Latino Museum of History, Art, & Culture

Max Factor Collection

National Museum of Mexican Art

Otis College of Art and Design Collection

Radio Bilingüe Collection
Crocker Art Museum (State of California Collection)

United Farm Workers Union
University of California at Los Angeles

   Chicano Studies Research Center

University of California at Santa Barbara     

   Chicano Studies Department and the 

   Davidson Library, Dept of Special Collections, 

   California Ethnic & Multicultural Archives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY - PRINT & ONLINE MEDIA

 

Immaculate Immigrant -The Virgin of Guadalupe in Los Angeles: Meditations and Reflections - Meg Guarduno, Tafford Publishing, 2010

Saatchi Online Magazine  - Review: Victor Cassidy, Rastros y Cronicas: Women of Juarez". November, 2009  

Chicago Tribune - Review: Rastros y Cronicas: Women of Juarez". December, 2009  

CenterStage -  - Review: Lisa Brandush, Rastros y Cronicas: Women of Juarez", December, 2009  

Creative Review (United Kingdom) - Article by Alissa Walker; Self Help Graphics, March Issue, 2009

Her Mark 2010 - Art and Poetry Annual. Published by Woman Made Gallery, Chicago 2009

Chicago Maroon. Review: "From Revolution to Postwar Period, Miradas Gazes Into Mexico's Mosaic Past ", 2009

Otis Designs - Essay:Barbara Isenberg; Editors, M. Reeve & Sarah Russin. Otis College of  Art and Design, 2008

Contratiempo Magazine. Review: "Chupacabras: The Myth in the Era of the Internet" March 2008

Walls of Empowerment - Chicana/o Indigenist Murals of California - G.LaTorre, University of Texas Press, 2008

AZTLAN: A Journal of Chicano Studies - Essay, "A View of Chicano Art by an Artist-in-Progress", Fall 2008 issue. Published by the Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA

Los Angeles Times. "A Mural Hangs in Limbo", March 2008

WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution - Cornelia Butler, Lisa Mark, Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles) 2007

Chicano San Diego: Cultural Space and the Struggle for Justice - Richard Griswold de Castillo, University of Arizona Press, 2007 

Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change - Patrick Coy, Elsevier Science & Technology Books, 2007
Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia -
Vicky Ruiz, Virginia Korrol, Indiana University Press, 2006
Self Help Graphics & Art: Art in the Heart of East Los Angeles -
K. Guzman & C. Gunckel, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Press, 2005

I am Aztlan: The Personal Essay in Chicano Studies - Chon A. Noriega, Wendy L. Belcher, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, 2004 

Contratiempo Magazine. Review: "The Death of Day of the Dead?", November 2003

Art, Women, California 1950-2000: Parallels & Intersections - Diana Burgess Fuller, Daniela Salvioni, University of California Press, 2002 

Concervation and Maintenance of Contemporary Public Art - Hafthor Yngvason, Cambridge Arts Council, 2002

Chicano Art Outside the Master's House: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exihibition - Alicia Gaspar de Alba, University of Texas Press, 1999

Cultural inheritance, L.A.: A Directory of Less-Visible Archives and Collections in the Los Angeles Region -Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1999

The Business of Art - Lee Evan Caplin, National Endowment for the Arts, Prentice Hall Press, 1998 

Aztec Nation: History, Inscription, amd Indigenista Feminism in Chicano Literature and Political Discourse - Alesia Garcia, University of Arizona, 1998 

Painting the Towns: Murals of California. Robin Dunitz, James Prigoff, RJD Enterprises, 1997

The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History. Wilma Mankiller, Houghton Mufflin Books

Los Angeles Times - September 15, 1996, "If These Walls Could Speak"

Dimensions of the Americas: Art and Social Change in Latin America and the United States - S. Goldman, University of Chicago Press, 1994
Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals -
Eva Sperling Cockcroft, University of New Mexico Press, 1993

Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the Unites States: Literature and Art (four volume series) - Edited by Francicso Lomeli, Arte Publico Press, 1993

Writings About Art - Carol Gold Calo, Prentice Hall College Division, 1993

Street Gallery: Guide to 1000 Murals in Los Angeles County - Robin Dunitz, RJD Enterprises, 1992

Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. R. Griswold del Castillo, T. McKenna, Y. Yarbro-Bejerano, University of Arizona Press, 1991

Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display - Ivan Karp, Rockerfeller Foundation, Smithsonian Press 1991

Le Démon des Anges (France) - Letellier and Pascal: Bernard Bretonniere (C.R.D.C Nantes); France, 1989

Angeles Magazine - "Urban Talismans - Latino Murals Lend Mythic Resonance to L.A.'s Walls", Max Benavidez. Angeles Magazine, April, 1989

Yesterday and Tormorrow: California Women Artists - Sylvia Moore, Midmarch Press, 1989 

The Big Picture: The Murals of Los Angeles - S.Young and Melba Levick, Little, Brown and Company (Inc.), 1988
Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors -
J. Beardsley, J. Livingston. published by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1987

Wall Art: Megamurals & Supergraphics - Stefan & Betty Merken, Running Press, 1987

Arte Chicano: a Comprehensive annotated bibliography of Chicano Art, 195-1981

Shifra Goldman & Tomas Ybarra Frausto, published by Chicano Studies Library Publications, University of California, 1985

High Performance: Art in the Public Interest - Linda Frye Burnham, published by Astro Artz, 1986

Mexican Art of the 1970's: Images of Displacement - Leonard Folgarait, published by the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt University, 1984

Video: A Retrospective - Long Beach Museum of Art 1974-1984 - Kathy R. Huffman, Long Beach Museum of Art, 1984 

The Washington Post - April 15, 1982, page D7, Chicano Art, a review of "Califas on Paper"

Latino - April, 1982, Arte y Cultura, a review of "Califas on Paper"

American Women Artists - Charlotte Rubinstein, Avon Publications, 1982

201: Homenaje a la Ciudad de Los Angeles: Latino Experience in Literature & Art - Los Angeles Latino Writers Association, 1982

La Opinion - March 25,1982, page 6, La Mujer en el Mundo, "Una Chicana en las Artes"

Los Angeles Times - January 24, 1982, photo layout of bicentennial mural

PSA Magazine - June, 1981, "Portrait of a Lady" (Ramona Gardens Mural, "Homenje a las Chicanas de Aztlan)

Los Angeles Times - June 20, 1981, Overview section, review of "Murals of Aztlan"

La Prensa, San Diego - March 14, 1980, page 5, Chicano Gallery of Fine Arts Opens"

Handbook of Painting - Crocker Art Museum, Richard V. West, 1979

Somos Magazine - October-November 1979, page 16. "Judithe Hernandez" Portrait of the Artist as a Chicana"

La Opinion - August 3,1979, page 3, Instantaneas, "Tiempo y Muerte en la Pintura de Judithe Hernandez"

Raices Antiguas, Visiones Nuevos - Tucson Museum of Art, 1978 (Digitized 2008)

LACMA Report, July 1, 1973 - June 30, 1975 - Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum, 1976 

Los Angeles Times - Photo layout of Century City Playhouse Mural, 1974

 

 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY - FILM & TELEVISION 

 

PBS documentary - "Visions of Aztlan". A documentary film about the pioneering artists of the Chicano Mural Movement. Directed by Jesus Trevino, 2010

Syndicated PBS documentary - "The Murals of Aztlan". A documentary film about the painting of the murals for the Craft and Folk Art Museum exhibition of the "Murals of Aztlan, 1981

Documentary on Hispanic professionals - McMillan Publications. 1977

Mur, Mur (France) - Award winning documentary about Chicano muralists by French director Agnes Varda, 1977

Documentary for National German Television - Film documentary on East L.A.mural painters, 1976

 

 

SELECTED GRAPHIC DESIGN

 

TunaLuna - Cover art. Tenth volume of poetry by Alurista. Aztlan Libre Press, San Antionio, TX, 2010

AZTLAN: A Journal of Chicano Studies - Cover illustration, "A View of Chicano Art by an Artist-in-Progress", published by the Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA, 2008

Sin Fronteras - International Latino Film Festival.  University of Calfiornia at Los Angeles, 1980

International Year of the Woman - poster design, 1979

Mechicano Gallery - Calendario Series, 1976

Furia y Muerte: Los Bandidos Chicanos - Cover art. Mongraph #4, published by the Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA 1973

Floricanto - Cover art and illustrations. First volume of poetry by Alurista. Published by the Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA 1971

AZTLAN: A Journal of Chicano Studies - University of California at Los Angeles. First illustrator of the journal (1970-1974) and designer of the original journal logo.

 

 

ORGANIZATIONS

 

Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA) - Member of the Board