Murals
MURALS
Chicano Art is one of Professor Victor Sorell strengths. He is one of our most prominent art historians and he is an Associate Dean at Chicago State University. Professor Sorell stated at a Chicano Culture forum in Chicago, that Mario Castillo is the first Mexican-American in the U.S.A. to start painting murals for the new public art movement in 1968.
Actually, Mario Castillo started painting murals in 1963 with a Lane Technical High School mural that won an award in 1964 and was mounted in the main office at Lane Tech. This documentation came out in the school's newspaper. Outside of this notice, he has never been given credit for this because his story is written by others who state it as "history"that Castillo was following in the footsteps of other current Chicago artists.
In reality Castillo was influenced by muralists from a past era. There at Lane Tech, he was surrounded by major fresco works and WPA murals. At this early time he was also aware of the pre-Columbian frescos of the Maya and Teotihuacán civilizations and the three major Mexican muralists, Los Tres Grandes, Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros.
But the reason why Castillo is in history books related to this subject is because of his being the first Latino to do this in Chicago. It was not until 1968 when he painted the first Chicano and first anti Viet Nam war mural, "Peace"or Metafisica, as it came to be known at the Halsted Urban Progress Center on Halsted Street and Cullerton in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. This was his first outdoors mural. When Castillo painted this, he was not aware of Bill Walker's Wall of Respect which was painted in 1967. As stated before, Mario Castillo was simply basing his stimulus on the mural he had done in 1963 at Lane Tech and also on his Mexican Heritage.
By 1969, he had become aware of the Wall of Respect and so he decided to paint The Wall of Brotherhood at 18th Street and Halsted Street also in Pilsen. This second mural which was about two blocks away from "Peace"was painted by a group of students of different racial backgrounds. Because of this and its theme, The Wall of Brotherhood became the first multicultural mural of the new movement.
Both of these murals paid homage to pre-Colombian cultures, the 2D Design aesthetic of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for Castillo distinctly wanted to state that these works were not following a Western or European aesthetic. The wall was recognized as a flat plane without giving the illusion of space and perspective. These murals served as the springboard for all the Mexican-American murals which followed in Pilsen.
Also the process by which Mario Castillo painted these murals has been followed up to the present time. This was to work with community youth and train them in and expose them to art so that they could help paint the mural. This procedure for painting a mural served as a prototype for many murals which followed and are still being painted today.
When Castillo painted Metafisica it did not get much publicity but the Wall of Brotherhood did. It was in the news in a couple of TV channels in Chicago and it featured at the same time when Americans first landed on the moon and the phrase "This is a small step for man and a giant step for mankind"was being heard around the world.
Mario Castillo did not realize it then, but this small step for him (the painting of the first Latino mural in the USA belonging to the public art movement) was a giant step for the Mexican-American community. These two murals gave birth to a cultural renaissance in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Castillo had no idea that mural painting was going to turn out to be such a big thing.
There were the astronauts seeing Earth from space as a small global village and back on Earth, in Pilsen, a Chicano artist was telling the world that we are all one human family with his Wall of Brotherhood. Its focal point had the peace symbol made up of four red arms (hands pointing out) to show that no matter what color the skin is, the blood underneath is the same color.
Starting as early as 1970, other Mexican-American artists followed; Ray Patlan, Marcos Raya, & Alejandro Romero. They, amongst many others, begin to paint the walls of the barrio with people's art. A new Chicano Art vocabulary was born. This resulted from a diversified fusion of iconic images borrowed from Native American art, Mexican culture, American culture, and the Cesar Chavez Farm Workers movement.
After 1990, when Mario Castillo returned to Chicago, he started to do several mural workshops around the metropolitan area, one out of state, and one in Mexico. He also started to teach mural painting at Columbia College Chicago where his classes have painted five murals.
Out of the several mural workshops Mario Castillo has given, four stand out as having produced significant murals:
1. The Science & Math Department mural at Columbia College Chicago
2. World cultures mural at Triton College, 1997
3. The University of Guadalajara in Ocotlan, Jalisco, Mexico, 1995
4. The Traces of Humanity Mural at Omaha, Nebraska, 1996
Chicano Art is one of Professor Victor Sorell strengths. He is one of our most prominent art historians and he is an Associate Dean at Chicago State University. Professor Sorell stated at a Chicano Culture forum in Chicago, that Mario Castillo is the first Mexican-American in the U.S.A. to start painting murals for the new public art movement in 1968.
Actually, Mario Castillo started painting murals in 1963 with a Lane Technical High School mural that won an award in 1964 and was mounted in the main office at Lane Tech. This documentation came out in the school's newspaper. Outside of this notice, he has never been given credit for this because his story is written by others who state it as "history"that Castillo was following in the footsteps of other current Chicago artists.
In reality Castillo was influenced by muralists from a past era. There at Lane Tech, he was surrounded by major fresco works and WPA murals. At this early time he was also aware of the pre-Columbian frescos of the Maya and Teotihuacán civilizations and the three major Mexican muralists, Los Tres Grandes, Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros.
But the reason why Castillo is in history books related to this subject is because of his being the first Latino to do this in Chicago. It was not until 1968 when he painted the first Chicano and first anti Viet Nam war mural, "Peace"or Metafisica, as it came to be known at the Halsted Urban Progress Center on Halsted Street and Cullerton in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. This was his first outdoors mural. When Castillo painted this, he was not aware of Bill Walker's Wall of Respect which was painted in 1967. As stated before, Mario Castillo was simply basing his stimulus on the mural he had done in 1963 at Lane Tech and also on his Mexican Heritage.
By 1969, he had become aware of the Wall of Respect and so he decided to paint The Wall of Brotherhood at 18th Street and Halsted Street also in Pilsen. This second mural which was about two blocks away from "Peace"was painted by a group of students of different racial backgrounds. Because of this and its theme, The Wall of Brotherhood became the first multicultural mural of the new movement.
Both of these murals paid homage to pre-Colombian cultures, the 2D Design aesthetic of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, for Castillo distinctly wanted to state that these works were not following a Western or European aesthetic. The wall was recognized as a flat plane without giving the illusion of space and perspective. These murals served as the springboard for all the Mexican-American murals which followed in Pilsen.
Also the process by which Mario Castillo painted these murals has been followed up to the present time. This was to work with community youth and train them in and expose them to art so that they could help paint the mural. This procedure for painting a mural served as a prototype for many murals which followed and are still being painted today.
When Castillo painted Metafisica it did not get much publicity but the Wall of Brotherhood did. It was in the news in a couple of TV channels in Chicago and it featured at the same time when Americans first landed on the moon and the phrase "This is a small step for man and a giant step for mankind"was being heard around the world.
Mario Castillo did not realize it then, but this small step for him (the painting of the first Latino mural in the USA belonging to the public art movement) was a giant step for the Mexican-American community. These two murals gave birth to a cultural renaissance in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. Castillo had no idea that mural painting was going to turn out to be such a big thing.
There were the astronauts seeing Earth from space as a small global village and back on Earth, in Pilsen, a Chicano artist was telling the world that we are all one human family with his Wall of Brotherhood. Its focal point had the peace symbol made up of four red arms (hands pointing out) to show that no matter what color the skin is, the blood underneath is the same color.
Starting as early as 1970, other Mexican-American artists followed; Ray Patlan, Marcos Raya, & Alejandro Romero. They, amongst many others, begin to paint the walls of the barrio with people's art. A new Chicano Art vocabulary was born. This resulted from a diversified fusion of iconic images borrowed from Native American art, Mexican culture, American culture, and the Cesar Chavez Farm Workers movement.
After 1990, when Mario Castillo returned to Chicago, he started to do several mural workshops around the metropolitan area, one out of state, and one in Mexico. He also started to teach mural painting at Columbia College Chicago where his classes have painted five murals.
Out of the several mural workshops Mario Castillo has given, four stand out as having produced significant murals:
1. The Science & Math Department mural at Columbia College Chicago
2. World cultures mural at Triton College, 1997
3. The University of Guadalajara in Ocotlan, Jalisco, Mexico, 1995
4. The Traces of Humanity Mural at Omaha, Nebraska, 1996
