FRANK ROMERO – CALIFORNIA ARTIST

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

Carlos Almaraz had come back from New York and he was living with me and he introduced me to Gilbert Lujan and Gilbert was talking about something that was called Chicano Art. I said well what is this, some kind of dirty word or something? There was a real argument that ensued. The Los Four movement was really Mexican Americans growing up in East LA arguing about something called Chicano art. We’d all sit around

the kitchen and talk about Chicano Art. And while we were talking we’d be drawing on a piece of paper, [passing it] all around the room and from all angles, so it became a collective work. Los Four was an interesting phenomenon in that it was a group of four very egocentric guys, we were taught in art schools to display our egos. I came up with the name Los Four and it stuck.

We would go out and do a mural together. The very first time it was a graffiti mural, we kind of learned to work together. Later we brought in Judith Hernandez because she was a very strong component and female , she brought in a different viewpoint.

My current work came out of my experiences of family outings with the family. We drove all over Los Angeles, to drive by car was a lovely experience in the 1950s. The highways were open. I’ve gone from expressions of [lowrider] car images to the conveyances. The Freeways and highways that take you places. And in my most recent work its all abstractions, they’re beautiful freeways.