Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987
Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987
Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972–1987 is the first retrospective to present the wide-ranging work of the Chicano performance and conceptual art group Asco. Asco (1972–1987) began as a tight-knit core group of artists from East Los Angeles composed of Harry Gamboa Jr., Gronk, Willie Herrón, and Patssi Valdez. Taking their name from the forceful Spanish word for disgust and nausea, Asco used performance, public art, and multimedia to respond to social and political turbulence in Los Angeles and beyond. ASCO remained active until the mid-1980s, contracting and expanding to include Diane Gamboa, Sean Carrillo, Daniel J. Martinez, and Teddy Sandoval, among others. Hear interviews with members of ASCO, below.
Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to tell the story of the birth of the LA art scene. Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time will take place for six months beginning October 2011. Sponsors
The exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Williams College Museum of Art. It is made possible in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, Inc., the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
Incomplete - Image, Links, Highlighted Objects
Image: Asco, Instant Mural, (detail) 1974, courtesy Harry Gamboa, © Asco, photo © 1974 Harry Gamboa, Jr.
- Sep 4–Dec 4, 2011
- BCAM, Level 2
Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to tell the story of the birth of the LA art scene. Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time will take place for six months beginning October 2011. Sponsors
The exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Williams College Museum of Art. It is made possible in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, Inc., the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.
Incomplete - Image, Links, Highlighted Objects
Image: Asco, Instant Mural, (detail) 1974, courtesy Harry Gamboa, © Asco, photo © 1974 Harry Gamboa, Jr.
Media
In conjunction with the Asco exhibition, LACMA commissioned Willie Herrón to create a mural, Asco: East of No West, based on Harry Gamboa Jr.’s photograph of the 1972 Asco performance Walking Mural. Walking Mural was a street performance in which the artists created elaborate costumes and paraded silently along Whittier Boulevard. The new mural recalls and reinterprets that performance. It is part of a series of mural by Herrón in the alley at City Terrace Drive, behind Alvarez Bakery near Cal State LA.