Oral history interview with Frank Romero
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 27 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Romero, Frank
label: Interviewer
content: Rangel, Jeffrey J.
label: Names
content: Los Four (Art group)
label: Names
content: Oral History Interviews with Chicano artists in California and San Antonio, Texas
label: Names
content: Otis Art Institute -- Students
label: Names
content: Almaraz, Carlos
label: Names
content: Mugnaini, Joseph A.
label: Names
content: Rocha, Roberto de la
label: Names
content: Sanchez Luján, Gilbert
label: Names
content: Sheets, Millard, 1907-1989
label: Names
content: Voulkos, Peter, 1924-2002
topic: label: Occupation
content: Muralists -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Painters -- California -- Los Angeles -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Mexican American artists
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
label: Topic
content: Mexican American art
label: Topic
content: Street art
label: Topic
content: Mural painting and decoration -- 20th century -- California -- Los Angeles
label: Topic
content: Chicano art movement
label: Topic
content: Chicano artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Romero, Frank
label: Interviewer
content: Rangel, Jeffrey J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Frank Romero (1941- ) is a painter from Los Angeles, Calif.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 99 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1997 January 17-March 2
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.romero97
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Frank Romero conducted 1997 January 17-March 2, by Jeffrey Rangel, for the Archives of American Art, in Romero's studio, in Los Angeles, Calif.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Romero discusses his growing up in East Los Angeles and his large extended family; his earliest art studies in the public schools; attending the Otis Art Institute where he studied with Joe Mugnaini and had contact with Millard Sheets and Peter Voulkos; the "very polyglut culture" of East Los Angeles; the influences of television, western movies, rock-and-roll, and rhythm and blues on his early musical/artistic taste; time spent in New York; returning to Los Angeles in 1969; and his marriage and family.
label: Scope and Contents
content: He describes his move into Carlos Almaraz's house which became the informal meeting place of the artist group Los Four (Almaraz, Romero, Gilbert Sanchez Lujan, and Roberto "Beto" de la Rocha); the Los Four show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1974; and the stylistic aesthetics of Los Four.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Romero describes the "boys club" nature of Chicano art centers; his contributions to the Chicano art movement; his relationship to the Chicano/Mexican culture and mainstream U.S. culture; murals done by members of Los Four for the Inner City Mural Program; his work for the Metropolitan Transit Authority; the Murals of Aztlan exhibit in 1981 at the Craft and Folk Art Museum; and his shows at the ARCO Center for the Visual Arts. He concludes with his assessment of the Chicano arts movement, the relationship between economic and art cycles, and the role of the more established artists to those of a younger generation.