1996 Chicano Prison Art

Learn from Shattered Dreams [Pano/Paño]

"A.M."

Publication: 1996.

Notes: A well executed example of this Chicano form of prison folk art, an intricate drawing with allegorical and apparently autobiographical elements made with felt-tip pen on a white handkerchief. A distinctive figure, likely the artist, sporting a long handle-bar mustache is depicted several times: as a gun-toting cholo in a buttoned-to-the-top plaid shirt; as a sad clown (common to most paños, used to mark the contradictions between happiness and sadness in life); as a musclebound man in baggy pantalones, holding the comedy and tragedy drama masks; and in a montage of portraits with guns and skulls below the electric chair.

The artist supplied the title in text near the top of the image. Chicano imagery in this drawing includes a man in a Zoot suit, a string of roses, and the Virgen de Guadalupe. This pano is signed twice, "AM '96" at the top center and with what appears to be an illegible signature followed by 96 at the bottom.

15-1/4 by 14-3/4 inches. Black ink, probably felt pen, on hemmed white cloth.

Edition + Condition: Cloth yellowed from ink migration, else a fine example

Item No: #81

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