Renaissance & Rebellion - Flipbook - Page 74
in 2011 as an outgrowth of the Foundation, having connected or reconnected
with Bojórquez, Van Hamersveld, Wisdom and Wong, all of whom attended
the original Chouinard school and who were on the Foundation’s original
Advisory Board. Like most Chouinard alumni, Bojórquez, Van Hamersveld,
Wisdom and Wong cite their time and experiences at the original school
during the 1960s and ‘70s as being life-changing and career-defining. They
agree that the vacancies left by Chouinard and P.A.M. when they closed
were felt deeply throughout the city. The general feeling of disillusionment
during the 1970s was palpable. The leaders of ‘60s counterculture were
gone—Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and others. The country
was still at war with Vietnam despite anti-war efforts and the art scene was
drying up. The galleries had mostly closed, and Artforum had relocated to
New York. Artists challenged the primacy of traditional art forms and systems
at this time by taking their work outside the galleries and museums. Their
anti-aesthetics came in the form of performance, demonstrations, street art,
body art, earthworks, video and installation. After the Chouinard school
moved, the old Chouinard building became home to the Woman’s Building
which forwarded the Feminist Art movement led by Judy Chicago, Sheila
de Bretteville and Arlene Raven. The punk music scene emerged at the end
of the ‘70s as a new form of expressing opposition to established norms
and quickly spilled into the worlds of contemporary art, skate and surf.
The vibrant L.A. punk scene was documented by Penelope Spheeris in her
landmark documentary The Decline of Western Civilization in 1981. Culture
Clash, the satirical performance trio founded in San Francisco in 1984,
moved to L.A. in 1991 led by Richard Montoya (son of renowned artist,
poet and activist José Montoya), with Richard Salinas and Herbert Sigüenza.
Richard Duardo started the important Modern Multiples print studio.
More upheaval in L.A. art continued through the ‘90s and into the 2000s
chronicled by the incendiary underground art magazine Coagula Art Journal,
published by artworld renegade Mat Gleason. Street Art and Lowbrow
exploded from the ‘90s to the present with artists like RISK, Camille Rose
Garcia, Shepard Fairey, Mister Cartoon and many others riding the wave of
Juxtapoz Magazine’s popularity.
Top Jimmy and The Rhythm Pigs with David Lee Roth, Cathay de Grande, Hollywood,1981.
L-R: Steve Berlin, Gil T., David Lee Roth, Dig The Pig, Joey Morales, Top Jimmy, Carlos Guitarlos
Over these decades and within this ever-shifting maelstrom, the California
Locos would continue their parallel trajectories, each honing and perfecting
their crafts, crossing paths from time to time. That all changed in 1998 when
Tourjé purchased Chouinard’s home and learned about the school and its
founder. He became a champion of Chouinard and her school with its nearly
forgotten legacy, and through the Chouinard Foundation built the prestigious
Advisory Board which included the future California Locos artists. Together,
John Van Hamersveld Chouinard designs
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