Гилберт "Магу" Лухан: Суретші және Чикано өнерінің қайта жаратылуы

American sculptor and painter (1940–2011)

Gilbert "Magu" Luján (October 16, 1940 – July 24, 2011) was a Chicano American sculptor, muralist, painter, and educator. He was a founding member of the Chicano collective, Los Four that consisted of artists Carlos Almaraz, Beto de la Rocha, Frank Romero and himself. In 1974, Judithe Hernández became the "fifth member," and only female member of Los Four.

Luján was born in French Camp, California, near Stockton, to parents of Mexican and indigenous ancestry from West Texas. Six months later, his family relocated to East Los Angeles, California, where he spent his childhood and adolescence, except for some time in Guadalajara in 1944 or 1945. As a young teenager, Luján was heavily influenced by the Afro American music scene in Los Angeles, for instance listening to Johnny Ace and Mary Wells. He went to El Monte High School, graduating in the class of 1958. After serving in the United States Air Force, Luján returned home from three years in England in 1962 and began to attend college, first at East Los Angeles College, then to California State University, Long Beach, where he earned his B. A. in ceramic sculpture in 1969 and then to University of California, Irvine, where he earned an M. F. A. in sculpture in 1973.

By this time of his graduation in 1973, East L. A. had become a hotbed of socio political and cultural activity, as the Chicano Movement became a turbulent and exciting social force in the communities the U. S. Southwest. At this time, Luján began to organize art exhibits and artists' conferences to establish Chicano Art as a valid form of artistic expression. The first of these was held at Camp Hess Kramer, which was, according to Luján, "a Jewish camp that allowed Mexican Americans to meet there to talk about educational disparities that we had in East L. A." From 1976 until 1980, Luján taught at the La Raza Studies Department at Fresno City College becoming department chair 1980. Since then, Luján worked full time on his artwork, devoted to developing his aesthetic. During the years of 1999 to 2007, Magu held his art studio operations at the Pomona Art Colony in downtown Pomona, California, helping to garner appreciation and support of the arts in the city and surrounding communities. During 2005, he took on a position as art professor at Pomona College, one of the seven prestigious Claremont Colleges. In 1990 Magu was commissioned as a design principal for the Hollywood & Vine station on the Metro Rail Red Line (Hollywood/Vine (LACMTA station)) in Los Angeles, California. By 1999 Magu completed a series of wall tiles and platform sculptural benches in the form of lowrider automobiles. He chose the theme song, "Hooray for Hollywood," as the signature tune for the Hollywood & Vine Metro station. A design rudder established was "light," which Luján considered another central motif in Hollywood, from the light that passed through film projectors to the sunny streets of Southern California to the creation of celebrity "Stars." The Yellow Brick Road, which was built to run from the plaza (which is currently being demolished to build a high rise with chain restaurants and businesses) to the train platform, is a prominent motif taken from the 1939 classic movieThe Wizard of Oz, a movie which was an inspiration to Luján's work. Magu's artwork became famous in its own right throughout the 1980s and 1990s as it used colorful imagery, anthropomorphic animals, depictions of outrageously proportioned lowriders, festooned with Indigenous/urban motifs juxtaposed, graffiti, Dia De Los Muertos installation altars and all sorts of borrowings from pop culture. Magu states:
"My art intentions, over the years, have been to use Mesoamerican heritage as well as implementing current popular Art and cultural folk sources as the content substance to make Chicanarte."