Roberto Chavez (1932-2024) was an American artist, muralist, and influential teacher, whose work reflects the cultural landscape of his hometown Los Angeles over the last 60 years.

Early Life & Education 

Chavez was born and raised in the Maravilla neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Though mostly inhabited by Latino families that had escaped the chaos of post-revolution Mexico, the neighborhood also included Jewish, Armenian, Italian, and Japanese emigres finding work and security in pre-war Los Angeles in spite of the Great Depression. 

After a brief Navy stint during the Korean War, and some college classes at LACC, Chavez studied under William Brice and Jan Stussy at the UCLA School of Fine Arts, where he would meet and work with Charles Garabedian, Louis Lunetta, Eduardo Carillo, & Maxwell Hendler. These same artists eventually found their way to the Ceeje Gallery in 1962. In contrast to the cool and hip La Cienega scene became known for eclectic, multicultural and “uncool” artists. 

EAST L.A. & MURALS

In the 1969, Chavez returned to East L.A. as a college professor, soon co-founding Chicano Studies department at East L.A. College, mentoring the next generation of East L.A. artists. 

During the 1970s, he painted public murals around Los Angeles, from the Alice’s Restaurant parking lot near UCLA2 to the politically charged anti-war "Porque Se Pelean?” (1972)3, which became part of archival artist Sandra de la Loza’s Mural Remix. 

The controversial destruction of “The Path to Knowledge and the False University” mural for being “too Chicano” later became the subject of two museum exhibits: the “Murales Rebeldes” (Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, 2017) and “Roberto Chavez and The False University: A Retrospective, (Vincent Price Art Museum, 2014). 

After the destruction of his mural at East L.A. College in 1980, Chavez resigned his position at the school, and relocated to the Mendocino Coast. He continued to display new work in solo and group exhibitions, and teach, but remained largely out of the Los Angeles art world until 2011. 

REDISCOVERY
Since 2011, Roberto Chavez has been featured in museum exhibits, from the Smithsonian in Washington DC, his hometown of East L.A. and most recently the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 2020. Renewed attention on his work began with three exhibits in the ambitious Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980 project by the Getty Foundation. In this survey and celebration of the the birth of the L.A. art scene, Chavez was noted for being part of the “funky expressionism” of the 1960’s La Cienega scene, as well as an important influencer and purveyor of the 1970s Chicano Art movement, as a muralist and art teacher.