Vincent Valdez and Ry Cooder: El Chavez Ravine
Vincent Valdez and Ry Cooder: El Chavez Ravine
Vincent Valdez and Ry Cooder: El Chavez Ravine features Valdez’s oil painting on a 1953 Good Humor ice cream truck portraying the forced removal of a predominantly Mexican American community for the construction of Dodger Stadium in the late 1950s. In 2004, Cooder invited Valdez to collaborate and create a painting to align with his album “Chavez Ravine” (2005), a musical interpretation of the neighborhood’s history. Posing a visual contradiction between the eviction and the ice cream truck, Valdez depicts Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, former LAPD Chief William H. Parker, J. Edgar Hoover, and displaced families. Shown alongside Valdez’s preparatory materials, El Chavez Ravine draws from the style and history of Mexican and American muralism and Chicano car culture. Recently acquired by LACMA, the work is a monument to a disturbing chapter in L.A. history and symbolizes struggles across the country about affordable housing, eminent domain, gentrification, and discrimination.
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Vincent Valdez and Ry Cooder: El Chavez Ravine features Valdez’s oil painting on a 1953 Good Humor ice cream truck portraying the forced removal of a predominantly Mexican American community for the construction of Dodger Stadium in the late 1950s. In 2004, Cooder invited Valdez to collaborate and create a painting to align with his album “Chavez Ravine” (2005), a musical interpretation of the neighborhood’s history. Posing a visual contradiction between the eviction and the ice cream truck, Valdez depicts Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, former LAPD Chief William H. Parker, J. Edgar Hoover, and displaced families. Shown alongside Valdez’s preparatory materials, El Chavez Ravine draws from the style and history of Mexican and American muralism and Chicano car culture. Recently acquired by LACMA, the work is a monument to a disturbing chapter in L.A. history and symbolizes struggles across the country about affordable housing, eminent domain, gentrification, and discrimination.
This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Lead support provided by LACMA's Future Arts Collective. Generous support provided by Fabian Newton Family.
All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by The David & Meredith Kaplan Foundation, with generous annual funding from Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Mary and Daniel James, Justin Lubliner, Alfred E. Mann Charities, Kelsey Lee Offield, Koni and Geoff Rich, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.
Vincent Valdez, El Chavez Ravine, 2005–7, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Ryland Cooder, © Vincent Valdez, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA
- Nov 12, 2023–Jul 21, 2024
- BCAM, Level 1
- Today's hours: 10 am–7 pm
This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Lead support provided by LACMA's Future Arts Collective. Generous support provided by Fabian Newton Family.
All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by The David & Meredith Kaplan Foundation, with generous annual funding from Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Mary and Daniel James, Justin Lubliner, Alfred E. Mann Charities, Kelsey Lee Offield, Koni and Geoff Rich, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.
Vincent Valdez, El Chavez Ravine, 2005–7, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Ryland Cooder, © Vincent Valdez, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA