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Drawing attention

Collector Cheech Marin shares personal treasures on paper

Cheech Marin

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons trickles into the ear as we wait to speak with a busy Cheech Marin. He’s on his way to work on A Perfect Game, the true story about a Monterrey, Mexico Little League team that won the 1957 championship (he plays the team’s organizer, a priest).

But he is not just busy making movies. Marin’s newest art show, Papel Chicano: Works on Paper from the Collection of Cheech Marin, will be seen at Mesa Contemporary Arts, Mesa Arts Center, beginning Sept. 14. The 40-piece show will tour venues that may not have hosted Marin’s previous blockbuster, Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge.

Marin says he’s a bit of a “reactionary” when it comes to buying art.

 

“It’s the overall impression,” he says of what attracts him to a piece. “It’s a piece that kind of sends a message to me. It has to be emotional. It’s comprised of technique, subject and color all at once, but it is emotional.”

The show’s pieces also will be seen in a new book of the same title. On the cover, the oversized Vincent Valdez work, The Death of Wino appears. An elderly man in work clothes is shown, cigarette in hand, mourning the death of his dog.

“This is the first time I’ve ever shown the Valdez piece,” Marin explains. “It’s a very large piece. I always wanted to look for the right space to show that. It’s astounding work. It’s really a study of loneliness, nostalgia and loss, worked up in red. To work in that pastel on that photorealistic scale is an amazing accomplishment.”

POINTS IN A PROCESS

None of the pieces have shown here before, and MCA officials are hoping for a big turnout. Viewers will see pastels, watercolors, oil on paper, and ink drawings, some of which are first steps on the way to larger works. Marin says he wanted audiences to know some of the works were part of a process.

“There are drawings by Wayne Alaniz Healy that are studies for a larger painting called Pregame Warm-up. When I commissioned the work Pregame Warm-up I also commissioned the drawings, because I wanted to show that process, to show the studies, so that we can exactly see that process.”

He has a keen eye for vibrant, dynamic works. With Papel Chicano, his intention was to reveal the paths artists take, starting with a drawing on paper.

“I wrote in the foreword of the book that drawing is the preliminary exercise for any artist. They all start drawing. That urge to draw never leaves them. I kind of wanted to show that process first.”

Marin candidly points out that he is no doodler, although his extensive knowledge of Chicano art certainly makes him an expert.

“I have just no talent in that direction whatsoever,” he says, laughing. “A man has to know his limitations. My daughter is an excellent artist and she’s a very good draftsman. But I never knew it was something you could learn to do until much later. I always thought you were born with that talent, like you were tall or fat or smart or could sing.”

Marin’s art collection has earned a reputation for being not only fine, but huge, so it wasn’t difficult for him to pull together a smaller show from his holdings.

“I have a wide range of things I collect as far as size, styles and mediums. I wanted to bring this show to smaller venues that wouldn’t necessarily get the big paintings. It involves a lot more expense to bring those paintings,” he says. “I still wanted other venues, especially creatively oriented (venues), to get the Chicano experience. That’s the mai n goal, the spread of the Chicano experience everywhere…”

The late director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Lost Weekend), also was an avid art collector who amassed such a huge collection, he had to cull through it and decide if there was anything he could do without. Will Marin someday face a similar situation?

“You know, if I do want to part with it, I’ll probably donate them to a museum,” he says, adding quickly: “I’m still in the process of gathering right now.”