Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Mario Martinez grew up in the smallest of six Yaqui settlements spread throughout the Southwest. His is called the Penjamo settlement, located in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Yaqui tribe originally had their home in the northern Mexican state of Sonora and parts of southern Arizona. The Yaquis’ concept of metaphysics has long put them at odds with many neighboring tribes. They see the world as comprised of five separate spheres: the dream world, the night world, the desert world, the mystical world, and the flower world. Many of these elements, especially flowers, can be seen in Martinez’s work. The geography of the Yaqui tribe has made them pawns in the historical tension between the Mexican and United States governments. The Yaquis suffered horrible atrocities at the hands of the Mexican government after attempting to form a legal territory separate from Mexico in the 1820s. Four decades later, in 1868, one hundred fifty Yaquis were burned alive by Mexican government agents inside a church. The Mexican authoritieslater attempted to relocate these people to the Yucatan peninsula and sell them off as slaves. The Yaquis who escaped emigrated mainly to the Scottsdale area of Arizona.
Mario Martinez left the state in the 1990s and worked in San Francisco as well as New York City for a number of years. His roots, however, have always remained deep in the Scottsdale Yaqui way of life. In 1999, the artist started the Scottsdale Mural Project, which incorporated many photographs of Yaqui tribe members, cultural symbols, and large paintings. The theme of these works resembles Scottsdale Yaquis: Generations, and reflects a strong historical awareness.
The print employs four different photographs of Yaqui tribe members in separate colors layered upon a large, sepia-toned photograph of a tree. The photographs overlap, creating an interaction between the different color schemes and varied levels of transparency. The disappearing state of the Scottsdale Yaquis is symbolized in the dissolving images, going back to the natural state of the tree in the background. The tree also makes a genealogical allusion. It is a comment not only on the historical and cultural trauma of the Yaquis, but also the metaphysical beliefs of the tribe.
The style of the print, while characteristic of the screen-printing technique, is not as important as the thematic result. Martinez usually works in oil painting, although in the Scottsdale Mural Project he incorporated photographs printed in a manner similar to this example. Martinez’s most recent workvery rarely uses the printmaking technique and a representational style: he now produces large, abstract oil paintings inspired by Abstract Expressionists such as Lee Krasner and William de Kooning.
Bibliography: Reagan 1926: 101-102; Hu-Dehart 1974: 72-93; Castile 2002: 383-435; Martinez 2000.
Submitted by Katie Morrison 67
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In addition to his colorful abstract paintings, Mario Martinez has created pieces which commemorate the history of the Yaqui people in his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona. As in his non-figurative works, Martinez uses layers of visual materials -- in this case, photographs -- to create depth of meaning and a sense of history."