San Antonio Chicano/a art: An examination of its history, collection, and display

The field of Chicana/o art, which has enjoyed limited public visibility and limited academic study in the past, to date remains an artistic style relegated to the margins of mainstream art criticism and exhibition. Not only has its display been largely set within a framework of ethnicity, race, and class, instead of being integrated into the mainstream world of art and art history exhibition, theory, and criticism, but the literature on Chicano/a art, with a notable exception or two, has come solely from exhibition catalogues, such as Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, and more recently, Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement. Furthermore, in the past ten years, its collection has been championed by individuals building private collections, rather than institutional entities. With the purpose of discerning the reasons behind these phenomena, this thesis examines: a) the role that private collectors play in the collection and display of Chicano/a art, and b) the differences between community-based art display and institutional display of Chicano/a art in the San Antonio region.