Gilbert “Magu” Luján

One of the most iconic figures of the Chicano art movement and a founding member of the artists collective "Los Four," Gilbert “Magu” Luján is known for his coloration and visual explorations of Chicano culture and community. His work animated historic and contemporary visual sources with startling results: a menagerie of animated anthropomorphic creatures populated a world he called Magulandia, where puckish rabbits drove low-rider cars painted with brilliant flames and flowers as they cruised to car rallies. Portraits featured people with hats in the shape of pyramids or empanadas, Western boots with faces, and women speaking in pictographic symbols like the glyphs of their Aztec ancestors.

Luján was part of a small group of dedicated artists and intellectuals who set about defining a Chicano identity and culture as part of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. As a member of Los Four along with Carlos Almaraz, Beto De La Rocha, Frank Romero, and later, Judithe Hernandez, Lujan brought Chicano art into mainstream recognition. The group had a groundbreaking exhibition at University of California Irvine and LACMA in 1973-74. UCI also mounted Luján’s major retrospective in 2017.