Past Exhibition

Enrique Chagoya: Reverse Anthropology, From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation

November 3, 2018 – January 27, 2019

Study Gallery and Print Study Center

Some of the artwork in the exhibition contains mature themes; parental discretion is advised.

Enrique Chagoya (American, born Mexico, 1953) is an internationally recognized printmaker who teaches at Stanford University in California. Organized by director John Olbrantz, the exhibition features a range of Chagoya’s deceptively subversive prints that explore issues of immigration, colonialism, the economy, the government, the commodification of art, and the recurring subject of cultural clash that continues to riddle contemporary life.

Chagoya’s provocative works incorporate diverse symbolic elements from Pre-Columbian mythology, Western religious iconography, and American pop culture. He has frequently used his prints and codices to critique how history has been written by cultures that have colonized or obliterated others. Chagoya has termed this “reverse anthropology,” and he uses complex visual and textual narratives to reexamine traditional accounts about culture and inheritance.

Over the years, Chagoya has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Stanford University, the Nevada Museum of Art, and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, and his works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the San Jose Museum of Art, among others. The Jordan D. Schnitzer collection in Portland, Oregon, in particular, is especially rich in Chagoya’s work.

"I am pleased to continue the exhibition partnership with the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. Enrique Chagoya helps all of us understand our multicultural world better! He is a master of imagery satire and societal stereotypes that we all need to better understand," states Jordan Schnitzer.

Drawn from the extensive collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, the Chagoya exhibition has been organized as a companion exhibition to “Witness: Themes of Social Justice in Contemporary Printmaking and Photography from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation,” currently on view at the museum through December 20.