Eric A. Eliason. Black Velvet Art. — Jackson, Mississippi, 2011

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book seeks to present samples of the many themes that have delighted black velvet aficionados over the years. A book like this is only possible after much scouring of out-of-the-way places and much help from many others who love velvet. As the result of several years of urban archeology, we have amassed one of the largest collections of black velvet paintings in North America. We have done so with the generous cooperation of a network of artists, collectors, importers, and gallery owners in Tijuana, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Calgary. With their help, we have assembled a digital photo archive of over a thousand black velvet paintings from which we have selected representative works for reproduction in this book.

 

The contemporary world of black velvet is well stocked with colorful characters Edgar Leeteg, the modern tradition’s founder, would have been proud to call friends. A few examples include: a Tijuana painter who wears a gold-plated, diamond-studded AK-47 pendant yet paints softly loving portraits of his wife; a Los Angeles importer who made a mockumentary about selling black velvet paintings of Ronald Reagan and Pat Buchanan to eager attendees at the 1996 Republican National Convention and who proudly shows off his shotgun-mangled arm from a Venice Beach carjacking gone bad; a cautious Portland, Oregon, couple whose lives center on the careful positioning of their home-style velvet art museum as the main institution of importance for any potential velvet resurgence; and a gregarious Calgary cowboy and heritage park director who endured swirling visions of velvet Elvii while reeling in the psychedelic throes of presurgery pain medication and who then collected hundreds of velvets to tweak his friends’ sensibilities. More detailed portraits of these and other velvet people appear in this book.

 

Special thanks is due collectors Rick Smith and Danny Eskanazi; importer Bill Robison; gallery owners Miguel Moises Mariscal, Manuel Ortiz Salas, Gallery Esteban Y Karina, Francisco Javier Mina, and Ruben of Ruben’s Place; painters Enrique Felix, Jesus “Chuy” Gutierrez, “Aurelio,” “Argo,” and “Romero”; and curator of Brigham Young University-Hawaii’s velvet collection Mata’uma Alisa and his assistant Ian Nitta. The above-mentioned Portland couple was an unexpected inspiration along the way even though they declined to participate in this project. Many people, some of whom we have surely forgotten to mention, graciously endured endless questions and intrusions on their time and workspace to make this book possible.

 

Some paintings are treasures that display great skill, and many Chicano artists working today in the fine art tradition, such as Carlos Fresquez, Anthony Ortega, Francisco Zamora, and Carlos Santistevan, got their start in velvet.¹ On the other hand, some works really are spectacular stinkers. We hope to share a selection of both in this book and leave it (mostly) to you to decide which is which.

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¹ Jennifer Heath, Black Velvet: The Art We Love to Hate (San Francisco: Pomegranate Books, 1994), 7.

 

 

Eric Eliason and Scott Squire

Springville, Utah, and Seattle, Washington, 2010

 

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Preface and Acknowledgments vii

 

The History and Significance of Black Velvet Painting ix

 

Black Velvet People

Romero, Felix, and Chuy, the Artists xxxii

William Travis Robison, Impresario of Velvet xxxviii

Rick Smith, the Collector xli

 

Black Velvet Paintings

Matadors and Mexicana 3

Landscapes 17

Personalities and Portraits 31

Elvii 46

Niños y Niñas 57

Creatures 67

Religious 81

Ladies 87

Horrors 99

Notes 107

Index 111

 

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