By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Hundreds of fans and art appreciators showed up at the L.A. County Museum of Art Sunday for a lecture and book signing by famous comic Cheech Marin. Cheech? That's a name we associate more with lowbrow humor than fine art. Yet Cheech Marin, half of the '70s comedy duo Cheech and Chong, collects art and is one of the nation's leading advocates for Chicano art.
For the past five years, the actor has taken his personal art collection on the road.
"I love Chicano art and these guys are great painters!" enthused Marin to the packed auditorium. "Some years ago my collector mania kicked in. I knew back then that in order to collect art I had to keep working. After all I'm not a billionaire philanthropist," he laughed.
Marin says that you can't love or hate Chicano art if you've never seen it. For the longest time it wasn't really recognized in the art world. Marin said that his collection was recently on exhibit at the famous Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., where thousands of visitors showed up.
"The Chicano school of art is just fantastic," he raves. "I remember being in New York back in the 70's art scene in Tribeca and there were all these talented Mexican artists. Someone told me, "No those are all Puerto Ricans," and I said "NO....man these are Mexican artists and someone should take notice."
Hundreds of fans and art appreciators showed up at the L.A. County Museum of Art Sunday for a lecture and book signing by famous comic Cheech Marin. Cheech? That's a name we associate more with lowbrow humor than fine art. Yet Cheech Marin, half of the '70s comedy duo Cheech and Chong, collects art and is one of the nation's leading advocates for Chicano art.
For the past five years, the actor has taken his personal art collection on the road.
"I love Chicano art and these guys are great painters!" enthused Marin to the packed auditorium. "Some years ago my collector mania kicked in. I knew back then that in order to collect art I had to keep working. After all I'm not a billionaire philanthropist," he laughed.
Marin says that you can't love or hate Chicano art if you've never seen it. For the longest time it wasn't really recognized in the art world. Marin said that his collection was recently on exhibit at the famous Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., where thousands of visitors showed up.
"The Chicano school of art is just fantastic," he raves. "I remember being in New York back in the 70's art scene in Tribeca and there were all these talented Mexican artists. Someone told me, "No those are all Puerto Ricans," and I said "NO....man these are Mexican artists and someone should take notice."
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