In Loving Memory of Momma Kitty
Artist:
David Zamora Casas
(American, born 1960)
Place made:United States
Date: 1989
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions:
80 x 83 in. (203.2 x 210.8 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Lenora and Walter F. Brown
Object number: 96.20
Label Text
San Antonio artist David Zamora Casas was inspired to make this painting when he was asked to be a pallbearer at the funeral of Jan Barrientes, the mother of his friend Lynda Ane Barrientes. A celebration of life, this work also explores collective queer identity: Jan, Lynda (and Lynda’s twin sister), and the artist are all gay. In a setting that blends the artist’s bedroom with a fantastical puppet show and a Mexican retablo, you see self-portraits of the artist as a puppeteer and in bed (identifiable by his signature red lip and goatee), along with other characters including a celestial mariachi, a screeching gargoyle, snakes, angels, and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Lynda floats above the scene in sunglasses, holding a kitten (as in her mother’s nickname, Momma Kitty). The surrealism, bright palette, and cast of icons are typical of Casas, who fuses elements like religious iconography, LGBTQ activism, and rasquachismo (an aesthetic of inventively using what is at hand) into his highly personal and often political art practice.
(Yinshi Lerman-Tan, 2020)
"Paintings and installations give me a Voice. Spirituality,
nature, the past and present lend themselves to my imagination,
resulting in my version of reality in a fusion which includes
folklore, devotional meditation, collective and personal
experiences. My art is a way to reflect on memories, myths,
and on contemporary issues such as AIDS, sexism,
homophobia, and my heritage. I want to find my place in
relationship to these realities."
David Zamora Casas
An American who is Chicano and openly gay, Casas devotes his creative endeavors to exploring issues surrounding his multiple identities. Working primarily in painting and performance art, he employs a narrative format steeped in the traditions of theater, and draws inspiration from cultural and family histories as well as everyday experiences.
Inspired in part by the love poems of Pablo Neruda, this painting was conceived as a memorial to Jan Barrientes, mother of the artist's close friend Lynda Ane Barrientes. Casas felt very at home in the company of the Barrientes family because Lynda, her twin sister Paulina, and their late mother were all lesbians, hence they all shared the communal identity known as 'queer' (a common term for people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender). The composition combines elements of a colonial Mexican retablo and a puppet theater, with the setting based on the artist's bedroom. For the narrative, Casas developed a complex iconographic scheme that pays homage to motherhood, the lesbian lifestyle, and women in general, while also musing on life and death. At the upper left and right corners respectively are an angel and gargoyle, representing the dualities of good/evil and light/darkness. At top center, the artist's friend Lynda Ane appears as a divine figure holding a kitten, a reference to her mother's nickname, 'Momma Kitty'. Below her are two puppeteers, shown as a self-portrait of the artist at the left and a Mariachi at the right. Other iconographic features include a dragon and monkey (symbols for sexuality), a Mexican charro (referring to the supreme Aztec earth goddess), and the Virgin of Guadalupe, an enduring devotional icon in Chicano culture.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
(Yinshi Lerman-Tan, 2020)
"Paintings and installations give me a Voice. Spirituality,
nature, the past and present lend themselves to my imagination,
resulting in my version of reality in a fusion which includes
folklore, devotional meditation, collective and personal
experiences. My art is a way to reflect on memories, myths,
and on contemporary issues such as AIDS, sexism,
homophobia, and my heritage. I want to find my place in
relationship to these realities."
David Zamora Casas
An American who is Chicano and openly gay, Casas devotes his creative endeavors to exploring issues surrounding his multiple identities. Working primarily in painting and performance art, he employs a narrative format steeped in the traditions of theater, and draws inspiration from cultural and family histories as well as everyday experiences.
Inspired in part by the love poems of Pablo Neruda, this painting was conceived as a memorial to Jan Barrientes, mother of the artist's close friend Lynda Ane Barrientes. Casas felt very at home in the company of the Barrientes family because Lynda, her twin sister Paulina, and their late mother were all lesbians, hence they all shared the communal identity known as 'queer' (a common term for people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender). The composition combines elements of a colonial Mexican retablo and a puppet theater, with the setting based on the artist's bedroom. For the narrative, Casas developed a complex iconographic scheme that pays homage to motherhood, the lesbian lifestyle, and women in general, while also musing on life and death. At the upper left and right corners respectively are an angel and gargoyle, representing the dualities of good/evil and light/darkness. At top center, the artist's friend Lynda Ane appears as a divine figure holding a kitten, a reference to her mother's nickname, 'Momma Kitty'. Below her are two puppeteers, shown as a self-portrait of the artist at the left and a Mariachi at the right. Other iconographic features include a dragon and monkey (symbols for sexuality), a Mexican charro (referring to the supreme Aztec earth goddess), and the Virgin of Guadalupe, an enduring devotional icon in Chicano culture.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
