Artwork
El Alameda
Artist
Jesse Treviño
(American, born Mexico, 1946 - 2023)
DepartmentContemporary Art
CultureAmerican
Date1980
MediumAcrylic on canvas
Dimensions84 × 54 in. (213.4 × 137.2 cm)
Credit LineSan Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Ernest and Aimée Bromley
Object number2024.15
Copyright© Estate of Jesse Treviño
DescriptionHyperrealistic painting of the façade and marquee of the historic Alameda Theater in San Antonio, TX.Label TextPictured in bright daylight with great precision and detail, Jesse Treviño’s painting of the historic Alameda Theater is a portrait of an iconic building and its history. Located in downtown San Antonio on Houston Street, the Alameda was completed in 1949 as a Spanish-language movie theater and performance space that promoted Mexican American culture and was the city’s first desegregated venue. Here, however, the building’s vibrant past is replaced by vacant windows and missing marquee panels that signal its impending closure. Treviño recalled, “The year I painted it, it seemed like no one cared about it. That’s why I painted it.” His work monumentalizes an important site in an act of cultural preservation.
Treviño is a renowned San Antonio artist whose paintings and large-scale public artworks have left an indelible legacy in this city and beyond. He gained prominence in the 1970s with photorealist depictions of people and places in the Latino community.
(Lana Meador, 2025)ProvenanceJesse Treviño (1946-2023), until 1981; sold to Sosa and Associates, 1981; transferred to Ernest Bromley, 2015; by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2024.Exhibition HistoryMuseo Alameda, Jesse Treviño: Mi Vida, 2009-10 (lent by Ernest Bromley).San Antonio Museum of Art, A West Side Story: Works by Jesse Treviño, 1995 (lent by Sosa & Associates (Sosa, Bromley, Aguilar, and Associates).
San Antonio Museum Association, Real, Really Real, & Super Real: Directions in Contemporary American Realism, 1981 (lent by the artist).Published ReferencesReal, Really Real, Super Real: Directions in Contemporary American Realism. exh. cat. San Antonio, TX: San Antonio Museum Association, 1981, p.5, plate 43.
Head, Anthony, and Henry Cisneros. Spirit: The life and art of Jesse Trevino. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2019.SignedLR
On view
Collections
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.
