LA LUCHA LIBRE

(The Struggle For Freedom)

Julian Albert Touceda, ArteAmerica: La Lucha Libre 1998 at D.O.C.S. Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana 1998

Touceda poses questions that some might prefer he not ask. Then he proceeds to resolve them in the context of "La Lucha Libre," the fight for freedom and la lucha por la vida, the fight for life, without losing his soul. Touceda's paintings reminds us that Americans continue to suffer from past sins continually reenacted. He speaks with the voice of a revolutionary rabbi knocking over tables in the temple, not the apologist who tells us that the meek will inherit the earth. These problems are not resolved in his work. They are expressed in the energy of painting, a heightened consciousness of what has been done, and the necessity of struggle if the American people are to be free.
Did I say American people! Yes, because "America ne es un pais, es un continent," ("America is not a country, it is a continent,") Touceda reminds as he echos words also spoken by Lucy Lippard.

Three American Artists by Karl F. Volkmar The New Orleans Art Review 1998

"The Struggle for life," acrylic on canvas 54x66ins. ArteAmerica: La Lucha Libre 1998

"La Lucha Libre," 2000 at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 2000-2001

TOUCEDA's Lucha Libre is a Mardi Gras of mixed metaphors, a complex and brightly painted pastiche of banana-republic icons. Beneath the phrase "manifest destiny" in big block letters are toucans, palm trees and painted faces in mask and feathers as well as a skycam view of Latin America beset by huge hurricanes. It all is very busy, suggesting frenzy as much as struggle. It might be visual rhapsody on a theme of emancipation, but it also has the look of a Latino sideshow, as if Cortez were a crazy masked wrestler who, although victorious, had never stopped acting out, so the battle goes on and on in endlessly preposterous ways.

"La Lucha Libre" written by D. Eric Bookhardt: INSIDE ART Gambit Magazine 2000, New Orleans, Louisiana

"500 years in the Storm" and "After the Storm," acrylic/mix med. Each painting is 54x78in. 1999. From the series Arteamerica: La Lucha Libre and Manifest Destiny 1998-2001

"The Struggle of One," acrylic on canvas 60x62ins. ArteAmerica: La Lucha Libre 1998

Today, at the end of the millennium, the United States still doesn't have the type of critical discourse to understand and explain its own form of mestizaje. As in Latin America, we are immersed, in the United States, in cultural syncretism, and our survival skills to move laterally and vertically into the cultural other, are quite developed. Indeed, we have no other choice but to embrace the other. The Other, in fact, exists within us.

This identity of multiple otherness constitutes a very individual and yet also a collective "lucha libre" within ourselves. It is a double mirror, so to speak, that reflects a painful inner dynamic. According to Julian Touceda, curator of the exhibit "La Lucha Libre," it is the dynamic of "two Americas, two opponents" locked "in a personal vendetta, a titanic struggle to found the new America."

"Lucha Libre," Spanish for wrestling,is not just enterainment but a Pop movement and a diverse paraphernalia of political, social and cultural topics. Mexican Wrestlers like "El Santo" and "Blue Demon," surpass the facile status of simple media icons to become supernatural heroes and legends in their own right.

The visual explosions of yesterday (in colors, plumed dress, querras floridas, etc.) are usually interpreted here, with chromatic regularity, simply in terms of the Latin-Curo. Thankfully this is not the case with Julian Touceda's interesting and provocative exhibit. His inspiration and exquisite metaphor stand in contradiction to tired stereotypes, and speak as well to the clash and struggle of the artist as an artist. A challenge, eternal battles to defeat one's own fears and demons, one's alter ego. This is the ultimate fight.

Hugo Montero (writer)ARTicles 2000 Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Louisiana.

"Cultural Warrior," 60x62ins "Museum of the Dead," 66x61 ins. acrylic/mixed media, ArteAmerica:La Lucha Libre 1998

"Luchadorers," acrylic on paper. 32x40ins.(each art work) 1997. From the series Arteamerica: La Lucha Libre 1996-1998

"La Lucha Libre," 2000 at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, Louisiana 2000-2001

Touceda, who came to New Orleans in 1960, begins his paintings with stripes and grids of bright primary colors, as though they were the flags of imaginary revolution. Over those geometric designs, and titles such as "Manifest Destiny," "Pop Icon," "Arteamerica" in large block letters. Atop everything is an endless web of pseudo graffiti ("Marxism versus Catholicism," "Hate Hate Radio Icons," etc.) as if his paintings had been tagged by an army of activists.

The Trouble with any political art is that it easily leans toward the pedantic, and nobody likes the feeling they've being lecture to. But like an innocent man attacked by wicked warlocks, Touceda is saved by masked Mexican wrestlers. By including the images of "The Bird," "The Great Inca" and "Spider Man" in his compositions, he rescues most of these painting from the deadly seriousness that mars much of his work. By blurring the ridiculous, faux fracases of the masked wrestlers with the genuine historical struggles of the Latin American peoples, Touceda creates a Surreal satire that will linger longer in the minds than simple, sincere political advocacy would.

Doug MacCash, Art critic The New Orleans Times-Picayune Jan 2000

The Struggle 1&2, acrylic on paper ArteAmerica: La Lucha Libre 1998

"Mangos Birds," 21x26ins. acrylic on paper ArteAmerica: La Lucha Libre 1998

"The Forbidden Fruits" acrylic on mazonite 15x20ins (five art work) 1998, Series of paintings from Arteamerica: La Lucha Libre 1998 by Julian Albert Touceda

All Art works are Copyright by Julian Albert Touceda