[A large caricature of a donkey with a humanlike body is sitting in a chair and wearing a dirty white tank top. A smaller figure wearing a dress and fur shawl with a skull for a head is seated on the donkey's lap while crying and looking away. On the right of the frame is a table littered with garbage and a human skull turned upside down that appears to be attached to a childlike body seated at the table. A small, distorted doglike figure lays at the feet of the crying person as though dead.]
Manuel Guerra
Por Querer a una Burra , 1997
Artwork Type: Prints
Medium: Polymer gravure print on paper
Dimensions: 7 x 4 ½ in. (17.78 x 11.43 cm)
Accession #: 19971234
Department: Alumni Collection
Credit: Collection of University Art Museum, University at Albany, State University of New York on behalf of The University at Albany Foundation, purchase of University at Albany, State University of New York
Related Exhibitions:
Persuasive Images: Selected Works from the Art Collections at the University at Albany
Affinities and Outliers: Highlights from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections
Copyright: © Manuel Guerra
Object Label:
Show Object Label(s)An alum of UAlbany’s Master of Fine Arts
program, Manuel Guerra (American)
uses humor to create narrative caricature
drawings. Inspired by his upbringing
in El Paso, Texas, Guerra’s works on
paper combine elements of memory,
Mesoamerican history, and mythology.
The titles of the two animalistic portraits
allude to his own family history and
rural life that Guerra did not experience
firsthand but vividly imagines. He has said
that artists “tend to take themselves too
seriously to consider combining humor
and fine art. To balance that, however,
we must remember that humor is a vital
part of life, communication and survival.”
–Affinities and Outliers: Highlights from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections
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