Henry Chalfant: An American Artist with a Taste of Latin Culture
I am fortunate to live by a museum that features artists who are American, Latino, and African American etc. This museum that I speak of is called The Bronx Museum of the Arts, which is a contemporary art museum that strives to connect diverse audiences to the urban experience through its collections, special exhibitions and education programs. When I first heard of the museum years ago, I was so excited that my community finally had a landmark and somewhere that we can go to learn about art and culture. Honestly I never really paid attention to art as much back then, but now I feel like art is so important in which it creates a story, it has a different meaning to everyone. I enjoy learning the meaning behind someone’s art. Walking into The Bronx Museum during my visit this time around, I spotted a young man sitting close to the entrance. I walked over to him because I immediately wanted answers. I wanted to know if I would find what I was looking for here: A Latin artist or an exhibition dedicated to Latin culture. I walked over to the young man and said “Hello do you know if there is a section here dedicated to Latin Culture? I am working on an assignment for class.” He answered “No, nothing like that here at the moment, that is hard to find anywhere but I still think you should check the exhibition we have here, it’s pretty cool.” I took his word for it and I proceeded on to see if I could find anything related to Latin Culture. I thought to myself “Even if I could just find an artist who incorporated Latin aspects or the culture into their work that’s fine with me as long as I find something along those lines.” It was then that I came across Henry Chalfant. Henry Chalfant is an American graffiti artist who focuses on subway art (graffiti on trains), hip-hop culture and aspects of urban youth culture. Once I saw his name written in big letters I quickly looked him up on my phone. “Is he a Latino artist?” I thought. I typed his name on google and sure enough I found out that he was not Latino he was white. “I’m doomed, how is he tied to the Latin community?” I thought. Instead of leaving like I would normally do when I don’t find what I am looking for I stayed. Since I stayed I was able to physically see that despite the fact that Henry Chalfant is an American artist, he did incorporate Latin people and aspects into his work. As I strolled into his exhibition I saw that there was an article in Spanish titled “El profesor Henry Chalfant reivindica el arte de los grafitos ante quienes lo tachan de vandalismo, about his graffiti art. I also learned that Henry has an exhibition at The Centro de Arte Tomas y Valiente which is located in Madrid, Spain. I feel like this shows how significant or how much of an impact he had on the Latin community. While I also did my own research on him, I found out that he has a documentary on the South Bronx called “From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale.” I learned that this documentary focuses on two generations that was based on the same blocks in the Bronx, it featured the older generation in the 1950s which was the rhythm of Cuba and the children of the 1970s which was the rhythm of rap. His documentary was featured in the Latino Public Broadcasting Series, Voces from 2006–2007 and won an Alma Award for best documentary. Just by learning these things about Henry Chalfant I began see how much of an influence he had on the Latin Community and how he was able to incorporate Latin aspects and elements into his work.
While learning about Henry Chalfant at the museum I was introduced to the Puerto Rican artist Lee Quinones. Henry’s exhibition, Henry Chalfant: Art vs. Transit, 1977–1987, features the work of Lee Quinones. As I looked at his art I realized how he was also into subway art. I quickly learned how Henry and Lee were tied together in which they both liked subway and graffiti art. I learned that they were both fascinated with graffiti on the trains except Lee did the art by spray painting graffiti on the trains and Henry was more behinds the scenes in which he took the photographs. I noticed that most of Lee’s graffiti was done in the Lower East Side because he was raised in the Lower East Side. Immediately after seeing that his pieces were done in the Lower East Side I thought of the poem Lower East Side that we read in class. I also thought about the Nuyorican Café which is located in the Lower East Side. As I saw Lee’s graffiti I was able to tie that into the aspects that we learned in class because the Lower East Side was a place where many Latinos lived. Looking at the other pictures throughout the exhibition I also couldn’t help but notice that were Latinos in the photographs. I enjoyed seeing the diversity in Henry Chalfant’s work and I love that he featured a Latin subway artist in his exhibition.
Overall I feel like Lee Quinones work made the exhibition have more of a Latin feel to it. I see how much of a Latin influence he has because of his work being featured in a museum in Spain and his documentary which features Cuban culture. “Remember how I mentioned how I felt once the young man told me there wasn’t an exhibition dedicated to Latin Culture? I thought I was doomed and there would be no hope during my visit at the museum.” I already went into the museum with the mentality that I would find absolutely nothing. Luckily I was able to find an artist who wasn’t Latino but incorporated Latin culture, aspects and featured Latin artists into his work which is why I am glad that I came across Henry Chalfant. So many pictures of the once colorful subway cars back in the 1970s and 80s is what I witnessed. The diversity, pictures of African Americans and Latinos were spread across the wall of his Hip Hop Culture exhibition. The base of the Hip Hop music coming from a small radio at the corner of the wall below his photographs is all I can hear. Hearing the Hip Hop music, instantly made me think of the influence it has on Reggaeton. I know that Reggaeton originated in Puerto Rico and it is influenced by Hip Hop, Latin American and Carribean music. I know that this is why we hear a lot of rapping in reggaeton music. Listening to the beat playing in the background as I looked at Lee and Henry’s photographs, I was able to make that correlation of Latin music to Hip Hop music based on Henry Chalfant’s Hip Hop culture section at the museum.
As I walked through The Bronx Museum I was able to have an open mind when looking at the exhibitions and the art. I guess you can say my visit wasn’t such a fail it was pretty successful. I was able to see how so many things tie together and how they were related to each other. Culture and art are like brothers and sisters, they are tied together. Henry Chalfant and Lee Quinones are perfect examples of this. There is an influence. Most might say who is Henry Chalfant? I say he’s an American artist who’s art and work had a little bit of Latin spice.
