Howl, Luis Alfonso Jimenez

Artwork Overview

Luis Alfonso Jimenez, Howl
Luis Alfonso Jimenez, Howl
Luis Alfonso Jimenez
Howl
1986
Luis Alfonso Jimenez, artist
1940–2006
Howl, 1986
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: acrylic urethane; fiberglass
Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 60 x 36 0.9843 x 36 0.9843 in
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 152.4 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm
Credit line: Museum purchase
Accession number: 1993.0282
On display: Kress Gallery
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Label texts

Exhibition Label: “Conversation I: Place,” Oct-2007, Emily Stamey “You have to remember that I grew up as a Mexican in Texas….Growing up on the border in El Paso, which some people have said is not really quite in the United States, the Mexican, or the Spanish thing was important, and so going to Mexico was an important kind of pilgrimage for me. “In fact, I thought I was going to stay there and live. When I got down to Mexico, I realized that I was an American. My whole way of thinking, my framework, etc., is American. I am an American of Mexican descent….It’s an important thing to realize….” - Luis Jimenez Luis Jimenez, interviewed by Peter Bermingham in Tucson, Arizona, December 15 and 17, 1985. Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Luis Jimenez applied the vivid symbolism and color imagery of pre- and post-Contact Mexico to an array of artistic media, most notably his lithographs and sculptures. His works evoke the essence of the historic and contemporary collision of cultures in the U.S.-Mexico border region and the tension between the humanized landscape and the wild. The sensuality of his characters, both human and animal, is almost overwhelming; they writhe with passion, you can smell and hear them, feel their strength, sense their weakness. One has the feeling that here was a man you would like to have walked or rode with for some distance to no place in particular; talking, but mainly listening, about his impressions of and concern for the passing scenes. - Bill Woods, Professor of Geography

Resources

Audio

Art Minute with David Cateforis
Didactic – Art Minute
Art Minute with David Cateforis
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 86. I’m David Cateforis with another art minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. In a glossy fiberglass sculpture, a seated wolf strains his head plaintively skyward. Artist Luis Jimenez based the work on his discovery of a wounded coyote with a broken back on a New Mexico road. Motivated by environmentalist concerns, Jimenez transformed the animal into the endangered Mexican wolf. He portrayed the wolf favoring his right paw, with a bony body, ruffled fur, blood shot eyes, and a blood red mouth, all expressing the animal’s suffering. Drawing on his Mexican American heritage, Jimenez employed heightened color, placing the wolf on a purple rock and using iridescent paint with metal flake highlights. Evoking the signature custom car of the Hispanic community, Jimenez once said, “I want to give my pieces the luster of a low-rider fender.” Through the shimmering fiberglass surface, you can imagine the headlight beams of Jimenez’s car as it approached the injured coyote in the road. After putting the dying creature out of its misery, Jimenez used the corpse as a model. He created this sculpture in 1986 and named it “Howl” - and you can almost hear it do just that. With thanks to Nancy Hernandez for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.
Ear for Art Audio Tour
Audio Tour – Ear for Art
Ear for Art Audio Tour
Audio Tour – Ear for Art
Is the animal hurt? Artist Luis Alfonso Jimenez created this sculpture, titled Howl, after encountering an injured coyote on a New Mexican road. Jimenez transformed the coyote into the endangered Mexican wolf, but retained an acute sense of suffering.
Bulldog Art Tour 2012: Kelvin Suddith
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2012: Kelvin Suddith
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2013: Meredith Shaheed
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2013: Meredith Shaheed
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2014: David Gates
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2014: David Gates
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2015: Caleb
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2015: Caleb
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2015: Evan Ordiway
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2015: Evan Ordiway
Audio Tour – Bulldog Podcast
Bulldog Art Tour 2017: Dingding Ye
Audio Tour – Bulldog Art Tour
Bulldog Art Tour 2017: Dingding Ye
Audio Tour – Bulldog Art Tour
Listen to core object information.
Audio Description
Listen to core object information.
Audio Description
The artist is Luis Alfonso Jiménez, born 1940 in El Paso, Texas, died 2006, in Hondo, New Mexico. The title of the work is Howl, created in 1986. This work is made with fiberglass and acrylic urethane.
Listen to Audio Description
Audio Description
Listen to Audio Description
Audio Description
Howl is a five-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture of a wolf with its head tilted back to howl at the sky. The sculpture stands on a low, four-inch high semi-circular pedestal against the wall. The wolf in the sculpture is seated on a rock and is airbrushed in shades of foggy purple and glazed in a sparkling metallic silver. The wolf is painted grey and reddish-brown, with navy and sky-blue on its back, shoulders, and face, as if catching the moonlight. The body of the wolf is covered in a sparkling red metallic flake paint, reminiscent of vintage car bodies. Its eyes are bright red and its teeth show from a slightly open mouth. The wolf lifts its right front paw slightly, and its tail trails down the back of the rock. The wolf’s ribs, spine, and hip bones protrude, making it look emaciated.
Listen to Label Text
Audio Description
Listen to Label Text
Audio Description
Howl was inspired by an injured coyote that the artist found by the roadside, although its physical form is more similar to the endangered Mexican wolf. Through his use of vibrant automotive paint that might be found on a lowrider and his reference to a threatened indigenous species, Jimenez celebrates and memorialized the wolf, or lobo, as a symbol of Mexican and Mexican-American culture and identity.
Listen to App Text
Audio Description
Listen to App Text
Audio Description
Remember to walk all around the sculpture to see every side of it. What do you see that is realistic about this creature? What about this creature is not realistic? This creature is partly inspired by the Mexican wolf, an animal that used to live on the border of Mexico and the United States. The Mexican wolf migrated between the two countries to find food. About the art This sculpture is made from fiberglass, the same kind of material that is used to make the bodies of cars, boats, surfboards, and many other things. About the animal The Mexican wolf is the most endangered land mammal in North America. Only about 80 Mexican wolves remain in the wild.
Listen to App Text
Audio Description
Listen to App Text
Audio Description
This tour begins in the exhibition, The Object Speaks, which examines the ways in which objects can carry and convey meaning through time. What kinds of meaning does this sculpture convey to you? Driving from Roswell to Santa Fe one night, Luis Alfonso Jiménez came across an injured coyote in the road howling in pain. After putting the creature out of its misery, he took the coyote’s body home and studied it. Jiménez created a lithograph print based on the coyote. Tap on the Related icon to view this print. The image of the injured animal remained a source of inspiration, evolving into this fiberglass representation of the nearly extinct Mexican wolf. The creature’s red eyes are a reference to the animal forms Jiménez’s father made in his neon sign shop and the metallic-flaked fiberglass references Chicano lowrider car culture in the American Southwest. How can artists use cultural traditions or experiences to inspire or express meaning in their work?
Hear a SWMS student's perspective.
Audio Tour – Bulldog Art Tour
Hear a SWMS student's perspective.
Audio Tour – Bulldog Art Tour
Hear a SWMS student's perspective.
Audio Tour – Bulldog Art Tour
Hear a SWMS student's perspective.
Audio Tour – Bulldog Art Tour

Links

Read Luis Jiménez’s biography from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
See a photo of a Mexican wolf similar to this one
View a print by Jimenez in our collection that also depicts a howling wolf.