University at Albany Fine Art Collections : UAlbany Artwork : Por Querer a una Burra [19971234]

[ Artwork description: 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

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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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