JUNE 23, 2006

Luis Jiménez Remembered

Adair Margo Gallery – along with friends, public officials and the art community – have gathered to remember Luis Jiménez, prominent sculptor and painter.

An altar in memory of Jiménez, who passed away June 13 in a tragic accident involving one of his sculptures at his studio in Hondo, New Mexico, is on display at the Adair Margo Gallery, a representative of Jiménez. The public is welcome to visit and remember one of the nation's most treasured artists.

"Luis Jiménez is the first artist whose work I bought," Adair Margo said." I'll never forget going to his Dad's neon sign shop and meeting him, seeing how he worked with those big fiberglass molds. He shared two lithographs, the Vaquero and Southwest Pieta, and I left with them that same day."

As the nation mourned and recognized his life and work, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson issued an executive order for flags across the state to be flown at half staff in honor of Jiménez. Many admired him.

"He was chaotic and he was precise," Bruce Berman, a close friend of Jiménez, said. "A really fine combination."

A citywide celebration of the life of Luis Jiménez with a memorial retrospective is being planned for November 2, 2006, the traditional Mexican Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday. The Adair Margo Gallery, El Paso Museum of Art, Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center at UTEP and City of El Paso will participate.

From Adair:

(RIGHT: Gapar Enriquez, Jesus Morolés, Adair Margo, Luis Jiménez and Frank Ribelin, September 15, 2005.)

Luis Jiménez is the first artist whose work I bought. I'll never forget going to his Dad's neon sign shop and meeting him, seeing how he worked with those big fiberglass molds. He shared two lithographs, the Vaquero and Southwest Pieta, with me and I left with them that same day. He corrected me about my handling of them, since it was windy that day and I didn't have a portfolio to put them in. That's the first time I learned about damaging prints with "c-creases." Luis really taught me how to handle art professionally.

His sculpture, End of the Trail with Electric Sunset is the first big sculpture we sold. The Bridge Center for Contemporary Art had invited Fred Weisman, a well known California collector, to exhibit his collection in El Paso and I invited him for lunch. He fell in love with Luis' sculpture, purchased it and gave it to the library at the University of Texas at El Paso. When I sold that sculpture, I knew I could be a real art dealer! 

(RIGHT: Luis Jiménez with Los Angeles Collector Frederick Weisman and Billie Weisman at the University of Texas at El Paso 1988.)

When my sons Wake and Don were young, they loved driving to Hondo to visit Luis and his family in the Old Hondo School House. There were so many animals, including goats, a raven, Blackjack, his appaloosa horse, and birds. Our allergies would kick up and my son Wake was butted by the goat, but we returned to El Paso with distinctive and happy memories. We especially remembered his art and how he worked on the clay before casting the molds. A big Red Rooster sign was always in front of the house, an old sign his Dad had made for a bowling alley in El Paso.

Luis told me how some of his earliest memories were of being in his Dad's sign shop, of being up in the bronco's head, the one that topped the old Bronco Drive-In theater. He also shared how he burned his hands one time on the lime that was used to make the white polar bear that still stands on Wyoming Street here. I grew up on those signs, like so many other El Pasoans, and when I pass the ones that are still standing I think of Luis and his Dad.

Luis Jiménez grew up going to the plaza in downtown El Paso and seeing the live alligators there. Many of us did until they removed them finally and took them to the El Paso Zoo. So when El Paso applied for a National Endowment on the Arts grant for public sculpture, with Luis Jiménez as the chosen artist, the proposed sculpture was for fiberglass alligators: Plaza de los Lagartos. The First Lady of Texas, Laura Bush, came for the dedication of those alligators and became a friend to Luis. She purchased his lithograph "Texas Waltz" to give to her husband and it hung upstairs at the Governor's Mansion. One time she and I took our mothers and traveled to Hondo to visit Luis and spend the night at a bed and breakfast in Lincoln, New Mexico. Writer Lee Byrd from El Paso also went with her daughter Susie, and Pam Nelson, an artist from Dallas came along as well as Andi Ball. We had a fantastic time visiting the Jiménez family with Luis, Susie, Adan, Orion and Xochitl. Susie made chile colorado and we saw the clay for the big mustang head that he was working on for the Denver airport. We had our picture taken in front of it.

Laura Bush also attended Luis' opening at the Dallas Museum of Art and, when her husband was elected President of the United States and they hosted the first State Dinner with the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, and his wife Martha Sagahun de Fox, Luis and Susie Jiménez were among the invited guests. Luis, his wife and the first ladies flew to Chicago to see the Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibition of Latino Art at the Terra Museum. On the plane, Luis sketched portraits of Laura and Martha.

My friend Bruce Berman wrote this to me after Luis' death:
We had a lot of years. Buddies. Rare and long lasting. I'm not sad. I had it good. He gave me a lot and I think I sent something halfway good back. He did a lot...really really a lot...a jillion times more than me, more than most. He was chaotic and he was precise. A really fine combination. He lived it fully. Miss him for sure. But it ended the right way if there is a right way. Doin' his stuff. In my opinion.

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