Victor Cartagena Sugar Face Analysis

The one piece of art that pique my interest was the “Sugar Face”, by Victor Cartagena during the exploration of the San Jose Museum of Art. Born in 1966, at El Salvador, Cartagena is an established acclaimed multimedia artist acknowledged for his campaign having an interest on the migrant workers and the injustice of the renowned corporations having their success built from the strenuous act of reaping sugars. Born as a Salvadoran, Cartagena’s work were showcased in the Bay Area since the late 80s. Not to mention, faced adversities with the crisis in El Salvador and the stress of transitioning from El Salvador to the U.S. Furthermore, Cartagena was a member of the Tamoanchȧn, a cohesive group of Latin American printmakers. Due to his upbringing, Cartagena shifted his effort solely illustrating the struggle of immigrants. The context of the sculpture “Sugar Face”, depicts a three dimensional face of an actual worker Maurillo Maravilla, a Mexican immigrant who worked alongside with Cesar Chavez. This sculpture is conceived of sugar as a sign of tribute to those who put their sweat and tears for the major companies. Moreover, the features …show more content…
However, the one that intrigued me the most was the “Sugar Face”. The reason why I was profound of this sculpture was due to my curiosity of trying to seek the significance of its lesson. In addition, how the sculpture was exhibited during the trip of the museum with the unpleasant expression of agony while the sculpture slowly decompose right before my very own eye. In my opinion, I view the sculpture aesthetically pleasing due to the amount of endeavor Cartagena had to put into his art in order to express every inch of detail on the face with the cross hatching on the model and the facial expression especially stimulating a sense of sympathy from the audience towards the immigrant