TEXAS CHICANO PRISON DRAWING 003

Private collection
TEXAS CHICANO PRISON DRAWING 003
Private collection

Collection

  • American Gang Culture
  • American Prison System
  • Prison Art

Origin

Undisclosed Texas State Prison

Year

1990s

Medium

Ink on paper

Association

Hispanic inmate within the Texas prison system.

Description

Hand-drawn prison artwork executed in ink on a Crescent illustration board centered on a portrait of Emiliano Zapata, with the inscriptions "Estilo Latino" across the top and "Zapata" below. The portrait is framed by crossed revolvers and surrounded by smaller motifs including a skull, a hooded skeletal figure, a masked bandana-clad man, a woman, theatrical masks, a man behind prison bars, and an hourglass. The piece blends Revolutionary imagery with Chicano prison art aesthetics while presenting Zapata as the dominant visual figure.

Notes

An inscription on the reverse states that the artwork was completed in 23 hours, providing a rare record of the time invested in producing the piece.

TEXAS CHICANO PRISON DRAWING 003

1/2

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CALIFORNIA CHICANO PRISON PAÑO 005 Private collection / American Gang Culture

550BC is an independent publishing house based in Amsterdam, founded in 2018. Specializing in the complex realities of organized crime and conflict, we explore these subjects through the lens of visual anthropology. Our photo books provide rare, first-person perspectives from within otherwise inaccessible worlds, often created in direct collaboration with those involved. 550BC is also home to a private collection of over 2,000 unique physical items, preserved artifacts from the worlds we document. A selection is presented in our online archive.

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