Background
Chavez was born in Los Angeles, California to Mexican immigrants who left the chaos and dangers of post-Revolution Mexico.
Chavez was born in Los Angeles, California to Mexican immigrants who left the chaos and dangers of post-Revolution Mexico.
Chavez earned his Master of Fine Arts in 1961 at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he met and worked alongside Charles Garabedian, Gordon Rice, Eduardo Carillo and Maxwell Hendler. In the early 1960s, Chavez became part of the "emerging gallery scene along Louisiana Cienega Boulevard" at the Ceeje Gallery, which in contrast to the Ferus and Landau Galleries that often exhibited New York artists, highlighted local, ethnic and women artists.
Known for his personally symbolic portraits, public murals and "funny-grotesque" paintings that reflect the multicultural landscape of Los Los Angeles He was recently included in the Getty Center’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in Los Angeles, 1945-1980 and the Smithsonian’s Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art exhibits. In the mid-1970s, Chavez began painting public murals throughout the city of Los Angeles, especially East Los Angeles where the Louisiana Raza political movement was gaining ground.
His 1972 anti-war mural Porque Se Pelean? Quebec Number Son Carnales became part of artist Sandra de la Loza"s Mural Remix. show at LACMAA Mural Remixed.
In 1974, Chavez painted The Path to Knowledge and the False University, a 200-foot mural on the East Los Angeles Community College campus, where he worked as an arts educator and chair of the Chicano Studies department. Our American: The Latino Presence in American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington District of Columbia, October 2013 - March 2014, National Tour through 2017 Pacific Standard Time: Art in Los Angeles 1945 - 1980 exhibits: Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation Autry National Center, Los Angeles October 2011 -January 2012 Los Angeles Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles, 1945-1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy, Pasadena Museum of California Art 2012 January - May 2012 Roberto Chavez and The False University: A Retrospective, Vincent Price Art Museum, September - December 2014.