Alligator

Luis Alfonso Jimenez, artist

1940–2006

Alligator, 1992

Where object was made: Lawrence, Kansas, United States

Material/technique: Prismacolor colored pencil; color lithograph

Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 810 x 1975 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 31 7/8 x 77 3/4 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 36 1/2 x 82 x 2 1/4 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Elmer F. Pierson Fund

Accession number: 1992.0010

On display: Brosseau Learning Center

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Label texts

Archive Label 2003 (version 1):
This work relates to drawings that the artist did for a fountain project in downtown El Paso, Texas, Jimenez’s hometown. Through the form of the fountain, the artist wanted to bring back the alligators that had once lived in the El Paso plaza. To produce this print of a single alligator, Jimenez had to use two lithographic stones to make the image as big as he wanted.

Archive Label 2003 (version 2):
Luis Jiménez grew up in El Paso, Texas, and now lives in New Mexico. A sculptor, painter, and printmaker, he frequently uses animals as subjects: his coyote sculpture Howl can be seen in the 20th-Century Gallery on this floor. The animals Jiménez selects are usually either native to the Southwest or have other personal significance for him. As a child he was fascinated with the alligators that inhabited a downtown El Paso plaza called La Plaza de los Lagartos (Alligator Plaza). The alligators were later removed, but when the city of El Paso commissioned Jiménez to create a sculpture for this plaza, he proposed bringing them back as a fountain. This lithograph began as a study for the alligator fountain project.

Archive Label 1999:
Luis Jimenez is a native of El Paso, Texas, who now lives in New Mexico. A sculptor, painter, and printmaker, he frequently uses animals as subjects; his coyote sculpture Howl is in the next gallery. The animals Jimenez chooses are usually either native to the Southwest or have other personal significance for him. While alligators range as far west as the Rio Grande, in El Paso they could be found in a plaza downtown that in Spanish was called La Plaza de los Lagartos (alligator plaza). The alligators were later removed, but the artist remembers being fascinated by them. When the city of El Paso commissioned him to create a sculpture for the plaza, he proposed bringing the alligators back in the form of a fountain. This lithograph began as a study for the project, but in scale and design it is clear that Jimenez intended it to be an independent statement.