Jose Ramon Lerma Art

The artist made frame is made of yardsticks., This is a mixed media painted assemblage incorporating a sock. José Ramón Lerma, an abstract landscape painter from the Salinas Valley and one of the first Chicano artists to attend a formal art school. A member of the Beat Generation, Lerma was among the small group of Hispanic Chicano artists who emerged out of post-War San Francisco studying with Hassel Smith, Edward Corbett and James Budd Dixon at the California School of Fine Art in the early ‘50s, he hung a show at Spatsa gallery in 1959. Lerma immersed himself in the San Francisco that was the home of Beat Culture and an important center for Abstract Expressionism. Lerma's peers include Wallace Berman, George Herms, Roy De Forest, Bruce Conner, Manuel Neri, William T. Wiley, Luis Cervantes and Jay DeFeo. He was integral to the burgeoning gallery scene in San Francisco in the early 60's having solo exhibitions at seminal gallery spaces the East-West Gallery, The Cellar, Spatsa Gallery, Russian Hill Gallery and most recently a major retrospective of his paintings, collages and constructions from 1954-2000 was held at Intersection for the Arts. Lerma has also participated in numerous group exhibitions including the Oakland Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Art, The Sonoma County Museum, Galeria de la Raza, Gallery Sanchez, Somar Gallery, Mission Cultural Center, Richmond Art Center, La Raza Graphics Center, and the Walter and McBean Galleries at SFAI. His work has also been exhibited nationally including the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Albuquerque, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Evergreen State College, and Tuscon Museum of the Arts. Lerma lives and works in Oakland, CA. Born April 13, 1930 Hollister, California (San Benito County) 1954-1958 Attended California School of Fine Arts Scholarship and G.I. Bill Bachelor’s of Fine Arts 1958 San Francisco, California 1951-1953 U.S. Army Medical Corp & Intelligence 223rd Regimental Headquarters, 40th Division, Korea 1950-1951 Attended California School of Fine Arts (S.F. Art Institute) San Francisco, California 1948 Received scholarship to California School of Fine Arts (S.F. Art Institute) San Francisco, California SCHOOLING California School of Fine Arts, later to become the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California. served in the United States Army from October 1951 to August 1953. 1954-1958 Design Instructors: Dorr Bothwell Painting Instructors:Roger Barr, Elmer Bischoff, Ralph DuCasse and Ralph Putzker Color and Composition Instructors: Jean Varda...