Persecucion de la Felicidad (The Pursuit of Happiness)
2008
21st Century
18 3/4 x 14 7/8 in. (47.6 x 37.8 cm)
Humberto Saenz,
b. 1980
Object Type:
PRINTS
Creation Place:
North America
Medium and Support:
Lithograph
Credit Line:
Purchased with funds provided by the Art Angels
Accession Number:
14-G-3653
Label from Border Crossings: Immigration in Contemporary Prints, La Salle University Art Museum, March 16 - June 9, 2016:
This print is based loosely on a couple of events that happened when immigrants were being chased by the border patrol. As you examine the print there is a little girl in the middle of the print. One of the events described a little girl being trampled by the other immigrants as they ran from the border patrol. The gate is a chain link fence that signifies our over expenditure on building walls at the border that do not work and only cause consternation between the local communities on both sides of the border. Many other figures signify other extremes of the migrant cause including pregnant women. The translation is a play on words with the direct translation. But I felt it worked as the culture and the people can be described as happiness and we as a culture are always in pursuit of this unattainable object. Persecucion would translate directly to “persecution,” but I felt that a more common phrase and one used by popular culture would still be in keeping with the meaning of the artwork.
—Humberto Saenz
Current Location:
In Storage
by Artist
by Artist
