Lotto: The American Dream

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, in graphite, lower right margin: AZACETA 92 [underscored from C past date]; numbered, in graphite, lower left margin: 79/100

Label

Luis Azaceta’s print features a car filled with colorful houses and placed against a backdrop of black-and-white numbers that appear to be grouped arbitrarily. A lotto, or lottery, involves the random drawing of numbers for a chance to win a monetary prize. Azaceta’s title thus seems to suggest that these numbers are similarly random. However, when you look closely, you might recognize the numbers as zip codes and see the traces of red and green across them. They allude to the discriminatory practice of redlining, which designated certain neighborhoods—most often where people of color reside—as "high risk." Azaceta complicates and critiques the notion of the American Dream by highlighting such systemic inequities.

Azaceta was born in 1942 in Havana, Cuba, where violence, oppression, and social chaos forced him to flee his country and eventually settle in New York. Using his personal experiences, he addresses themes of immigration, isolation, and injustice throughout his work.

From the 2022 exhibition A DREAM Deferred: Undocumented Immigrants and the American Dream, A Space for Dialogue 106, curated by Yliana Beck, '22 Conroy Intern

Course History

SART 76, Senior Seminar, Jennifer Caine, Winter 2020

First Year Student Enrichment Program, Israel Reyes, Summer 2021

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Jen Caine, Winter 2022

Latino Studies 44.01, Latino Roots and Transitions, Thamyris Almeida, Winter 2023

Art History 40.05, Latino Studies 12.01, Print the Revolution, Mary Coffey, Spring 2023

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 106, A DREAM Deferred: Undocumented Immigrants and the American Dream, Yliana Beck, Class of 2022, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 30 - June 18, 2022.

Provenance

Charles M. Young Fine Prints & Drawings, Portland, Connecticut; sold to present collection, 2008.

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Subjects