Triumph of the Hearts by Judith Baca
On Sunday we visited MOCA Geffen in Little Tokyo to experience the amazing exhibit World Wall: A Vision of the Future Without Fear. Conceived by Judy Baca, this series of nine large murals created between 1987 and 2014 stems from the idea that to achieve world peace we must be able to envision it. Four of the nine 10-by-30 feet canvas panels were painted by Baca.
Nonviolent Resistance depicts people linking arms as a peaceful method for stopping war.
Triumph of the Hands illustrates how we can liberate ourselves from the money machine of war.
Triumph of the Hearts shows the faces of four women shedding tears and holding candles to light the way of a young man running towards the light.
Balance offers a vision of harmony between humans and the earth.
Five additional murals were created by international artists, from Russia, Israel and Palestine, Finland, Mexico and Canada.
The Inuit Send the World a Canary presents the hopeful vision that the environment devastated by the extraction of oil can flourish again.
You will find longer explanations in captions in front of the panels and in the printed catalogue.
A 2022 exhibit at the Getty Museum included sketches for the 1984 Olympic mural by Baca Hitting the Wall showing a female runner reaching the finish line. The Getty held a live conversation with Baca that I watched on zoom. Here’s the link.
For more information about the work of this artist, please read my article about the Judy Baca Retrospective at MOOLA, Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach.
Text and photos by Elisa Leonelli