August 13, 2014 - 2:58 PM
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Emigdio Vasquez, whose bold use of colour, exacting brush skills and uncanny ability to capture everyday people in dramatic moments made him one of the most influential pioneers of the Chicano art movement, has died at 75 in California.
The artist's family says Vasquez died Saturday in an assisted living home in Newport Beach. The cause was pneumonia.
Vasquez was one of several California artists to rise to prominence with the emergence of the Chicano art movement in the 1960s.
Incredibly prodigious, he created more than 400 paintings and nearly two dozen murals. Many of the latter dot buildings throughout Orange County, where Vasquez lived most of his life.
Arguably his most famous mural, "Legacy of Cesar Chavez," graces the lobby of a building at Santa Ana College.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014