LA LUCHA CONTINUA THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
1985-86
ARTMAKERS COLLECTIVE, EVA COCKCROFT, project director/lead artist
La Plaza Cultural Community Garden
bounded by East 8th Street, Avenue C & East 9th Street, Loisaida, Manhattan, NY
1 collaborative mural (30’ x 41’ 8”) and 25 small murals (various sizes)
with Charas, Inc.
Photos © Camille Perrottet
In spring 1985, Artmakers, working in collaboration with Charas Inc., a local housing and cultural organization, sent out a call seeking artists to create something never before attempted in New York City – a multi-mural park on the walls surrounding La Plaza Cultural, at the time a derelict community garden.
Organized by Eva Cockcroft, a co-founder of Artmakers, La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues grew out of “a desire to return to the organic feeling of the early mural movement when personal conviction and the politics of the artists and the aroused communities coincided.” The 26 murals addressed six issues of great concern to both local residents and the artists: gentrification, frayed police/community relations, women’s rights, immigration, and opposition to U.S. intervention in Central America and apartheid in South Africa. Hugely ambitious in scope, content and size, La Lucha’s 34 activist artists created the large mural that overlooked La Plaza and 25 smaller works painted by individual and small groups of artists.
Eleven artists joined Eva to create the collaborative mural which gave the mural park its name – La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues. Addressing the issue of gentrification, the mural dominated the garden, covering all but the lower portion of the 30’ x 41’8” tarred wall. Several of its sub-themes are amplified in the individual murals. Making no attempt to find a common style, the 30 artists painting them worked in their personal styles. Black bands that connected the murals visually and thematically also separated and framed them; the bands were stenciled with the words “The Struggle Continues” in many languages.
Upon its completion, La Lucha Continua was the largest – 6,400 square feet – and most impressive collective mural project of its kind. Today, there are no traces of La Lucha’s murals; the remaining two very faded panels were tarred over in summer 2023, repairs to a leaking wall. However, the restored garden is a valued community presence, a lush oasis of green in New York’s Loisaida.
For photos of the murals and accompanying artist statements, visit the website (www.LaLuchaArtmakers.org) documenting Artmakers 2017 exhibition La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues: 1985 & 2017. Click here to download the exhibition catalog.
THE ARTISTS
COLLECTIVE MURAL
Rikki Asher, Karin Batten, Thérèse Bimka, Robert Brabham, Marguerite Bunyan, Keith Christensen, Eva Cockcroft (project director), Etienne Li, Camille Perrottet, Judith Quinn, A. G. Joe Stephenson, Dorianne Williams
INDIVIDUAL MURALS
Karin Batten, Nicaragua (12’ x 16’, oil on tar)
Keith Christensen with Anthony Buszco, Root of Loisaida (12’ x 9’8”, on tar)
Cliff Joseph, Rise, People, Rise (12’ x 16’, on tar)
Camille Perrottet, Liberty, Freedom, Equality (approx. 12’ x 20’, acrylic on tar)
Maria Dominguez, Sueño (12’ x 15’8”, on tar)
Susan Ackoff Ortega, For the Freedom of South Africa (10’ x 23.51, acrylic on cement)
Willie Birch, Stop Urban Removal (approx. 12’ x 8’, oil on brick)
Marilyn Perez Uncal, Beauty’s Brigade (12’ x 14’, acrylic on brick)
Pat Brazill, The Disappeared (14’ x 14’, acrylic on brick)
Seth Tobocman, Young People Stand Up To Police (approx. 12’ x 6’, on brick)
Noel Kunz, Octopus (approx. 6’ x 14’, on brick)
Elizabeth “Betsy” McLindon, Self-Determination, Popular the World Over (15’ x 14’, acrylic on brick)
Etienne Li, To the Memory of Michael Stewart (12’ x 14’, spray and acrylic on brick)
Chico (Antonio Garcia), Tribute to Michael Stewart (approx. 10’ x 22’, spray on corrugated metal)
Luis Frangella, untitled (approx. 27’ x 27’, on brick)
Robin Michals & Kristin Reed, The Last Judgement (approx. 17’ x 20’, acrylic on concrete)
Leon Johnson, Azania (17 x 18’, on concrete)
Leslie Lowe, Heaven is where everyone knows the dance and there’s no rehearsal (18’ x 21’, on concrete)
Dina Burszytn, Life Among the Ruin (6’8” x 6’3” x 4”, ceramic mounted on concrete)
Noah Jemisin and Nora Jemisin, Alphabet City Mural (17’ x 10’, acrylic on concrete)
Nancy Sullivan, Not for Sale (approx. 17’ x 24’, on concrete)
Rikki Asher, For the Woman of South Africa, Central America and the Lower East Side (10’ x 20’, oil on tar)
Amy Berniker, Alison Kew, Ken Bloomer, Stand Up (10’ x 21, oil on tar)
Thérèse Bimka, She Is But One of Many (1986, approx. 15’ x 15’, acrylic and ceramic mounted on concrete)
Eva Cockcroft and A. G. Joe Stevenson, The Border (1986, approx. 10’ x 11’, spray and acrylic on concrete)
(c) Alexandra Chatzopoulou, 2021, final presentation, Conservation of Contemporary Art seminar, University of West Attica, Athens Greece