Carlos Licon, Carlos Licon (1929-1982), Memorial Exhibition, April 13-May 26, 1985

Carlos Licon established a strong connection with his community very early in his career. In 1942, at the age of thirteen, he painted backdrops for the Mexican-American venue Padua Hills Theater in Claremont, CA. Four years later, Licon would meet the artist Alfredo Ramos Martinez and work as his assistant on a Scripps College mural. He attended art school in Los Angeles and has won many awards including best of show at Brandeis University and California Medical Facility. However, recurring instabilities in his personal life often sidelined Licon’s artistic production. As a victim of drug and alcohol abuse, Licon spent a great portion of his adult life in prison on narcotics charges. Nonetheless, the 1960s marked the most productive phase in his career. In 1960, he was sent to CMF and, already an artist, began participating in the new art rehabilitation program at the facility. Displaying the stylistic influence of modern Mexican artists of the 1920s and 1930s, a tragic feeling of pathos and melancholy often saturated his iconlike portraits and figural compositions. The legacy of his artwork would greatly inspire the artist associated with the Chicano Movement.
https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/insidecdcr/2018/04/05/unlocking-history-artists-leave-lasting-legacy-at-california-medical-facility/, 2020