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NEWS
UNTITLED / Legendary Orange County artist Emigdio Vasquez’s untitled work, with a depiction of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (far right), created in a 1988 class he taught at Santa Ana College.
PRESERVING A CHERISHED LEGACY
Late muralist’s heirs have been on a quest to find and restore his forgotten and hidden artworks
STORY AND PHOTOS BY LIZ MONROY
B
ehind layers of dust, worn stage
props, and shrouded in mystery
backstage of the Phillips Hall
Theatre is one of the last examples
of famed Chicano painter Emigdio Vasquez’s
career: a lost mural few knew existed.
The work started as a class project in the late
‘80s during Vasquez’s tenure as an instructor
at Santa Ana College and is typical of the artist’s work.
It includes labor icon Joe Hill, as well as a
bare-chested construction worker, and even a
rare depiction of Frida Kahlo.
Vasquez admired Kahlo but this is her first
appearance in one of his murals.
The untitled piece is one of 24 scattered
across Orange County. His three children and
wife are scouring t