César Augusto Martínez (born 1944 in Laredo, Texas) is an artist, prominent in the field of Chicano art.
Before he began making images of people in 1978 (the batos and rucas noted above), Martínez experimented with color field painting.
He joined the Con Safo art group in San Antonio in late 1972, and he resigned in November 1974.
Martínez organized an exhibition under the name Los Quemados in June 1975 at the Mexican Cultural Institute in San Antonio.
He'd hoped that Los Quemados would become an informal association of artists without officers and guidelines, but, he says, "it never really gelled."
Martínez was captivated by Alberto Giacometti's solitary figures (which he saw in reproduction), and by his obsessive working practices.
Martínez also acknowledges several abstract artists: Mark Rothko, Jules Olitski, Philip Guston, Kenneth Noland, and Gene Davis.
His goals as an artist often sound paradoxical: "there might be a figure, but the essence is abstract, because it's a very elusive 'reality' that I am searching for.
"[1] Among Martínez's best known works are his three large painted versions of Hombre que le Gustan las Mujeres (The Man Who Loves Women).
To emphasize the man's confusion, he is depicted with two heads in the second version, which is called Wrong-Headed Hombre (the first two paintings are in private collections).
[5] Two other paintings by Martínez were featured in the inaugural exhibition of the Cheech Center, which formed a triptych: Bato con Sunglasses and Sylvia with Chango’s Letter Jacket, both from 2000.
[5] Speaking of his batos and rucas, Martínez says: "When my work succeeds, it projects Chicano culture from my--presumably our--perspective.