René Yañez, leader in the Bay Area Chicano art movement, dies at 75

Artist René Yañez, who popularized Dia de los Muertos and Frida Kahlo in San Francisco, pastes his art on a wall fronting the jail cells of the former Mission Police Station in December. Artist René Yañez, who popularized Dia de los Muertos and Frida Kahlo in San Francisco, pastes his art on a wall fronting the jail cells of the former Mission Police Station in December. Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle 2017 Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle 2017 Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close René Yañez, leader in the Bay Area Chicano art movement, dies at 75 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

San Francisco artist René Yañez, an elder of the Bay Area Chicano arts movement and co-founder of Galería de la Raza, died Tuesday. He was 75.

His son, Rio Yañez, announced the news on Facebook shortly after his father’s death that morning. René Yañez had long known he had terminal prostate and bone cancer.

“Throughout the past two weeks my Dad’s spirit has defied every expectation of his mortality to talk, laugh, joke, and sing with us,” Rio Yañez wrote. “Once my Dad entered the hospital he was never alone, there was always a friend by his side.”

Rio and René Yañez had worked side by side over the years, collaborating on SOMArts’ annual Dia de Los Muertos altar exhibition and screen-printing tortillas for their “The Great Tortilla Conspiracy” project.

Though the artist had scaled back on commitments in recent months, he could still be found wheat-pasting on Valencia Street or tending the garden at SOMArts Cultural Center, which he filled with altars and found objects.

“He was always engaging,” Rio Yañez said during a phone interview Wednesday.

In November, René Yañez — a man who had shaped the Bay Area in a number of ways, including by bringing the Dia de los Muertos celebration to the Mission and introducing California to Frida Kahlo — was given two months to live. Friends said he became depressed, until the idea of presenting a retrospective of his work at the Luggage Store on Market Street came up. He began making art again, filling up notebook after notebook and planning the show. He insisted on helping hang it, too.

“There he was on Market Street, carrying his work,” said Renee Baldocchi, a close friend who had worked with Yañez at the de Young Museum. “The Luggage Store has this incredible set of stairs, and he was going up and down those stairs, he was so determined to do this show the way he wanted.”

The exhibition, called “Into the Fade,” opened in early March. The walls were full of Kahlo memorabilia he’d collected, tortillas he’d turned into art, collage work, bleach paintings and more. The room was so full that guests had to shuffle sideways to make it through.

All the while, René Yañez was in his element, smiling, shaking hands.

“He was so happy. It was the pinnacle for him,” Baldocchi said.

René Yañez was born in 1942 in Tijuana. He spent his early years traveling across the border to San Diego, where he attended school, before finally immigrating with his family. Art was something René Yañez was born into; his grandfather made photographs and his father burned images of the Virgin of Guadalupe into wood.

During the Vietnam War, René Yañez was drafted and sent to a military base in North Carolina, where he was assigned to a medical unit. He was quickly asked to use his skills as an artist to work with “shell-shocked” servicemen.

His time in North Carolina shaped many of his political views. The Civil Rights movement was in full swing, and he’d seen protesters beaten by police.

“There was so much hate,” he said in an interview with The Chronicle earlier this year. “It affected my being. It politicized me, so when I got back I had a different view on art.”

René Yañez moved to the Bay Area in 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love. He and some friends saw the promise in politicizing their art and created the Mexican American Liberation Art Front, an art collective that helped define the growing Chicano art scene.

From there, René Yañez made his way to the Mission, where he and Ralph Maradiaga opened Galería de la Raza, an art space that served as much as a community space. He stayed there for many years before going on to work at a number of the city’s cultural institutions, including the the de Young and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. But most of his work was done at the grassroots.

It’s nearly impossible to name all the people and groups he worked with (or helped bring up). Still, among them were Culture Clash, Gronk, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, the Royal Chicano Air Force, Artists’ Television Access, the Mexican Museum — and, of course, SOMArts.

“My dad was like the butterfly flapping its wings that causes the tidal wave,” Rio Yañez said. “There are so many cultural institutions in the mission district that he’s touched.”

That was a truth obvious to many, even if Yañez often worked quietly, behind the scenes.

“San Francisco’s cultural landscape was forever changed by René,” Mayor Mark Farrell said in a statement issued alongside arts community leaders. “We will miss his distinct artist voice and his incredible leadership and dedication to community.”

Ani Rivera, Galería de la Raza’s director, posted a brief statement about Yañez’s passing on Facebook. She invited the public to an open mike that same night that would double as a place to honor Yañez.

“René,” she wrote, “You leave a beautiful and unforgettable legacy; there will never be another like you. Thank you for your love and vision.”

René Yañez was still working the garden at SOMArts a few weeks ago. During a visit in February, dirt had built up under his nails, and a friend had come along to help. Yañez was thoughtful and deliberate about every object he placed in that garden, from the hanging pans (he liked the light they gave off) to the baby shoes he’d turned into planters (they were his son’s).

“I want to leave it behind in a beautiful state,” he said at the time.

Both Rio Yañez and Baldocchi said the artist and community builder had been making new art up until a few days before he passed. Baldocchi remembers that he told her, “As long as I can keep making art, I want to live.”

René Yañez’s wife, Cynthia Wallis, died in December 2016. He is survived by his son, Rio, and three godchildren, William Ramirez, Carlos Ramirez and Jennifer Ramirez.

Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Ryan Kost