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de ida y vuelta
Post #415 • November 24, 2004, 9:59 AM • 5 Comments
Not much time to pontificate today, but I want to mention a worthy little show at the Centro Cultural Español entitled "De Ida Y Vuelta (Roundtrip)." My Spanish is unforgivably bad, but I'm led to understand that the theme of the show is Cuban artists who have spent time in Spain before coming to America. I've pulled my favorites from the available images of work in the show - in order, Gustavo Acosta, Ramón Alejandro, and Nestor Arenas.
There was also a good Heriberto Mora, whom I would liken to Ignacio Iturria but with a cheerier color sense, and two sweet little watercolors of Adam and Eve (or someone much like them) by Arturo Rodriguez. (I'll scan them out of the catalogue if I find time today.) Upon looking at the Rodriguezes, I had a mental flash that I had seen his work in the Miami Herald when I was a kid, and thought how great it would be to be a painter. I owe this guy a cafécito, at least.
2.
November 24, 2004, 6:33 PM
For readers unfamiliar with South Florida fauna, that's a grasshopper. And yes, they really do grow big enough to eat horses.
3.
November 24, 2004, 6:59 PM
This is not a "little show," Franklin. It's 22 works on paper by 11 artists in an excellent space, accompanied by an unusually good catalog. The hours (M-F, 10-5) are not the best, but it is very much worth seeing, more so than some "big shows" I can recall around here. Do scan the Arturo Rodriguez watercolor from the catalog, though the original is much nicer. And please don't pull a Triff and mistake "Eve" for a male.
4.
November 24, 2004, 9:43 PM
Mora's palette is different from Iturria's, and his sensibility is totally different. Mora's work is based to a significant extent on his mystical religious beliefs, though this is not visually obvious unless you know what he intended to convey, and the work can be appreciated on a purely visual level. When I say religious I don't mean Afro-Cuban or santeria, which is not where he's coming from. It's a mixture of Christianity and Eastern mysticism; he's something of an ascetic contemplative type.
As for the theme of the show, it's 11 Cuban artists who all spent time in Spain before settling in South Florida, where they all now reside. The CCE is, of course, operated by the Spanish government as a sort of cultural consulate, so the (Cuban) curator found a suitable angle, which happens to have worked out well.
5.
November 24, 2004, 9:51 PM
I meant to say that the only overtly ethnic or tropical work in the show is that by Alejandro, illustrated above. Don't expect something out of Calle Ocho in Little Havana. This is not about palm trees and roosters.
1.
that guy in the back row
November 24, 2004, 6:28 PM
damn locusts!