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"The
angel's advice" Private collection (Miami, U.S.A.) The year 1993 was rolling by when one of the most trascendental events in Cuba's Communist Regime history took place: the depenalization of the U.S. dollar as the only mean for the Cuban economy to last. Due to this new law, as well as the economic adjustment, this new money became powerful; from the time the Cuban peso started its devaluation process, the goods acquisition could only be obtained through the dollar. The value of the Cuban peso vs. the U.S. dollar became extremely low, prompting, two years from the depenalization, new Cuban laws trying to balance the value of the peso to the dollar. From this premise germs my idea to paint a work reflecting the absurd idea of the Cuban government intent of giving parity to the peso, with it's poor economic backing, to the powerful U.S. dollar, as basis of the anemic Cuban ecomomy. The artist takes, as his formal model, the biblical theme "The sacrifice of Abraham", using it as a symbol relating to the events represented in this work (a cuban coin trying to annihilate the U.S. dollar through violence, as its only option), using imported methods (the knife is of Soviet or Russian origen); the angel with a camel face was the conciliator or mediator in this scene, advising the route to undertake and the solution to the act. This work was finished during the year 1995 and the Cuban censorship took measures to prevent the artwork from being exhibited in Cuba; it was taken down from the galleries walls every time it was intended to be shown. Finally we were able to bring it out of Cuba and exhibited it in Toronto, Canada, three years after, with the work almost lost, it was brought back to the United States and was bought by private Cuban art collectors from Miami. |
"Pleased" Private collection (Miami, U.S.A.)
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"The
descent from the cross" Private collection, Royal Ontario Museum
(ROM), Canada |
"The
apple never falls..." Private collection (Deurne, The Netherlands) This painting, as well as "The Angel's Advice" was conceived within an economic-social context, during a noted historical important epoch for the Cuban people. It was the first time under the present regime that they encountered a capitalistic type economic system, without mentally preparing themselves for this condition, the dollar as the center of life, was the only way to obtain goods for survival; other non essential products, once thought unobtainable, could also be bought with the dollar. In this way, this monetary phantom became the monster that eventually would digest many of the customs and social ways of life ingrained up to then in the Cuban society. The idea for this painting came from this context; a giant domineering dollar invading a moribund and dry landscape, beaten by the ravages of time under the actual Cuban regime. Not all remains dry and lifeless, because the shadow given by this huge mass brings back greenery to the landscape and new life, symbol of survivorship and well being, to the individuals with access to this shadow. The title for this work comes from the old Spanish proverb "El que a buen árbol se arrima, buena sombra le cobija". ( He who gets close to a good tree will be protected by it's shadow.) |
"Atrocities" Artist collection
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"Our
holy cow that is in heaven" Private collection (Montreal,
Canada)
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"Tribute
to the big balls man"
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"Not
only spirit counts" Private collection (Barcelona,
Spain)
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"Lawful
requisition" Artist collection
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"Still-life
with living cow" Private collection (Offenbach,
Germany)
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© 2012 Octavio Guinart's Fine Art. All rights reserved.
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