reprint or license print email
El arte de Cuba: Contemporary Cuba
Ringling Museum enhances exhibit with Cuban Avant-Garde
The Ringling Museum of Art will present live dance and music
performances, films, lectures, photographs and seminars during the first
week of "Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Art from the Farber Collection."
The Ringling Museum of Art will present live dance and music
performances, films, lectures, photographs and seminars during the first
week of "Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Art from the Farber Collection."
By ROBERTA C. NELSON
bcnelson@bradenton.com
In its most ambitious undertaking yet to exhibit visual art within a
cultural framework, Ringling Museum of Art presents live dance and
musical performances, films, lectures, photographs and seminars during
the first week of "Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Art from the Farber
Collection."
The exhibit of 58 works, organized by the Samuel P. Harn Museum in
Gainesville this year, runs through Dec. 30 in the Ulla R. and Arthur F.
Searing Wing at the museum. The Ringling exhibition is the first since
the show left the Harn Museum last month. "Cuban Avant-Garde" is
expected to travel for the next three years.
The related Ringling events are scheduled and ticketed individually, so
patrons may choose their level of participation.
"People are fascinated by Cuba," said Noel Smith, curator of Latin
American & Caribbean Art and curator of education at the Institute for
Research and Art Graphicstudio at University of South Florida Tampa.
"This exhibit lifts a corner of the curtain for people and addresses
some very serious humanitarian issues and approaches in a way that is
very interesting and eye-opening for people," she said.
Smith and Susan Fernandez, associate professor of history at USF St.
Petersburg, are presenters at a two-day Florida State University
Cultural Institute program Oct. 11-12 at the Ringling. The institute
includes university-level seminars, plus performances, a cocktail hour,
lunch, field trips and in-depth study of the "Cuba Avant-Garde" exhibit.
The works in the exhibit were collected by Howard and Patricia Farber of
New York City and Miami, who first visited the artists' studios during a
2001 visit to Cuba.
"I think they saw this was a collection of work that needed to be saved
and collected, and shown in the United States," Smith said. "It
represents a particular era in Cuban history, the late 1980s until now,
when there were a lot of changes and challenges for the artists."
The economic climate in Cuba was enormously affected by the withdrawal
of support of the Communist government in the Soviet Union in the 1980s,
she said.
"Overnight, the Cuban economy collapsed," she said. "We are talking
about a period of time when there was almost an involuntary 'greening'
of Cuba. There was no gasoline. Electricity was rationed. People had to
ride bicycles everywhere. Food and art materials were extremely scarce.
It was a very dramatic time for Cuba."
The gasoline shortage could be one interpretation of Armando Marino's
2002 picture "The Raft," a pink-and-white American car from the 1950s
with no wheels. The car is being powered by many pairs of bare feet
which show beneath the chassis. Marino was born in Cuba but lives in
Spain, as do about half the artists represented in the show.
"All the artists are able to convey a sense of their place in this
nation, whether they remained there or have left," said Stephen D.
Borys, Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collection at the Ringling. "When you
walk through the show, you will consistently see very powerful images -
some representative, some abstract - that for that particular artist
reflect a kind of life experience."
The artists responded to experiences in daily life, but were also
affected as artists.
"Cuban art was really a place for public discourse, a place where civic
dialogue could take place," Smith said. "Because, of course, they don't
have a free press. They don't have elections, and no right of free
association. So this art was expressing cultural, historical tensions
that people were undergoing."
Lazaro Saavedras, an artist who lives in Cuba, expresses the inner
tension felt by many Cubans who outwardly profess allegiance to the
Communist government, but long for the freedom America offers. His 1995
painting "Sacred Heart," which calls on the iconic image of Christ,
familiar throughout Cuba, shows a Christ-figure who speaks of Communism,
thinks about the United States, but whose heart shows the single star on
a red field with the blue-and-white stripes of the Cuban flag.
The first week of the exhibit is capped off by the Florida State
University Cultural Institute program that uses the artwork as a
discussion tool to explore Cuban history and culture. The museum is
taking reservations for the program this week at 359-5700.
"Because this work is so vitally connected to the history and culture
and society of Cuba, we decided it was really important for people
coming to the institute to have Dr. Fernandez participate," Smith said.
Fernandez is the author of "Encumbered Cuba: Capital Markets and Revolt"
and co-author with Robert Ingalls of "Sunshine in the Dark: Florida in
the Movies," both published in 2006. She is currently researching the
political and economic impact of the Cuban lottery from 1909 to the present.
If you go
What: "Cuba Avante-Garde: Contemporary Art from the Farber Collection"
When: Through Dec. 30
Where: Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota
Admission: $19 adults, $16 seniors 65 and older and U.S. Military with
ID, $6 children 6-17, students with ID, and Florida teachers. Free for
children 5 and younger and museum members.
Information: 359-5700 or www.ringling.org
CONTEMPORARY CUBA WEEK AT THE RINGLING
"Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Art from the Farber Collection," which
opened this weekend at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, brings
with it a week of live performances, a film festival, lectures and a
two-day seminar. Here is a list of events:
Cuban film series: 7 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday
Four feature films starring Cuban actor Jorge Perugorria: "Vertical
Love," "Strawberry and Chocolate," "Things I Left in Havana," and
"Virgin Rose." Presented by the Havana Film Festival New York, tickets
to individual showings are $7 each, or $24 for the series. Historic
Asolo Theater. Tickets are available by calling the Historic Asolo
Theater Box Office at 360-7399.
Cuban dance, 11 a.m. Tuesday
"Echoes of Cuba Through Dance," award-winner choreographer Leymis
Bolanos Wilmott draws from her Cuban heritage to experiment with
movement, ideas, and character with her ensemble, Fuzion Dance Artists.
Historic Asolo Theater. Tickets are $20 or $18 for members. For tickets,
call the Historic Asolo Theater box office.
Lecture, 5:30 p.m. Wednesday
"Cuba, the Natural Beauty" with Clyde Butcher is a conversation by the
photographer and environmentalist about his project sponsored by the
United Nations as part of the 2002 "Year of the Mountains" designation.
A book signing follows. Tickets are $25. Historic Asolo Theater. Tickets
are available by calling the Historic Asolo Theater Box Office.
Seminar, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday
"Cuba Avant-Garde," Florida State University Cultural Institute,
Education/Conservation Building Classroom 1003/1004, Ringling Museum of
Art. A seminar including discussion, books and materials, gourmet
lunches, coffee and biscotti breaks, complimentary cocktails, field
trips and performances at the Historic Asolo Theater related to the
exhibit. Course agenda, reading materials, a museum map and other
materials provided with fee of $250. Call the museum to register at
359-5700.
Cuban music, 8 p.m. Saturday
"Boleros Perdidos: Love Songs Lost," presents Havana-born composer and
violinist Alfredo Triff who journeys into the dark, desperate pleasures
of the city at night with an ensemble fronted by the whispers and
smoldering voice of Roberto Poveda. Historic Asolo Theater. Tickets are
$25-$30. Call 360-7339.
Roberta C. Nelson, staff writer, can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 2121.
No comments:
Post a Comment