Azateca has been painting and drawing since the late 1970s. In usually large-format works executed with expressive colors, Cruz Azaceta has dealt with themes of urban violence, personal isolation in a large and overcrowded city, the conditions created by mismanaged government, the abuses and oppression of dictatorships, and in a number of works done in the late 1980s, the ravages of AIDS.[1]
Gun Man (1986), 120x84 inches, acrylic on canvas
Early life and work
Luis Cruz Azaceta was born in Havana, Cuba. As a teenager, he witnessed many acts of violence on the streets of Havana: bombs in stores, cinemas and theaters, shoot-outs, arrests, and torture of citizens by Batista secret police. In 1959, the Cuban revolution brought jubilation and celebration when Castro promised to restore Cuba's constitution and free elections. Months later, executions began and businesses were confiscated, with some closing. Azaceta's experiences under both Batista and post-revolution impacted his vision—creating a sensitivity towards violence, human cruelty, injustice, and alienation—which later become central themes in his work.
At 18 years old, Azaceta left Cuba for New York City. In 1969, he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. After graduation, he developed series of works addressing the human condition. In 1975, he had his first solo show at the Allan Frumkin Gallery on 57th Street, exhibiting works from the Subway Series. In the mid-1970s, at the beginning of his career, Azaceta tended to fill his compositions with numerous cartoony images and figures which were boldly colored and clearly outlined. Many of the paintings articulate a shallow cramped space. Azaceta frames the urban dweller as a threatened figure, someone who is constantly being pushed, pulled, and squeezed by both the environment and other people.
The Plague, AIDS Epidemic (1987), 120x144 inches, acrylic on canvas
While Azaceta's "apocalyptic pop" style characterized his initial entry into the art world, he soon moved to different art styles. Critic John Yau argues that Azaceta's need to change is not only one of the features that distinguishes him from other painters, whether figurative or abstract, but it is also emblematic of his life as both an exile and an alien.[2]
By the 1980s, his cramped compositions shift to a centralized, nude figure (often self-portrait) that dominates the composition. The mood and color are somber, and the figure is often distorted.
His work throughout the 1970s and 80s is described as socially engaged neo-expressionist.[3]
Later life and work
In the early 1990s, his work incorporated figuration and abstraction, extending from some of the works of the AIDS Epidemic Series, where abstraction is present as an ominous abyss. He returned to the subject of Balseros and Exiles as there was an increase of those fleeing Cuba in 1994.[4] In 1992, he moved with his wife and two sons from New York to New Orleans where a warehouse studio provided him space for producing larger scale works, constructions, and installations. He began shooting photographs of the New Orleans environment which become attachments in his paintings. He also introduces new materials into his work, such as twisted metal studs, nails, wood, board, plastic barricade fencing, and weathered sheet metal. The newfound materiality and subject of exile connect in his 2008 installation, SWEPT AWAY, from his Post Katrina series, which was presented at Prospect New Orleans He created numerous series afterwards, including the Museum Plans, Shifting States, Shootings in Sandy Hook, and the Boston Bombing.
With Museum Plans, Azaceta calls into question the individuals and institutions who govern culture by depicting labyrinths of lines devoid of exits.[5]
Real Fiction (1996), 105x108x4 3/4 inches, mixed media on wood & metal studs
The series Shifting States (2011-2012) related to contemporary struggles such as crumbling economies, revolutions, wars, civil movements against social injustice, and climate change. The title of the series has a double meaning, referring both to physical major changes and to the psychological state that involves moving into self-awareness in order to create necessary transformation.[6]
In his most recent series "Shootings in Sandy Hook" and "The Boston Bombing", Azaceta addresses mass shootings and domestic terrorism.[6]
The Crossing (1999), 112x120 inches, acrylic, charcoal, shellac on canvas
Azaceta's work has been featured in more than 100 solo exhibitions in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. His work was displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in the exhibition entitled, "I, YOU, WE", curated by David Kiehl,[7] and at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., in the exhibition entitled, "OUR AMERICA: THE LATINO PRESENCE IN AMERICAN ART," curated by E. Carmen Ramos.[8]
In his 2013 solo exhibition Dictators, Terrorism, War and Exiles at Aljira, Center for Contemporary Art, curator, Alejandro Anreus writes that Luis Cruz Azaceta is committed "to bearing witness to the political crisis of humanity. His work reflects how he identifies with isolation and oppression and speaks to both the horror and determination that is a part of the journey towards survival and freedom."[9]
He has received awards and grants such as the National Endowment for the Arts, The Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, the Pollock/Krasner Grant, the Penny McCall Foundation Award, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Grant for Special Projects, and the Cintas Foundation.
Ronnie Landfield is an American abstract painter. During his early career from the mid-1960s through the 1970s his paintings were associated with Lyrical Abstraction, and he was represented by the David Whitney Gallery and the André Emmerich Gallery.
Luis Camnitzer is a German-born Uruguayan artist, curator, art critic, and academic who was at the forefront of 1960s Conceptual Art. Camnitzer works primarily in sculpture, printmaking, and installation, exploring topics such as repression, institutional critique, and social justice.
Mario Bencomo is an artist. As an unaccompanied minor he was sent by his parents to live in Spain. At the age of 14, he left Madrid for the U.S., arriving by himself in New York City in the 1960s. He often returns to Europe, and for many years now for regular visits to Montreal, Canada. In 1996 he returns to visit Cuba for the first time, three decades after he left. An American Citizen, he is based in Miami.
Hugo Consuegra was a Cuban-born artist and architect who, in 1953, became one of the founding members of Los Once, a group of young abstract expressionist artists which included the core members Guido Llinás, Raul Martinez, Tomás Oliva and Antonio Vidal. The group broke away from the representational style prevalent at the time in Cuba and produced its largest volume of work between 1953 and 1955. Consuegra and four of the original 11 continued to exhibit in what became known as the post-revolutionary avant-garde movement in Cuba. Consuegra was also a Professor of Art History at Havana University’s School of Architecture (1960–5).
Jesse A. Fernández was a Cuban artist, photographer, and photojournalist. He was an art director of Visión Magazine in New York City and a photographer for the Revolución newspaper in Havana, Cuba. Fernández was granted the Cintas Foundation Fellowship for painting in 1967 and 1975.
Emilio Falero is a Cuban Fine Arts painter residing in Florida.
Emilio Sanchez (1921–1999) was an American artist known for his architectural paintings and graphic lithographs. His work is found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, La Tertulia Museum, and the National Gallery of Australia.
Gladys Triana is a Cuban-American visual artist. Triana's career as an artist has spanned nearly six decades and includes works on paper, paintings, sculpture, mixed-media collage, installations, and photography. Triana currently resides in New York City and is still actively creating artwork.
Robert Neffson is an American painter known for his photorealistic street scenes of various cities around the world, museum interiors and for early still lifes and figure paintings.
Rafael Ferrer is a Puerto Rican artist.
Gloria Graham is an American artist based in New Mexico. Her work includes sculpture, painting, and photography.
Sasson Soffer (1925–2009) was an American abstract painter and sculptor. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world.
Miguel Ángel Rojas is a Colombian conceptual artist born in Bogotá in 1946. His work includes drawing, painting, photography, installations and video and is often related to the sexuality, the marginal culture, the violence and problems involved with drug consumption and production.
Carl E. Hazlewood is an artist, writer, and curator currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Hazlewood, along with Victor Davson, is a co-founder of Aljira Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, New Jersey. Hazlewood has taught at New Jersey City University and other institutions.
Alejandro Anreus is a curator, art historian and critic who has focused his research on Latin American Art. Though he began his career as an artist, Anreus is now an art historian and poet, and is professor of art history and Latin American/Latino Studies at William Paterson University. Among his many accomplishments, Anreus is a two-time recipient of the Oscar B. Cintas Foundation and has worked as a curator with public collections such as the Montclair Art Museum and the Jersey City Museum during his career.
Carlos Alfonzo (1950–1991) was a Cuban-American painter known for his neo-impressionistic style. His work has been collected by Whitney Museum of American Art and Smithsonian Institution.
Juan González was an important twentieth-century Cuban-American painter who rose to international fame in the 1970s and remained active until his death in the 1990s. Born in Cuba, González launched his art career in South Florida during the early 1970s and quickly gained recognition in New York City, where he subsequently relocated in 1972. While in New York González won several fine art awards, including the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts grant, and the Cintas Fellowship. González's art known is for its distinctive hyperrealism and magical realism elements delivered in a highly personal style with symbolic overtones. His work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States as well as internationally in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. He is included in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, The Carnegie Museum of Art, and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
William Cordova is a contemporary cultural practitioner and interdisciplinary artist currently residing between Lima, Peru; North Miami Beach, Florida; and New York.
Agustín Fernández was a Cuban painter, sculptor, and multimedia artist. Although he was born in Cuba, he spent the majority of his career outside of Cuba, and produced art in Havana, Paris, San Juan, and New York.
Baruj Salinas is a Cuban-American contemporary visual artist and architect. He is recognized as a central figure in the establishment of the modern Latin American art market in South Florida.
References
↑ Sullivan, Edward J. (1998). Darker Visions: Recent Paintings by Luis Cruz Azaceta. Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art, New York, NY: Bound Exhibition Catalog.
↑ Yau, John (1994). Torn, Twisted, and Broken: Luis Cruz Azaceta Alone In The Diaspora. New York, NY: The Alternative Museum.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
