Up till now, Latin American art is still widely defined as a non-mainstream category in Western arts where European and American arts are considered the mainstream. However, modern art in Latin America, which bears a history of being colonized and which gradually became clear during its conflict and combination with Western modernism and was later independent, received great attention again due to its distinct features that were different from European modernism. Arario Beijing, willing to reveal the process of the changes of the contemporary and modern art in Latin America, will present the solo exhibition of Carlos Quintana, a Cuban artist from Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz’s Cuba. This is Carlos Quintana’s first solo exhibition in Asia, which will exhibit more than 20 paintings and sculptures. Colors, inheriting the magnificence and passions of the Caribbean, are presented incisively and vividly in his works. His paintings tend to create a magnificent and mysterious atmosphere, and fully combine various elements to show the hibridity of Latin American cultures. This helps further propose his thinking towards the distinctive sublime consciousness for Latin America from traditional and historical perspectives. From these works, we can see that: on the one hand, he makes great efforts to escape from the stigma of being colonized by Western countries to maintain his ‘Indigenismo’ of traditional native Indians; on the other hand, even though Cuba was liberated from colonial rules, it still suffered the oppression of dictatorship later, and therefore, many artists at that time fought against this dictatorship by means of Magic Realism, the influence of which can be strongly felt in Carlos’ works.
Due to political dictatorship, most Latin American countries were in unprecedented chaos and economic difficulty in 1950. Against this background, a number of Latin American artists tended to add something to reflect political ideology unconsciously, and thus large quantities of artistic works came forth. Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez, a writer, was one of them, who applied “Magic Realism” in his novel. On the one hand, the technique which projects reality into an illusory environment and atmosphere with an objective and detailed description provides an ambiguous criticism towards social vices and is also differentiated from many idealistic Western images, and it thus becomes the inspirational sources for many artists. On the other hand, as early as in the early colonial period, a lot of artists were dedicated to the maintenance of the distinctiveness of the traditional cultures of Latin America. Efforts were not only made in arts but also expended to religion. In this process, several new ideologies which exerted great influence on the entire Latin American culture came into being, such as Voodoo, Candombe and Yoruba.
Yoruba, born against this historical background and under the influence of Cuba’s society, culture and history, can be regarded as one of the very important sources for Carlos Quintana’s creation of his works. Characters in his works are mostly naked; however, audience will not associate this to sex but will regard it as things-to-look-at. On the contrary, the audience will have a totally different feeling towards those who seemed to be wearing priest robes are doing a mass or those who resemble figures in the myths. Naked characters, figures wearing like ascetics, and Minotaur, a half-man-half-bull monster in Greek Myths mingling together was just like the mixture of the new Caribbean myths and the illusions and incantation originated from Yoruba.
Images of pregnant women which embody birth, and, images of skeletons in Vanitas still life which serve as a foil of magnificence to show the uncertainties of life, present artist’s postcolonial wish to escape from the Western dictatorship and the later dictator oppression and to express the real history of the people and self features. In this way, both illusionary and realistic images, such as perfect illusions, practical objects, mysterious imagination and mythical world, mingle together in Carlos Quintana’s works. Just like the isolated ‘Macondo’ created in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, spaces presented in Carlos Quintana’s works also lie between reality and myths.
Latin American art, which has long been defined as “others”, demonstrates its nationality, particularity and cultural hibridity, and brings order out of chaos and thus proves its own status and value. Sometimes, Carlos’s works are full of infinite sublimity and holiness. Sometimes, his works resemble the amazingly beautiful Caribbean sights, like an imagination wonderland.
Carlos Quintana was born in Havana, capital of Cuba, in 1966. In 1993, his activities were extended from Havana to Madrid, Spain. He completed his studies respectively in San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts and Havana Institute of Design. Since his first solo exhibition held in Cuba in 1984, he gradually became active in different countries, such as Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, US, Costa Rica and Canada. Finally, Carlos Quintana came to Beijing, the first time ever in Asia. Of course, Carlos Quintana has already earned his fame through world renowned art exhibitions like Arco, Art Miami and Art Basel, which can prove Art Basel’s leading position in contemporary Cuban art.
