Tierra de Tempestades Land of Tempests New Art From Guatemala El Salvador and Nicaragua
Tierra de Tempestades Land of Tempests New Art From Guatemala El Salvador and Nicaragua
Tierra de Tempestades Land of Tempests New Art From Guatemala El Salvador and Nicaragua
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Tierra de Tempestades:
Land of Tempests
New Art from Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua
Jennifer Greitschus
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Moiss Barrios, page from MM;CTES (Women), 1992, artist's book of 11 wood engravings and mixed media,
62 x 45 cm.
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Erwin Guillermo, Total: no posa nada, 1994 (In short: nothing happens), mixed media, 125 x 90 x 48cm.
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Raul Quintanilla, Letum non omnia finite (Encuentro entre dos mu(n)dos) (Bloody Encounter between Two
Mutes/Worlds), 1993-4, mixed media, 177 x 97 x 375 cm.
Antonio Bonilla, Las candidates para las fiestas patronales de Ayutuxtepeque en honor a San Sebastian Martir
(The Candidates for the Patron Saint's Day Celebrations of Ayutuxtepeque in Honour of the Martyr
Saint Sebastian), acrylic on canvas, 130 x 200 cm.
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tentacles providing a link between the world of the
subconscious and the reality which she
experiences. In the catalogue, Ruiz explains: "In
Guatemala there is an official apparatus to say that
things are going wonderfully, and who if not the
artist is going to say otherwise." Equally dark and
disturbing are the paintings of the Cuban-born
artist Alfredo Cabaero, who lives and works in
Nicaragua. His imagery is imbued with the
heaviness of Catholicism. Caballero greatly
admires the Spanish painters Goya and Velisquez.
Yet in The Plague and Spirit the mouths of the
figures are gaping black cavities emitting silent
cries of agony, and it is the dfiler of Velasquez,
Francis Bacon's 'screaming Popes' which come to
mind.
The works of the Nicaraguans are as diverse as
they are visually powerful. The startlingly brutal
sculptures of emaciated figures by Aparicio
Arthola, formed from found objects, carved wood
and moulded plaster, bear witness to human
degradation. These are offset by the sugary popcoloured Catholic martyrs in the paintings of David
Ocn, which are strangely comforting. Ocn has
produced them with a sense of nostalgia for the
kitsch religious imagery sold to the people outside
the churches in Central America and collected in
their homes.
With the work of Raul Quintanilla, the viewer
is moved into the realm of irony and cryptic
commentary. His assemblages of objects from
native and colonial traditions illuminate a conflict
of heritage and question the hierarchies and forms
of reverence with which we are familiar.
Fragments of pre-Columbian ceramics take on the
quality of ready-mades. In Letum non omnia finite
(ncuentro entre dos mu(n)dos) (Rest in peace (Bloody