Beschreibung:

Rene Portocarrero (Cuban, 1912-1985) "Santa Barbara", 1963 oil on academy board signed and dated lower right. Framed. 19-1/4" x 9-1/2", framed 28-1/4" x 18" Provenance: Private collection, Florida. Notes: "The religious work of Portocarrero has an enriching element in its paradoxical character, with angels with atrophied wings that will make the celestial flight difficult, but not impossible." --Ramon y Sergio Cernuda Rene Portocarrero, one of the most important Cuban artists of the 20th century, advocated a national art that drew its inspiration from its Afro-Cuban roots. A native of Havana, Portocarrero was a prodigious autodidactic; he was a painter, sculptor, ceramicist, scene designer, muralist and illustrator, whose scope and range of art in the Caribbean rivals that of Pablo Picasso in Europe. He exhibited throughout the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe, making close acquaintances with Fidel Castro and Peggy Guggenheim. He produced copious public works for Cuban prisons, hospitals and theaters. His commitment to improving lives through communal art was recognized by the Bulgarian and Polish Governments, as well as earning him many prestigious honors, including a seat on UNESCO's International Association of Fine Art, the "Felix Varela" prize from Cuba, and the "Aztec Eagle" - Mexico's highest award. Portocarrero's works are conserved worldwide in leading institutions and museums, including paintings of Santa Barbara that resemble the one offered here. Santa Barbara was a saint/spirit that Portocarrero visited numerous times. Her feast day, December 4, is one of the most important festival days in Cuba, as it is also shared with Chango, the Yorubian Lord of Fire and Lightening, a semi-divine intermediary between God and human beings. In the 16th century, when the Spanish shipped enslaved Yorubians and Nigerians from West Africa to the new world, they were forced, among other indignities, to convert to Catholicism. From indentured labor and faith, the indigenous spirits (orichas) became syncretized with the saints, allowing various West African tribes to preserve elements of their cultural beliefs in a hostile environment. Spanish Colonial planters mistakenly characterized the worship of indigenous gods under the guise of saints as "Santeria" - a deviant form of prayer that privileges idolatries of saints over that of Christ. Following the Cuban Revolution, Santeria was revitalized as a recognized religion of Cuba and spread beyond the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Santa Barbara was widely revered. Her life of suffering and perseverance became a metaphor for enslaved personages. Incarcerated in a tower for having converted to Christianity, she remained true to her faith through trials of torture in which her own father tried to burn her at the stake, and was struck down by lightning when that failed. As the patron saint of artillerymen, military engineers, miners and others who work with explosives, she embodied revolution and empowerment. In Santeria, Chango the powerful male spirit of lightning, thunder, war and dance, depicted in red and white with a crown, is assimilated with the female saint, becoming a symbol of fertility and rebirth. In this work Portocarrero celebrates the Santa Barbara of Santeria creating a spiritual carnality that beats to the drum of a multicultural Cuba - that a Cuban critic succinctly summarized: "His pen and brush will give us virgins and Santa Barbara, Christ and cathedrals of a baroque vocabulary that is tropical and joyful, where even tragic themes like crucifixions become joyful, with butterflies announcing their resurrection and female angels that delight with their [voluptuous] curves." References: Sergio Cernuda, Ramon y. "Rene Portocarrero: lo spiritual en su obra." Cubancuentro. August 14, 2014. Web. September 21, 2017; Bondil, Nathalie. Cuba: Art and History from 1868 to Today. Montreal: Museum of Fine Arts, 2008.