Mario Agusto Garcia Portela
(Cuban, b. 1942)
El Autor y su Obra (The Artist and His Work)
1994
ink and photographs on illustration board,
20" x 26 1/2"
Gift of the Artist
As he sits on a garbage heap with head in
hand, Cuban artist Mario Portela intends this autobiographical image
to underscore his belief that the real work of the artist is that
of wresting and constructing meaning from the confusion and detritus
of everyday life and experience. His technique of merging precise
monochromatic ink drawings with black and white or sepia toned photographs
also alludes to the artist’s role as a mediator between fact
and fiction, and between history and contemporary life. It is indeed
difficult to tell where his accomplished drawing leaves off and the
photograph begins. Their monochromatic palette and references to
the poverty of rural Cuban society lends them an air of nostalgia,
as if Portela’s scenes were frozen in time or memory. Critical
references to the intrusion of American consumerism – in the
forms of pizza boxes, soft drink cups and discarded shopping bags – often
dot Portela’s landscapes as well.
The acquisition by the Tweed Museum of Art of works by Mario Portela
and several other Cuban artists resulted from a series of cultural
exchanges organized between 1995 and 1998 by the museum and a host
of other community groups, in collaboration with the Union of Writers
and Artists of Cuba, headquartered in Pinar del Rio. For the Cuban
participants, these exhibition exchanges offered a first opportunity
to exhibit their work in the U.S. Likewise, a group of artists from
northern Minnesota and Wisconsin participated in exhibitions and
cultural visits in Cuba. |
