El monte - Painting by Carlos Luna:
Provenance
Private Collection, Mexico.
CCG Art Collection, Miami, Florida, USA.
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Exhibited
Miramar Cultural Center - Artspark, Mirimar, Florida, April 3 - September 7, 2009.
Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
October 2, 2008 - February 23, 2009.
Museo Amparo, Mexico, August 4, 1995 - September 16, 1995.
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Literature
Carlos Luna, Mi Madre, Mi Patria, Museo Amparo, August 4, 1995 - September 16, 1995,
p. 31, Published July 1995, Illustrated in color.
Pablo Picasso Ceramics, Carlos Luna Paintings, p. 173 (Cat. 57), Published 2008,
ISBN: 978-0-9678056-8-9.
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Museum Description
Carlos Luna
El monte
… one icon, one sign, one motif, infinitely repeated throughout the artist’s oeuvre,
occupies the most exalted hierarchical distinction. This figure appears as a half-moon
with nose and eyes, and it is the mark of the sacred, the essential, upon Luna’s
work. In it, we recognize the figure of the orisha Elegguá, a god in the Yoruba pantheon.
Wifredo Lam, the artist best known internationally in the first generation of Cuban
artists, said that he tended not to use a “precise symbology,” although this sign
for Elegguá often appears in his paintings.
Elegguá is a deity that mediates between men and nature, and … he presides … over
this apotheosis of Afro-Cuban imagery. Devil or saint, Elegguá is an incorrigible
peeping-tom who takes on the role of witness and embodies the critical vision of
life central to the work of Carlos Luna. He is present in melodramas involving romantic
affairs gone awry, in political attacks against Castro, and in the farces starred
in by the Guajiro-Man — three main subjects constantly repeated, with variations,
throughout Luna’s work. The Sexy Lady, The Cayman (which the outline of the island
of Cuba is often said to resemble), and the Horse complete the dramatis personae
of Luna’s theater. It is important to note that the use of these signs is one of
many revelations of Luna’s profound and complicated positioning within the rich tradition
of twentieth and twenty-first century Cuban art; all of the signs are related to
the affirmation of national identity through Afro-Cuban symbology.
- Enrique Garcia Gutierrez ©
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The Cisneros Capital Group (CCG) Art Collection is a private art collection - primarily
made up of Latin American paintings. We are pleased to present paintings, sculptures
and drawings by Carlos Luna, an outstanding Cuban painter and sculptor.
The CCG Carlos Luna Art Collection is being presented online so that more people
can enjoy these great paintings. If you work for a Museum, City Cultural Center,
or University Institution and are interested in an exhibition of Carlos Luna, please
contact us.
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