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Camaguey's
Enchanted House of Art
Dalia
Acosta
CAMAGUEY, Cuba, (IPS) - Few
cities in Cuba boast a house like that
of artists Ileana Sánchez and Joel
Jover, which is open all day to local
and foreign visitors, and does triple
duty -- as an art gallery,
studio/workshop and home.
But the most outstanding feature is
not the frescos on the walls, the 19th
century colonial architecture, the
well and large earthen jars on the
patio, or the windows, which are
typical of Camagüey, located 570 kms
east of Havana.
Visitors are struck by the works of Sánchez,
Jover and a number of other artists,
friends of these two representatives
of the best of contemporary Cuban art,
which cover the walls and every corner
of the old house.
Four ''jicoteas'' (land turtles) come
out to eat when they see that the
seven cats are being fed. ''These
little guys receive a lot of
affection,'' says Jover, explaining
why all the cats are friendly and
sociable towards strangers.
The staircase, made of fine wood,
doesn't lead anywhere. The steps are
full of books, and at the top hangs a
sheet painted by Jover for the last
Havana Biennial, an international art
show where artists from Latin America,
the Caribbean, Asia and Africa show
their works.
''We've been living here for around 10
years. We've been offered all kinds of
options to move, because this is part
of the national heritage, and it is
also in a prime location. But we don't
want to leave this place, which is our
home,'' Sánchez told IPS.
The door-knocker is rarely silent.
There are weeks in which Sánchez
spends most of her time chatting with
the tourists who show up to look
around and ask questions. ''It is a
rare day that I can sit down to paint
before 10 or 11 at night,'' she says.
The tourists come from all over, from
other Latin American countries, Spain
and the United States. The house is
located off the grounds of the Camagüey
cathedral, right in the centre of
town.
The boom of private art galleries in
Cuba began in the late 1990s. But most
of them are more commercial in
character, or are studios that the
state has granted to a select group of
artists.
''I was very surprised that you can
see such good art in a spot that is so
far away from Havana,'' says Rafael
Gutiérrez, a Spanish tourist.''Since
I arrived in Camagüey, everyone has
been telling me I shouldn't miss the
artists' house.''
Novelist, poet and essayist Roberto Méndez
wrote that the work of Ileana Sánchez,
who was born in Camagüey in 1958, has
grown enormously, although art critics
have largely ignored it.
After several attempts by Sánchez to
achieve what Méndez describes as ''a
personal stamp or style resistant to
the ups-and-downs of whatever's in
vogue,'' her work made a ''definitive
shift'' between 1996 and 1997, and she
began to embark on what the writer
said could be called a ''reinvention
of the tropics.''
''Black people, drawn with the same
lack of inhibition that the artist
learned from children, play, love,
celebrate, and fly through the air
with a limitless optimism. There is no
traditionalism, not even reflections
of local styles,'' said the writer.
After saying mass in Camagüey on Jan.
23, 1998, Pope John Paul II was
presented with a gift -- a painting
that made him smile, and which
reportedly now forms part of the papal
art collection.
The painting, by Sánchez, showed two
little black children flying up to a
smiling God from a city full of bell
towers, which Méndez said recalled
the profile of the buildings in Camagüey.
''In discussing her work, people have
talked about art naif or primitive
art, but there could be no more
inappropriate classification,'' wrote
Méndez.
Sánchez's art is as distant as can
be, stylistically, from the work of
the man who was once her teacher and
is now her husband. Also born in the
province of Camagüey, in 1953, Jover
has enjoyed some recognition in Cuba,
but as in the case of his wife, not as
much as he deserves.
''Jover expresses a deep-rooted
refusal to produce a prim, sweet,
complacent or superficially pleasing
painting. His works are not 'pretty'
because he....loves humanity too much
not to dare to criticise it,'' critic
Gerardo Mosquera wrote in 1980.
Méndez places Jover closer to the
German expressionists than to the
tradition of ''local Cuban colour.''
In 1988, when he exhibited his ''Human
Paintings'', it became clear that ''he
has arrived at a very high point in
his search,'' he wrote.
The paintings ''are full of mutilated
beings, couples between whom love is
an aggression, children overwhelmed by
the experience of a traumatic home,
painted with a freedom of action that
does not hesitate to use dirty colours.''
More than 20 years later, Jover
continues to challenge with each new
series of paintings. This year, he
surprised Havana with a series in
which he depicted reality by using
white lines on a black background,
and, once in a while, a flag.
Between expositions, Jover painted
murals at the Park of Legends in Camagüey
this year, and Sánchez produced
paintings and engravings for a new inn
that opened in the city.
Of course, they have also been tempted
to move to the capital. ''More
opportunities, more exhibitions,
you're in contact with everything
that's going on in the world of art.
We know all that, but in the end we
always decide to stay here. This is
our home,'' said Sánchez.
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