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Version en inglés Véronique Viala de Gallardo WHATISTHE PAINTING OF HISTORY?

THE ROOTS of the word “history” re- clouds. The work of French-Guadelou- fer to the quest of information, of truth, pean artist Guillon-Lethière, showing to the telling, the analysis and the inter- Haitian generals Pétion and Dessalines pretation of events, to a history that is sealing their union under the look of the course of life and fate as well as the God and trampling the chains of slavery, discipline that studies them. The means is an example of this style. Eugène De- of expression have become more nu- lacroix, the last great European histori- merous over the centuries, images have cal painter, was able to breathe a mythi- come to reinforce writing. Photography cal dimension to political and social rea- changed the course of representative lities. art, imposing its testimony, and taking The advent of photography and the away from the painting of history one first photoreports were to change Wes- of its raisons d'être, the visual account tern painting of history. Figurative com- of facts. As for Ramón Oviedo, he has memoration was to survive in some never stopped reinterpreting and rein- compositions during the XXth century, OVIEDO. Extinction of a race. venting history. about World War I, for example, going Mythification was an integral part of back to outmoded aesthetic forms. As traditional rhetoric and painting of his- for painting under the Western dicta- tory. Both the classical and the romantic torships, it was a mere propaganda ve- eras were times of tributes and apolo- hicle of poor pictorial quality. gies. Official art didn't give the artist A masterpiece was then to show the much room for freedom. Its favorite new way to the painting of history in form was the court portrait, Rigaud's European and universal modernity. Pa- portrayal of King Louis XIVth being ty- blo Picasso's “Guernica”, a metaphor of pical of this genre. However some pain- this Bask city flattened by German ters like Francisco de Goya did cast a bombs in April 1937, is also the work critical eye on their models. that motivated Ramón Oviedo most. In The painting of history was always it, Picasso's allegory and visual fable we- questioned, even by “its” painters. From re able to represent, not only the tra- Baron Gros, Napoléon Ist's painter, gedy of a people but also that of violen- whom the great neo-classical painter ce, of total destruction, creating a fasci- David advised to go back to “the genui- nation that spontaneously produces si- ne painting of history”, to David himself, lence . none of them was spared critics. In Latin America, where painting of In the XIXth century, the artists took history and official portraits of the reality to “surrealistic” levels, weaving the XIXth century were following European glorification of fallen heroes with eternal realistic schemes, Mexican muralism life in kitsch worlds full of half-naked dei- opened an original, didactical and revo- ties and sun rays bursting through the lutionary path. For David Alfaro Siquei-

61 PABLO PICASSO. Guernica

ros, one of the three great Mexican mu- conveying solidarity with the victims. ralists, it was a monumental and heroic, Cuban art in the 80s and 90s, at least as human and popular art, a vibrant lesson critical towards the revolutionary regi- of patriotism and art. The hostile reac- me as laudatory about its success, is al- tion to this school on the part of youn- so a good example of this trend. For ger painters took Mexican painting of despite the rise of some political and history to the same place as elsewhere religious fondamentalisms, our time re- in Latin America and Europe. In actual jects dogmatism in art.The plastic trans- fact, contemporary painting of history in position of history has become a perso- the world doesn't seek to report facts nal and critical business, often in solida- or exalt remembrances, it aims at trans- rity with the weakest, the wretched, the forming pain, denunciations, claims. Af- victims. Studies and investigations are ter World War II, it reached a point of carried out to support often iconoclast almost abstract expression, as if to re- works proclaiming both the cultural ject the extraordinary atrocities of the identity and universal actuality, an “inter- concentration camps, the holocaust and breeding” that is also a reflection of the the atomic “punishments”. ethnic reality and leaves its mark on his- Human rights, torture, civil and mili- tory-inspired art. tary violence, injustice, are among the Exhibitions in Venice, Sao Paulo, Jo- topics developed, especially since the hannesburg and Kassel, among others, 80's and in Latin America.We shall quo- have presented many of these artists te Oswaldo Guayasamín's -great friend who are the new “historiographers” of Oviedo's- “Chapell of Man”, a gigan- judging our time. tic work, the walls of which pay tribute to the Indians, denounce colonialism and fight dictatorship. This “new commitment”, nowadays expressed more often through installa- tions, “performances” or mixed sup- ports than painting, is often radical. We shall mention here Uruguayan artist and critic Luis Camnitzer's works, always

62 THE PAINTING OF HISTORY IN DOMINICAN ART

ALL LATIN AMERICAN and Caribbean 1961), who didn't bring as much pressu- countries have sought to find their own re to bear on plastic arts as on others, national plastic expression, and the Do- the “chief”'s feats didn't stimulate them minican Republic is no exception. The any more. Although one can discern a first manifestation of truly Dominican subtle opposition in some of Silvano Lo- art is the small caricature of a Haitian ra's and Eligio Pichardo's works, the soldier carved on wood, a piece attribu- “glorifying” works, commissioned por- ted to Domingo Echavarría.The first ar- traits and busts were of rather poor tists who tried to define a local identity quality. were, in their style, late romantics. Alt- In 1961, the execution of the dictator hough there were not many of them at created great commotion. Jaime Colson the end of the XIXth century, and the immortalized a decisive moment of the THÉODORE CHASSERIAU. history of art dedicates more attention struggle with his “Heroes of Espaillat Black man falling into space. to some of them than they might have street”. Democratization opened the received at other times, they played an way to a free and dynamic cultural life in important part in the development of art and litterature. Four years later, when Dominican plastic arts. the April Revolution broke out after the Alejandro Bonilla treated geographi- coup d'Etat against Juan Bosch and the cal and historical themes in a somehow Second North-American Invasion, a mi- “naïve” way that holds for us today an litant painting surged from the city in attraction maybe not well perceived arms, and History launched the great earlier on. Luis Desangles, a versatile ar- era of Dominican painting. tist, concentrated on the historical gen- Cándido Bidó, Gilberto Hernández re, between testimony and mythification: Ortega, Norberto Santana, Coco Gon- exemplary and patriotical scenes, epic tier, Asdrúbal Domínguez, Ada Balcácer, and allegorical episodes of secular or re- Domingo Liz, Ramírez Conde, and of ligious nature, portrayal of social cus- course, Silvano Lora and Ramón Ovie- toms, colonial architecture, portraits of do: art, and culture at large stood up, in notables, probably make him our “pu- 1965, for national sovereignty and the rest” historical painter, and Juan Pablo return to the Constitution. Posters, cari- Duarte's best portraitist. catures, and expressionist paintings all This longing to excite the heroism of shouted out “Yankees, go home!”, one the past also appears in Abelardo Rodrí- could even see a painting of a Christ of guez Urdaneta's statutes, and in Enrique the barricades, a rifle in his hands. This García Godoy's paintings, whose “En- passion lasted until 1972, when the counter between Martí and Máximo “New Image” exhibition was held in Gómez”, although not his best work, is Santiago. Later on, styles diversified and precious to our heart for the accuracy commitment weakened as the art mar- of the facts and people it presents. kets strengthened. Art became largely The artists who launched the mo- non political, the history of Western dern period were only marginally inte- painting interested painters more than rested in a plainly commemorative or the painting of history. Few of them did patriotic painting. Under Trujillo (1930- not follow this trend. Oviedo, painting

63 SILVANO LORA. Those.

past and present times in symbols; Ada and, beyond painting, presents them in Balcácer and Fernando Peña Defilló, ex- installations, these metaphors of upset- ploring Dominican myths; Alberto Bass, ting realities. Also the artist sometimes the only photorealist in the country; Jo- chooses to express values and beliefs in sé García Cordero then making his dé- a remote historical context, like Fernan- but; Jorge Severino and José Cestero, do Varela with biblical times. who used history and the history of art The big issues of this ending century in their paintings and drawings; José Per- are of concern to the artists, and when domo and Antonio Guadalupe, introdu- Tony Capellán, Marcos Lora Read or Jor- cing in their works elements of Taino ori- ge Pineda go from anthropology to gin. But the inspiration at large came ideology through paintings, drawings or from the artists' personal history. installations, those environments allow Thís painting of history almost totally them to reach a particularly strong and disappeared over the last twenty years, relevant expression. Ramón Oviedo, and exceptions to this trend will pro- thanks to his system of signs and sym- bably not come down to posterity. The bols independent from descriptive refe- celebrations of the Five Hundreth Anni- rences, manages to recall the distant versary of the so-called “Discovery of past as well as the crisis of today. The America”, in 1992, was for Silvano Lora onlooker has to read through them a the opportunity to paint a series of historical perception which he will be great symbolic and critical strength. able to follow like a thread through Photography, as elsewhere in the most of the Master's works. world, has taken over from painting to convey emotions linked with reality.Wi- fredo García, Polibio Díaz, Martín López report the often tragic moments of the life of the Dominican people. But there too, the perspective has changed, the ar- tist re-invents, “surrealizes”, uses irony. History isn't being told visually but in an indirect, allegorical way that requires an intellectual effort from the viewer. The artist uses a fiction of signs and symbols

64 RAMÓN OVIEDO’S PAINTING

AFTER THE DEATH of our lamented colonizer, immortalizing Caonabo's Darío Suro, a pioneer of Dominican martyrdom, and was able to give to the contemporary art, Ramón Oviedo is the representation of slums this same tellu- Dominican painter who keeps the fire of ric strength, the same militant philo- permanent experimentation and cons- sophy. tant renewal burning. In the 70s, Ramón Oviedo concen- Ramón Oviedo started both late and trated on his canvasses a deep anxiety, early. Early, because he demonstrated in extending his investigations to the exis- his tender years great talent in drawing; tential path of the being (“Uno que Va, late, because he had to work while ot- Uno que Viene, Uno que Va, Uno que hers were studying, thus postponing his Viene”, -One who Goes, One who Co- public appearance and enriching his mes, One who Goes, One who Comes- work at the same time. Oviedo is a man 1974)... and always giving in to his thirst who made himself, between local and for experimentation. At that time, he universal dimensions, curious about was piling up paste, rolling, grating, rub- everything, training his hand, looking at bing, marking it with lines, applying on it and listening to what happened around his “seal”, the obsessive print of his self- him, admiring Velázquez, Cézanne and portrait. He didn't hesitate to paint one OVIEDO. Percussion shape. Picasso. canvas on top of another one, as if pha- A precocious artist, he virtually went sing two moments of creation or two from total ignorance to surprising picto- historical dimensions into each other. ric and practical solutions. A master of After the famous “Oviedo red” came drawing, he sides with Ingres who said the blue, and Oviedo-the-clairvoyant that, to be a great artist, you have to be went on with his cosmic exploration of a great drawer. His art fits in with the so- future prospects. Like Tamayo, he always cial history in his country and the lot of was a man of his time, fascinated by humanity. Although he is able to catch science and technology, by the discover- the charm of feminine faces, he has de- y/experimentation/progress process. voted himself above all to impress our His exhibition “Oviedo. Urgent, 300.000 senses, our peace of mind, in composi- kms/sec.”, in 1986, was resolutely loo- tions exposing with vigorous energy the king at the future and presented a vision ravages of poverty and injustice. of an apocalypsis provoked by a man An epic painter, Oviedo fixed in legi- wild with speed and mathematical for- ble signs patriotic episodes, genuine mulas, running the risk of self-destruc- “Dominican Guernicas”, because, be- tion. The uneven texture of the works yond his admiration for Picasso, he pos- also conveys physically this fatal distur- sesses this unbelievable ability to transla- bance. te the violence of the aggressor and the Ten years ago, during his second re- resistance of the oppressed. While the trospective in the Santo Domingo Mu- Catalan genius stigmatized German seum of Modern Art, Oviedo presented bombings, Oviedo faced up to the can- more than 700 works in an intent to nons of the American invader (“24 de show the totality of his production, in- abril 1965”) or of the former Spanish cluding his weak points. He thus told the

65 story of a quarter of a century of artis- tic creation along with centuries of local, continental and universal history, wit- hout forgetting the history of the arts, with Picasso in the lead, followed by Ve- lazquez, Cézanne, Gauguin, Francis Ba- con and Rufino Tamayo. Oviedo demonstrates his absolute mastery of his art on murals of conside- rable proportions as well as on tiny for- mats, even with a ball-point pen on a grocer's paper bag. Although he strong- ly identifies with expressionism, no “ism”, no style holds him, and only abstraction never tempted him, because he wants his painting to talk to each and everyo- ne, to the ignorant and to the neophyte, to the insider and to the expert. Says art critic Laura Gil: , “at the age of seventy, he still defines himself as a re- bel, always ready to denounce social in- justice, to refuse, as an artist, to be labe- lled under a given theme or style”. He became even more radical lately -which is exceptional for an artist with his expe- OVIEDO. Still life. rience-, schematizing figures into con- cepts, sensations, intellectual references, within an iconographical world wrap- ping all worlds. A virtuoso of lines and strokes, Ovie- do is also a tireless investigator of mat- ters, textures, layers of pigment, of hues in all ranges. Lately he has been reducing the layers of painting with metal blades almost to the point of intangibility, crea- ting “dematerialized”, incredibly light sur- faces.

66 RAMÓN OVIEDO’S MURALS

AT THE BEGINNING of the XXth cen- In another bank, the BHD, “Sinfonía tury, Mexican muralism “art for all, art Tropical” (Tropical Symphony, BHD) for the struggle” (David Alfaro Siquei- presents a genuine lesson of history of ros) had a deep influence in Mexico and classic and modern art. He who, in the abroad. A great lesson of history and an 70s, had recreated Velázquez' “Meni- instrument of revolutionary propagan- nas”, there makes eyes at the Flamish da, its ideological objective was essen- painting of the XVIIth century. Move- tial. Murals in the Dominican Republic ments and hues, tones and cadences, vi- were also concerned with popular edu- sual rythms also express a tribute to cation but less militant, dominantly in music and combine in a delicious work neo-classical style. Spanish master José of art. Vela Zanetti left in Santo Domingo a Oviedo's murals demonstrate bri- great heritage in this area. Oviedo, who lliantly his multi-facetted talent. The practiced his themes with acrylic on most ethno-anthropological of them all canvas, expressed the transformation of is the one he painted at the Faculty of the world and accompanied humanity Architecture and Engineering of the with a message full of hope. He is the Universidad Autonoma of Santo Do- only Dominican who painted murals mingo. Under the title “Raices” (Roots), abroad. His “Mamamérica” (1982, OAS , this allegory of ancestral heritage rela- OVIEDO. Mural in O.A.S., Washington. Washington D.C.), and his “Cultura Pe- tes the formation of a cultural identity trificada” (Petrified Culture, 1991, on the basis of the interbreeding of UNESCO, Paris) evoke the final victory Spaniards, Africans and Amerndians. In after the sufferings and the struggles of Haina, at the Customs' Offices, “Turbu- humanity. lencia Milenaria” (Millenary Turbulence) In his country, the mural at the Natu- evokes the anxiety brought about by ral History Museum offers a vision of the enigma of our presence to the the human condition through scientific world, of our destiny. conquests. Pyramids, old metropolis, Az- Oviedo, a painter of the third mille- tec calendar, ideograms, compass, teles- nium, also feels what has not happened cope, radar, rocket, satellite, planets: 55 yet. In this recent mural, a luminous ondulating square meters recall the creature in formation is making its way progress of human knowledge, the ac- through the darkness of times. Goya celeration of which Oviedo can feel. In would not have denied this strange 1983, at the Board of the Central Bank painting where monsters bring to life a in his country, Ramón Oviedo painted surrealistic space. Maybe Oviedo re- “Evolution”, a gigantic canvas depicting membered Guayasamín saying that we humanity through time and space, from are going through the worst period in tense red to peaceful and hopeful blue. the history of humanity, but the embryo At first merging man and the earth, te- brings a message of hope, just like the lling about slavery and colonization, light-child at the Central Bank. “I never exalting the march towards indepen- am a defeatist but a triumphalist”, insists dance and freedom, it announces a ra- Ramón Oviedo, and each of his murals diant future of light-bathed childhood. is, in its own way, a witness to it.

67 EASEL PAINTING AND THE THEMES OF HISTORY

OVIEDO, OF COURSE, is one of the fa- “La Caída de un Tirano” (The Fall of vourite painters of art critics, some of a Tyrant) was painted in 1965. Trujillo whom are great friends of his. Says one had been executed and could no longer of them, poet Efraim Castillo: “... since do any harm, but -and this is still true 1963 and until 1988, (...) this quarter of fourty years later- the collapse of his ab- Dominican century can be read through solute power had a dreadful impact. Ramón Oviedo's pictorial and graphic Thus the sinister, monkey-like figure objects. (...) no other national plastic ar- about to crumble gives the impression tist has told this story with the same of threatening gigantism, a terrible hook heartbreak, the same pain and beauty, suggesting the viciousnesss of the crea- with the same humanism.” ture or what is left of it. Paintings, drawings, sketches, thou- “24 de Abril” (April, 24th), although sands of works attest the route this ar- painted the same year, could be the tist has followed, a symbol of their age, work of someone else, but despite the underlining even the historic account difference in style, both pictures are they bear.The former copywriter learnt stamped with death. the lessons of his old trade, immediately Between the angular expressionnism capturing the attention in works of stri- of “El Espantajo” (The Scarecrow) in king message and composition.Although 1969 and “Levántate Lázaro” (Get up, OVIEDO. Sketch for the portrait of two titans. he never completely abandons a theme Lazarus) in 1970, Oviedo is taking a new (self-portraits) or his main style (expres- course, which could be one of the rea- sionism), Oviedo is always investigating. dings of this work, the religious theme of Each of his periods lasts about five years. which also alludes to the resurrection of 1963-1965 corresponded to the tough the country. times of the coup d'Etat against Juan “April 24th” and “Caonabo, Primer Bosch and are a key moment in Ovie- Preso Político de América” (Caonabo, do's career.The fall of the tyrant had un- First Political Prisonner of America) are veiled the misery of the people under Oviedo's “Guernica”, expressing the lo- Trujillo's regime; Oviedo painted very ve for freedom and bravery. .In the heat hard pictures, with grotesque or sche- of the battle of April, 24th, Oviedo pain- matic characters whose scrawny figures ted like a visionnary, transcending local and despondent looks still have the events at universal level. In the historical energy of the common people. genre, this painting is the most impor- Under the rags, behind the hunger, tant work in Dominican history, in plas- the instinct of survival goes with a mu- tic arts as well as in ideology. ted violence, ready to burst. There is The “Caonabo” painted in 1972 re- nothing to lose, and of the worker in calls the history of Spanish colonization “Obreros de Brazos Caídos”, (Workers with the same furious indignation as if it with Lowered Arms) or of the woman were a barbarity of present times. Besi- in “La Fila” (The Queue) are humiliated des, the artist introduces the idea that, bodies, their stare unbearable, elemen- although history can not be rewritten, tary beings radiating a serious and dis- the hope to see the people triumph has quieting atmosphere. not yet been buried. This work, even

68 OVIEDO. Get up Lazarus.

more “picassian” than “24 de abril”, dis- He still worries about the fate of hu- plays splendorous drawing and conveys manity, specially that of the peoples of a huge psychical and physical tension. Latin America. His “Cultura Petrificada” Oviedo's historical gaze can also be (Petrified Culture) that became a mural lighter, funny even, as in “El Segundo at the UNESCO Palace in Paris, laun- Viaje” (The Second Journey) in which, ches a new “frozen cry”, desperate re- without ever giving up his solidarity with sistance in front of the strategies of an the poor and the wretched, the artist gi- all-pervasive power. ves way to humour and play. Looking for a way to escape from In 1974, when Oviedo last produced the globalizing hold of the future, Ra- a painting of history with his “Boceto pa- món Oviedo denounces with humour ra el Retrato de Dos Titanes”(Sketch for the televisual fascination and daily hyp- the Portrait of two Titans), his “Uno que notism in front of a new type of slavery. Va, Otro que Viene, Uno que Va, Otro que Viene” (One who is Going, One who is Coming, One who is Going, One who is Coming), a contemporanean classic and a landmark in the history of Dominican and Latin-American art, ear- ned him the Great Prize of Honour of the National Biennial of Plastic Arts. In it Oviedo investigates the inexorable way of the cross of humanity since the begin- ning of times, sending out a cry of hel- plessness and revolt. Oviedo, fascinated by the present and the future, wants to go further than the past. But while others become into- xicated with futurist perspectives, he ex- presses the panic that provoke in him the unforeseable consequences of the accelerated change in our world.

69 THE HISTORY OF RAMÓN OVIEDO IS NOT OVER...

SO EVEN IF HE GAVE up the painting Although the bulk of Oviedo's work of history a long time ago, the whole of is well known, it is not the case for his Oviedo's work bears the mark of the last creations, since 1997, and a quan- “worry about the constant crisis that is tity of them will be reproduced bet- the life of man”,. ween now and the December 2000 Since 1994, his esthaetic and techni- exhibition at the Museum of Modern cal investigations on the “Evolutive per- Art in Santo Domingo. Its title, “Mile- sistence of form in matter” have made nios” (Millenia), is rooted in time, an the image a visual event; deciphering its open door onto the infinite. content is not a priority any more.The The remembrances of the past are artist meditates on painting, using signs making their way into the memory of in space, forms in movement, vibrating the future... Ramón Oviedo's history is nuances and very elaborate reliefs. His far from over. science of light increases the vitality of the surface. He strives for an almost transparent thinness of color; his titles are often physical, almost abstract: “Forma Insinuante” (Insinuating Shape), “Forma Atrapada” (Trapped Shape), “Forma de Llegar a Otra Latitud” (Way to Reach a Different Latitude), “Forma OVIEDO. Shape to emit sounds. Confusa” (Confused Form).The painter lets the paint speak in complete free- dom. It is not the intentions or the ideas of the painter that speak, but the forms”. For the first time, Ramón Ovie- do is giving up the meaning of the ob- jects, allowing the lines and structures, colors et textures to speak; he hasn't thrown away his archetypes though, keeping his distinctive traits in icono- graphy as in the titles. Humour and play, poetry and metaphor, enigmas and mysteries live under the same roof and feed his work. His rich backgrounds ha- ve their own dynamics, a signography narrowly linked with that of central or foreground figures.

70 REVEALATION AND REBELLION OF AN ARTIST

RAMÓN OVIEDO was born in 1927 in exhibition, in 1963, and better even the Dominican Republic, to parents who about the one he presented in 1966, in had three sons together and then par- Andrés Salon's gallery, where he opened ted. He remembers his grandfather, San- his first mixed drawing-painting exhibi- tiago Oviedo, who was a general and tion, about which Contín Aybar noted the Governor of the Southern Zone, that it bore no trace of the “mechanics “One of these generals in the style of of publicity”. Gabriel García Márquez, with a machete During the War of April, the artists in his belt and a blunderbuss.” stood by the side of the Constitutiona- The three brothers were separated, lists and made posters, banderoles, exhi- and Ramón was raised by his grandmot- bitions, a unique cultural work in Domi- her. When he got to the capital city, in nican history.“(...) we would stick propa- 1934, he had already started to draw ganda everywhere, everywhere where passionately. “I remember that when I the Americans could see it .The Ameri- was very little, I used to scribble with cans took with them one of my carica- sticks, or with my fingers, attracted by tures of Uncle Sam”. graphics and painting. And then I got the Going back in time, Oviedo remem- stimulation of my father”, a draftsman at bers how, in the 50s, he was once sum- the Ministery of Public Works. monned to do the calligraphy and dra-

Oviedo also remembers his uncle Al- wing homeworks of two of Trujillo's OVIEDO. Imaginary self-portrait varo, who had lost one leg, and had ma- offspring... and also how one of the dic- as a child. 1976. de him his morning accomplice in the tator's natural daughters had him make daily inspection of the vegetable garden. the portrait of her grandfather after a “He would pick a fruit and part it for us photograph, in 43 or 44. The lady just to eat. I will never forget him, for he ga- congratulated him from the top of the ve me affection at an age when all chil- stairs and predicted him a bright futu- dren need it.” Ramón Oviedo had to be- re... gin earning a living very early.At nine, he was an errand boy in a photoengraving workshop and thus learnt about litho- graphy and the printing of newspapers. As a young man, he also worked for advertising agencies, as a “designer”, but he says: “When you have a vocation, it doesn't matter what happens. It's like a classical musician who would have pla- yed in barn dances in his early stages... it doesn't spoil him, he will know how to change.” Oviedo recalls his promising start, the two great critics of that time, Pedro Re- né Contín Aybar and Manuel Valldepe- res, who spoke very well about his first

71 CHRONICLE OF AN ANNOUNCED MASTERSHIP

was the beginning of his “red period”, a Oviedo's career abroad “exploded”: Mu- time that put a stamp on Dominican seum of Latin-American Modern Art of plastic arts.Three of his works were tur- the O.A.S., El Salvador, tribute to Joan Mi- ned down in 1970 at the Municipal Bien- ró, Biennial of Drawing in Washington nial; however one of them,“Jugadores de D.C., Domecq Biennial in Mexico... Ajedrez” (The Chess Players), was later The work changes, dominant blues purchased by the Sao Paolo Biennial, and other colors, green, purple, enclosed another one sold in Santo Domingo, characters and self-portraits gravitating while the third painting, the famous in space, sewing of the canvas itself... “Caonabo”, is now hanging at the Bella- “The red (...) marked the beginning of a part Museum. radical change. It was difficult to get out Two other works were turned down of it... People tend to label you “The red in 1965 at the Esso Competition for is dominant in Oviedo's work”... But it is Young Painters. Between two bursts of not so, I have used all colors, in back- laughter, Oviedo recalls the quarrels ground and in forms (...)”. among artists during the hanging of this Then there were the two special re- exhibition. More recently, in a collective trospectives at the Museum of Modern

RAMÓN OVIEDO addressing the public at exhibition, somebody took down one of Art, the 1988 one was immense. “There the presentation of his first monography, his works from the central place it occu- was a huge number of works in the last written by Hamlet Rubio. pied and relegated it to a dark corner... it one, it gave rise to critics. But that was was the first painting to be bought in this part of what gave an idea of the ground event, while the usurper didn't sell anyt- gained (...). “ hing. This memory still makes Oviedo Ramón Oviedo is touched every ti- laugh. me he mentions the great Cuban art In 1974, Ramón Oviedo won the First critic Gómez Sicre, who did so much for Prize of Honor in the National Biennial the promotion of Latin-American art FROM 1966 onwards, art changed from that honored the most important repre- and fought for Oviedo to be commissio- a political and social form of opposition sentatives of national contemporary ned a mural at the headquarters of the to a broader thematic, at a time when painting.“(...) my painting had undergone O.A.S. the industrialization of the country was a new evolution, it was something new in Although Oviedo is in constant evolu- under way and a more acceptable regi- Dominican painting.Today, this painting is tion, he doesn't break with the anterior me was in power; “in the beginning, we still different ...”.The following year, Ovie- phases of his work There is a leading th- had a rather pleasant impression of Bala- do exhibited ten new, very experimental read of forms and signs in his drawings guer's regime, later things deteriorated. canvasses that gave rise to many com- and his paintings.“I always try to do bet- (...) As for me, I had entered a different ments.“I have made many experiments... ter than I have done before.This is why I phase of painting, one that was rewarded since the 60s, when I first used and mi- always wait a good while between each with two successive prizes in the E. León xed ashes and sand... Actually, I recently exhibition. I don't saturate the public Jimenes art competition, one for “The got to see again some of the works I did with my works...” Scare-Crow”, a light theme that has been then and found they remained intact, as Today there are many prestigious in- widely treated, the other for “Get up, La- well done as a well baked biscuit!”. ternational projects in store for him -big zarus”, a more philosophical one. From 1976 onwards, after José Gó- festivals, museums, fairs, European collec- The artist reached a more sophistica- mez Sicre and the jury of the National tions-. It looks like Ramón Oviedo will al- ted, more narrative period in his work. It Biennial gave him the Prize of Honor, so be an artist of the future.

72