The Murcia Chys Gallery in Spain has opened an exhibit entitled DIVERTIMENTOS featuring the paintings of Cuban artists Orestes Campos and Reinaldo Pagan Avila. From the 30th of January until the 18th of February you will have the opportunity to see the works of these two incredible Cuban artists. Both Campos and Pagan were some of the original artists first featured here on Ateneo Art Cuba Gallery a long, long time ago.

“Concebimos la obra de arte como resultado de la idea, pero valoramos el oficio como complemento de la misma.” Roughly translated means, “We design the artwork as a result of the idea, but the trade value as a complement to it.” From the manifesto of the group of artists of CARA-JO of which both Pagan and Campos are founding members.

In 1991, Cara-Jo was a Cuban art project formed by a small group of artists including Yuri Moreno, Reinaldo Pagan, Leonardo Rubio and Orestes Campos in the city of Santiago de Cuba.  Cara-Jo, the name of which can be translated to many things and meanings or simply put, My Double Face.

And so the story began with each artist putting their brush to a single canvas.

As fate would have it, poet Ginés Aniorte, (who already knew of their work since early 2000) proposed they create a series of works from their own ideas. The main theme of Divertimentos are portraits of figures of history, individuals extracted from their space and time, their reality and circumstances, and sometimes their clothing, in order to create a new image, capable of honoring or criticizing their actions, which in turn was a point of reflection for Pagan and Campos. In this idea, something interesting in art was found.

We are grateful to Ginés Aniorte for letting us know about this powerful exhibition of two of our favorite Cuban artists who have created these amazing works of art. Thank you.

The two images in this article are courtesy of Pedro Serna.  These images are two of the works of art from the Divertimentos exhibit at the Murcia Chys Gallery in Spain.

Unfortunately, neither artist could obtain a visa quickly enough to attend the opening of this important exhibit.  So slow moves the chains of bureaucracy;  never did they understand the importance of art.