Page 354 - Arte e Historia
P. 354
Danilo De los Santos
lines and forms automatic calligraphy. «Profile,» mixed An sculptor with a great command of every material
media/paper, no date, 27x20 cm. A two planes composition to conceive his artwork, his arrival and residency in San-
shows a mosaic, reproducing a profile of a Greek-Ro- to Domingo allowed him to enrich his tridimensional
man remembrance; informally framed in blue, against a and pictorial work, as he captured mulatto typology and
watered sepia squared background in which some blue the tropical nature.
veins are visible. The drawing is pure and the chromatic
tones, warm. «Nudes of a Woman,» no date, charcoal/paper, «Nude,» oil/papier-mache, 22x28 cm., 1941. A different
76x59 cm. Sketched on steady and fast lines. The author version of this theme is known, executed on gouache and
is sharp and caustic while translating the features of a ink on paper, dated in 1946. The one on the bank col-
marginalized, angry, brown woman; looked at naked, lection captures the olive-skinned woman, also sounding
half-length. «Cottage,» watercolour/paper, 1948, 36x50 cm. out the horizon, sitting near a tableland, part of a grey-
A vision of an undefined habitat on a symmetrical com- ish blue sky. «Couple and a Horse,» water-colour/paper, lack-
position, presented on on scarce watercolour diluted ing measures, 1947. The theme reenact an antiquity idyllic
tones. At the centre, a creole house, side trees and a scene. From top of a huge mythological animal, a woman
fence allowing access to some of them. It is an essen- prone over a hieratic man wearing a long tunic. The man
tial nocturnal landscape. The coloured zones underline from the front, the woman from the back wearing a short
the atmosphere created by the greyish blue sky and the attire; long hair; both form a body in minority compared
brown, overshadowed by diverse stains, familiar to the with the resting beast’s bombast, whose profile is con-
expressionism’ silent fields. nected to four sharp bars. «Athlete,» ink and gouache/paper
12x7 cm., no date. A succinct and precise drawing focused
Manolo Pascual. (Bilbao, 1903/Nueva York, 1983). on a young athlete, on sports clothes showing an strong
physic in a frontal movement showing up his profile. The
Innate sculptor, at 16 years old was awarded the Hon- dark cadmium yellow pigment, gives total unity to the
our Medal from the San Francisco Academy in Madrid, piece. «Nude,» gouache and ink/paper, 21x29 cm., no date. The
where he studied until he received a scholarship to pursue artist was obviously attracted by the female model with
studies in Paris. There he stays for five years (1925.1930). mulatto features as the one portrayed here. Naked, she
Back in Spain, he competes for the Roma’s Great Prize is seated on a white fabric showing up her cinnamon de-
and receive a tuition to continue studies in Italy. There meanour as all her body’s skin. She, at the centre and re-
he has an individual exhibition. A Liberal and Repub- solved with a precise stroke, having as a scenery a daylight
lican, he get involved on the Spanish civil war and as a landscape of land, sea and sky, interpreted with defining
consequence, is forced to go into exile. In 1939 he arrives and sober spectrum.
in Santo Domingo as a political refugee. This very same
year he produces and individual drawings and paintings José Vela Zanetti. (Milagros, Burgos, 1913/1999). He
exhibition, having as a home and atelier, the setting of
the San Francisco ruins. Due to his reputation, he takes arrives to Dominican land with so many other exiles, run-
orders, participates on various national exhibitions and ning away from their home country civil war, in 1939. He
organizes several individual exhibitions. In 1942 he was came ready to work on anything. Registered as a painter at
appointed as the Principal of the Fine Arts National the time he opened up his first individual exhibition in the
School, position he kept until 1951, when he and his capital city in 1940. His pictorial knowledge was limited,
family moved to New York. almost like a self-educated painter, but he was embraced
specially by the modern architects, who discovered in him
355
