Page 356 - Arte e Historia

Danilo De los Santos

other reasons, also because we know him deep down,unsuspected DECADE OF 1950. PARADIGMATIC
conquests on the most mysterious horizons of his skills». AUTHORS AND WORKS

«Lovers,» oil/canvas, 84x69 cm., 1946. Painting exhib- Although it has been promoted as an outcome of the
ited at this artist’s first individual showing. Its theme is Trujillo’s «benefactor» politic, the national arts’ mill is
ann eloquent couple’s love relationship, against an imag- rising and unstoppable when the government actions on
inary landscape marked by certain surreal atmosphere: education, the institutional and promotion took place.
the arcade, the architecture, the cloth hanging and the While this politics are official, the essential causes are
shadows in parallel to the lovers robust bodies. defined by the managerial cultural vocation. In the main
cities, music and visual arts professors have been promot-
Yoryi Morel. With national and international recognition ing academies and orchestral groups; the literary intellec-
tuals have been gathering in clubs, holding conferences,
by the critics, in 1939 his painting «The Market,» acquired Juegos Florales and other types of activities. All this re-
by the Business Corporation from New York; is awarded veals the associative mentality in all aspects of the nation-
with the Bronze Medal at the Art National Exhibition in al life. The «Ateneism» promoted by Manuel de Js. Peña
the mentioned city. This year his painting «Dominican y Reynoso y Virgilio Díaz Ordoñez; the promotor femi-
Landscape» is shown at the Riverside Museum. In 1940 nism of Abigail Mejía Woss y Gil’s, among othe women,
Yoryi receives the Medal to Pro Art Merit from the Ateneo the recreational’s and the ladies’ clubs as it was the «Club
Amantes de la Luz and his paintings are exhibit on every Nosotras…» all these are part of the various undertaking
showing organized by the Dominican State. His Academy that first of all, gives rise to the urban culture since XIX
in Santiago gets official recognition. In 1947 he travels to century until the third, fourth and fifth decade of the
the United States as a State Department guest. In 1948 is XX, when the visual arts flowering expanded due to the
appointed as professor and a year later as deputy director of foreigner and national flow.
the Fine Arts National School, with residence at the capital
city, Santo Domingo, with his wife and children. Until 1950 we can talk of various artistic generations
converging from the precursor tradition to modernity
The Mexican critic, Ulises Monferrer, focus on the and local avant-garde, which, in literature represents the
artist in 1946: «Yoryi Morel is a master who dedicate his «postumistas,» «Los Nuevos,» los «Sorprendidos,» «The
devotion and talent to the task to affix into his canvas the 48’Generation» and the independent voices as autono-
Dominican landscapes light and their prodigious colour range. mous of the political refugees that endorse on a perma-
His people’s traditions find on his brushes an accurate ob- nent or transitional way, the insular realm. All them,
server and their human and political qualities uplifter.» leave an influential stamp on the native character. This
Dominican character can be measure on experienced art-
«Enramada,» oil/cardboard, 59x73 cm., 1948-1949. A ists like Colson, Morel and Suro, as well as the emerging
country scene brings together six peasants on a typical ones, lead by Gilberto Hernández Ortega and Antonio
cane and sticks brush shelter. An architecture and com- Prats-Ventós.
position of peasants and their women, rural accessories
and so on, fill the forefront. The spaced out shadow on An exhaustive look at the Banco Popular’s collec-
the ranch contrasts with the landscape luminosity, that tion, allows us to find paradigmatic works from seven
ranges from the nearest house through out the yellow- outstanding artists: Darío Suro, Jaime Colson, Yoryi
ish farm view until the rest of the dwellings, trees, blue Morel, Guillo Pérez, Gilberto Hernández Ortega, Eligio
mountains and the sky; cutting in as triangle the gabled Pichardo y Antonio Prats-Ventós.
roof where the celebration is a visual song from inland.

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