Page 359 - Arte e Historia
P. 359
Art and History
at the Banco popular dominicano visual arts collection
traveled to Cuba, where he also taught and showed his Eligio Pichardo. (Salcedo, 1929/Santo Domingo,
work, then returned to his home country and hold an
individual exhibition in 1938. Disheartened by the me- 1984). He studied at the Fine Arts National School
diocre environment, he decided to returns to France with the founder masters Pascual, Lothar, Gausachs,
where his wife, the Japanese painter Toyo Yutaca Kari- Hausdorf, Woss y Gil y Vela Zanetti, graduating in
monio, lives. The Second World War forces the couple 1948. In 1951 while a drawing professor at the institu-
to transfer to Barcelona, where they work intensively tion, he wins the Nicaragua Prize at the Hispanic Amer-
and exhibit with success. In Barcelona he paints a mu- ican Biennial in Madrid. At this time, the Dominican
ral, a preamble of those he will render at Cala Murtra, State hires him to execute murals on various schools
on Mallorca Island. At the quite and solitary country with national history scenes and Cervante’s Quijote’s
residence property of Ignacio Rotgen, he painted reli- adventures as themes. He did these works from 1951-
gious scenes frescos. 1954. Then he received a scholarship from the Hispanic
Culture Institute, living in Spain until his return to his
Colson developed mural projects that shocked the home country. Then, he reassume his teaching, held in-
puritans. Same happened when he opened individual ex- dividual exhibitions and participate in several Biennial
hibitions in Barcelona. His themes showed a crude and editions, obtaining awards in 1958 and 1960. By this
ferocious sexuality, conditioned by the Freudian doc- time his stature was well known among the «Continen-
trines since 1920’ decade. In 1949 he returns to Paris, tal Masters,» title of a collective showing organized by
where postwar chaos was reigning and takes part on a col- the Puerto Rico’s Medical College. In 1961 he is hired
lective exhibition, at times when abstract art in New York to show his works in New York, attracting the main
was ousting Paris as the arts’ international centre. His New York’s media attention. His works get into vari-
encounter with the intellectual Rafael Diaz Niese encour- ous North American museums. In 1981 he returns to
aged him to return to Dominican soil in 1950, where he his country and celebrate an exhibition entitled «Geo-
is appointed as General Director at Fine Arts. Ideologi- graphical Reencounter.»
cal conflicts, the confrontation with the country’s real-
ity and the refugees artists, could not prevent his return «Marine Landscape Seen from a Cave,» oil/plywood,
to the new-humanistic discourse with an aesthetic cubist 34x62 cm., 1951. In a rectangular format, the painter of-
ground as well as the celebration of his individual exhibi- fers the contrasting vision of a blue marine landscape
tion at the Fine Arts Palace, in 1956. In 1957 he travels to composition seen from the frame of a cave, solved with
Haiti. His stay there for several months encouraged him a sober range of colours palette. «Two figures and jugs,»
to reconsider his known expressive language and to fill it oil/plywood, 64x44 cm., 1951. An expressionist script em-
up with a new-African ethnic content. phasized by the chromatic mass of two fleshy naked bod-
ies, intertwined on a ritual game in which, they raise
«Bon Jour M’sié Colson,» ink/paper, 25.5x64 cm., 1957. the jugs amid a dense atmosphere. «Mural Fragments,»
A drawing, part of the master’s Haitian series in which, oil/plywood, different measures, 1951. Five «fragments» or
cubistic concepts combine on a simultaneity conjugation paintings conceived for a decorative mural focused on
associated to a racial protocol defining the new-human- chromatically reach mythological scenes. Corporal vol-
istic concept. The little black girl pleasant lyricism, slen- umes in movement that, even characterized with cer-
der and carrying a written greeting sign hanging from tain originality interpretative, remain us the European
her raised hands, give dimension to the feminine subject baroque, gallant and courtier style. Also, the nexus with
over the marine landscape. some influential masters from the Fine Arts National
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