Page 365 - Arte e Historia
P. 365
Art and History
at the Banco popular dominicano visual arts collection
Ramón Oviedo. (Barahona, 1927). He was 10 years displaying three of his pieces at the Grand Palais Autumn
Salon, in Paris.
old at the time he started at the photoengraving atelier
with Manuel Pelegrín, in Santo Domingo. Later on, he «War Birds,» mix/paper, 139x99 cm., 1969. The master
reunited with his father who, in 1950, connects him was a leading figure during the arm struggle of April,
with the Dominican Institute of Cartography. There, he 1965, stationed within the siege imposed by American
trained and afterwards graduated as a draftsman from soldiers during their second intervention to the coun-
the Panama’s North American School, in 1953. Back in try. His brushes served the constitutional clamor and the
his country, he works in publicity and get acquaintance struggle for the Dominican sovereignty. He took part at
with the painters José Ramírez Conde, Rafael Olivo and the Aufant Gallery great collective exhibition, alongside
José Cestero. Beginning the 1960s, Oviedo devotes him- with Jaime Colson, Ada Balcácer, Soucy de Pellerano
self fully to the pictorial job, having his first collective and Silvano Lora, among others. He also executed a dec-
exhibition in 1964, at Baquero’s Building basement, and orative theatre backdrop and produced a documentary
taking part at the same year’s E. León Jimenes Contest. film about the war. In «War birds» he offers a drawing
His name became known as an active poster artist and a in which he recalls the drama, combining «gesture and
constitutionalist painter during the 24th of April. A huge fatality with lyric edging.» Riotous flapping, sharp beaks,
painting on canvas showing the historical date, allows eyes and blood mix up on an explosion that envisage the
him to be considered «the painter of the revolution.» inexorable death in a visualized instant.
«Composition,» mix/canvas, 89x80 cm., 1962. With a dis- New, Recognized and Veterans.
course of abstract blocks and fragmented figurations blend- 1970 Decade
ed among them, the theme allows us to appreciate heartbro-
ken, eerie people, superimposed in a social new-expressionist History’s lineal vision, understood as an optimistic
vision in correspondence with a turbulent period in which and progressive march, according to modern theorists of
the most consequent art offers a lyric of upheaval. The hu- historiography; is one that leads to opposite approaches.
man perception of cartoonish deformations, alongside the The diachronic and the synchronic one. The first, refers
full spectrum, the stains and lines bring about, as a result, to the evolution of phenomena happening throughout
the sense of a diverse stylistic composition. time. The second one, takes into consideration circum-
stances of the same historical time, coincident phenom-
Gilberto Hernández Ortega. When Darío Suro ena or facts.
publishes in 1969 the monograph «Dominican Art,» he Once we applied both concepts to the analysis of the
describes the painter as dazed and convulsive, while rec- Dominican society, we understand the impulsive evolu-
ognizing that he has placed himself as one of the Domini- tion processes conforming our ethos since the Amerin-
can painting genuine values. His 1960s exhibitions are dian or pre-Hispanic times all the way to our national
plenty: five individual exhibitions, including a retrospec- contemporaneity. It is a process of interrupted centuries
tive at the Alliance Francaise (1964), and showings at all in which socio-cultural features are verified as a result of
the important exhibitions and pictorial awards obtained conjugated concurrencies. The Dominican nation of-
at the First E. León Jimenes Contest (Santiago, 1964), and fers a singular history full of adverse episodes and in-
the ESSO Hall for Young Artists (Santo Domingo, 1965). escapable ethno-syncretic marks, and, as in the Antilles
In 1969, the Grupo Friordiano organizes an individual
exhibition at the Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra,
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