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Danilo De los Santos
Cándido Bidó. Awarded twice at the León Jimenes Justo Susana. (Jamao, La Vega, 1918). He was 14 years
Art Contest (1972 and 1974), his ascending path added old when he began to represent his surrounding native
numerous individual showings. His work is noticeable rural landscape. He got settled at the capital city as a bak-
by his peculiar figurative and his (sort of) naive style, as er. He was discovered in his sixties as a self-made naive or
well as by his personalized handling of the blue and yel- ingenuous artist. It is in the 1960s when he becomes an
low colours. «The artist confessed he never used models for his artist promoted by art connoisseurs. One of his paintings
paintings. His impressions remain stamped in his memory. The depicted the April, 1965 armed clashes, at that time he
imagination take charge until the end of the process». (María held his first individual exhibition, followed by another
Ugarte, El Caribe, November, 1970). one in 1969.
«Girl with Vase,» acrylic/canvas, 35x28 cm., 1971 v «I «Landscape,» acrylic/canvas, 84x120 cm., 1977. The paint-
ing is an imaginative view of a rural zone. On the Fore-
Sale Leaves for Infusion,» mix and collage/canvas, 103x77 cm., front, there is a row of cows being spurred by a peasant on
horseback. The path defines the rural landscape with high
v 1973. «Motherhood,» acrylic/canvas, 101x81 cm., 1975 v trees and bushes, huts, and different animals. In the back-
ground, the plots and the horizon with morning tones.
«Still Life,» acrylic/canvas, 30x40 cm., 1978.
The four pieces are related since all of them come León Bosch. (Santo Domingo, 1936). As a 13 years old,
from a pictorial impulse that handles reduced color he featured his first painting. With his father, the writer
ranges and its figurative imaginary is clear to perception. Juan Bosch, goes to exile, starting his artistic studies at the
The woman is approached in three different composi- San Alejandro Academy, in La Habana, Cuba. The family
tions and the fourth is a still life. On «Girl with Vase,» exile takes him to South America and Europe, attending
light blue color defines three elements: the hat, the dress the Fine Arts Circle in Madrid. In the old continent, he
and the zone on a context divided into strips. Blue and frequents the museums, studying and copying the great
orange on the skin produce an effective contrast. «I Sale masters, mainly Diego Velázquez. He returns to his coun-
Leaves for Infusion» is characterized by a composition try at the beginning of the 1960s, exhibiting in a collective
of geometrical variables, the collage dominant resource, and achieving an award at the E. León Jimenes Contest
which fills with effects the almond-eyed round face; a in 1969. During the 1970s, he showcased five individu-
face with a mantle resembling a curtain that crowns the al showings in different galleries, as the Aufant (1972),
merchant’s basket full of leaves. The «Motherhood,» is whose catalogue included «The Last (Holy) Supper.»
an icon transmitting tenderness: a woman carrying a
child, on a chromatic environment of serenity in various «The Last (Holy) Supper,» oil/papier-mache, 120x158 cm.,
blue tonalities: small village and the sky, with a yellow- 1972. A painter from the sixties, who reenacted the bibli-
ish astral sign and a whitish light next to the yellowish cal passage of «The Last Supper,» as painted by the Renais-
plantation soil strengthening the forefront where the sance great artist Leonardo Da Vinci and some others.
mother stands. She, dressed in patterned white with a León Bosch made a theme’s reinterpretation, bringing
grey shading that rises up the touching composition. If it to the Dominican reality, with a modern vision and
the human theme defines the mentioned pieces; the still rupture. On a countryside sheltered terrace, fourteen
life is represented with a big orange-coloured fruit and a creole men gather informally around three tables, most
branch of leaves on a container. The blue tonalities wrap, of them seated, some standing near the central character
like an atmosphere, the «Still Life,» expanding from the who bless the ceremonial encounter. The representation
dark tone to a pale strains range; the symbolic Bidó’s star,
orange-coloured as well, accentuates the light blue sky.
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