Page 409 - Arte e Historia
P. 409
Art and History
at the Banco popular dominicano visual arts collection
Manuel Traboux. (Santo Domingo, 1955). He studied «Paseo por la aldea,» screen print/paper, 72x51 cm., 1986
v «Jardinera,» acrylic/canvas, 75x100 cm., 1990.
at the Fine Arts National School (1978-1982), obtaining
a Drawing professor position, and at the Autonomous Dionisio Blanco. (San Cristóbal, 1953). He held an
University Architecture School where he graduated with
an outstanding record (1987). An exhibitor of the 80s individual exhibition in New York, in 1993, showing a
Generation Collective, which he cofounded and directed, consistent discourse in which real motives conjugated
in 1984 he registered his water-colour individual «Horse, with an imaginary space, translates a magic revelation.
Form and Expression.» A drawing professor in various The poet Juana Rosa Pita considers him the universal
academic institutions and a notorious draftsman, he is palette of today’s Dominican painting (El Caribe, supple-
also a mural painter and a sculptor. ment, December 11, 1993). Around the same time, the
New York’s critic Rodolfo A. Windhousen writes: «In the
«Horses,» watercolor/paper, 63x84 cm., 1984. painting of the Dominican artist Dionisio Blanco, the sense
of fusion and reality is the outstanding feature (…) is loyal to
2. THE SETENTISTAS who produce works in the a Caribbean attribute: the magic realism.» (RW Dionisio
1990s, most of them are artists who follow their thematic Blanco’s catalogue, June 17, 1994).
discourses, strengthened with new composition scenes,
more chromatic vitality, and visions according with the «Oneiric Fantasy,» acrylic/canvas, 75x100 cm., 1992 v «Sow-
language each of them individualized. If some exceptional ing with wish cards,» acrylic/canvas, 75x100 cm., 1996 v «Sow-
authors visually break up with precedent discourses, this ing Oneiric Fantasy Series,» acrylic/canvas, 75x100 cm., 1997 v
is because they have are located in realities that are differ- «Sowing,» acrylic/canvas, 75x100 cm., 1997.
ent from the native country; which does not mean, that
the issues and references pertaining to identity, are absent Carlos Hidalgo. (Santiago Rodríguez, 1948). In a broad
or no connoted. Dionisio Blanco, Luis Bretón, Carolina
Cepeda, Alonso Cuevas, Carlos Hidalgo, Freddy Javier, discourse about the landscape reality and the costumes
Teté Marella, Manuel Montilla, Amaya Salazar, Francisco or vernacular, this plentiful and laborious painter, who
Santos, Alberto Ulloa and Fernando Ureñas Rib sign up assumed his Dominican identity as a visionary celebra-
on the collection –almost all them– produced during the tion, keeps offering since 1989 and throughout all the
last ten years of the past millennium. 1990s, a pictorial writing that embraces geography, from
the countryside to the urban and maritime extremes. His
Merchor Terrero. (Enriquillo, Barahona Province, palette expends mainly the yellow colour, as a symbol of
a sun-shining reality.
1942). He leaves his native municipality and initiates his
pictorial education with a Spaniard master, who initiates «Beach,» oil/canvas, 75x90 cm., 1989 v «Village,» oil/
him on the Classic artists knowledge. In 1967-1972 studies canvas, 75x90 cm., 1996 v «El Conde Street,» oil/canvas,
at the Fine Arts National School. Held his first individual, 75x100 cm., 1999.
showing pastel paintings at Casa de Teatro (1974). On his
second showing, already obese men and women show up. Luis Bretón. (San Francisco de Macorís, 1953). With
This theme reiterates the bodily excess expressed in div-
ers scenes, like the pleasant landscapes in which, especially surreal, signs his discourse, while approaching themes
the fat women, appear tropically dressed, carrying fruits like the urban space, provincial cities and Santo Domin-
and flowers or covered with an umbrella. go, provides the streets and the architectural precincts
with a metaphysical environment of mirages and silence.
His native city in Macorís, La Vega, and Santiago de los
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