For my event, I went to Edgewood College in Madison and saw an art show.  The name of the art show was “Celebrating Friendship”.  There were two artists that were being displayed.  They were Orestes Larios Zaak and Gregorio Perez Escobar.

Orestes was born on April 15 in 1953.  He studied at the National School of Art in Havana, Cuba.  He graduated from Instituo Superior Pedagogico, with a Masters Degree of Art.  He is known for his use of nature.  He tries to emphasize the honesty, kindness and integrity that nature offers to humanity.  His work gives of a great sense of peace and calmness.  On of my favorite works of art by Orestes was a painting called “Crepusculo” (Twilight).  It was a blending of deep greens with small, white flowers and a few bees hovering them (Unfortunately I could not find a picture of it online).  The pictures at the show were all related with each other in many ways.  The main comparison was the focus of nature.  Some other similarities were grass, flowers (mainly white ones), bees, lizards and sand.

Orestes Larios Zaak

Orestes Larios Zaak

Orestes Larios Zaak

Orestes Larios Zaak

Gregorio’s work focused on universal paradoxes.  He, as well as Orestes, liked to tie nature into his work.  That is one of his reasons for using wood.  He says that it helps the spectator to relate his work to nature almost immediately.  He also says that his ultimate goal is that humanity realizes their problems and fixes them.  I have a few favorite pieces of art.  They are, “Communication” which is a children’s slide, but the slide is a person’s tongue and the ladder of the slide is broken and missing rungs, and “Gone” which is a pistol. I couldn’t find any personal information on Gregorio.

Gregorio Perez Escobar

Gregorio Perez Escobar

Communication

Communication

Overall, I really enjoyed the art show.  These two men are very talented.  This relates to our class very well.  We just got through the unit of art and learned how important it was to the Latin culture.  Political topics are well like in the Latin art.  Some say it is not art unless it shows a political view, but some don’t agree.  These two artists didn’t show a political view at all.  Instead they focused on nature and tried to bring in actions that humankind is doing to the world that aren’t necessarily right.  They try to think critically and bring that into their art.

Sources Used:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.radiosantacruz.icrt.cu/seccion/personalidades_cubanas/orestes-larios-zaak-larios-datos-biograficos.htm&ei=nqkSS8XqE4u0lAfG_PWOBA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCkQ7gEwCA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dorestes%2Blarios%2Bzaak%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den

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