Antonia Eiriz

ANTONIA EIRIZ (Cuba,1929-1995)
"Yo, del otro lado del caballete", ca.1970's.
Installation with canvas on board, wood and wicker grid.
Attached certificate issued by Pablo A. Vidal Eiriz, son of the artist.
Measurements: 65 x 19 x 31 cm. approx.

Singular self-portrait suggested by a board painted with subtle silhouettes on black placed on an easel that also houses a wicker grid. Through this installation the Cuban artist seems to reflect on the role of the artist, giving full meaning to the materiality of the objects, which was usual in her approaches, as was also the presence of "watchers", who in this case appear as spectres in the dark pictorial surface. The plastic expressiveness reaches political dimensions in her work and in this case could be talking about the feeling of fear and lack of freedom in the creative context in which it was made.

Antonia Eiriz was an influential Cuban painter whose work, known for its expressionist qualities, was exhibited throughout Latin America during her lifetime. She began her studies in Fine Arts at the National School of Fine Arts "San Alejandro" in 1953. There he exhibited with artists who would become known as Los Once, one of whom, Guido Llinás, would become his friend and mentor. He also collaborated with illustrations in the magazine Lunes, directed by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, which was a supplement to the newspaper Revolución. Eiriz graduated from San Alejandro in 1957. Eiriz continued to be an active and influential force in the arts after the Cuban Revolution of 1959. In 1964 he had three solo exhibitions (two in Cuba and one in Mexico), in which he would position himself as "one of the strongest voices in the Cuban art scene". That same year he would present one of his best known works, La Anunciación (The Annunciation). Eiriz's career took a sharp turn at the end of the decade when her 1968 work Una tribuna para la paz democrática was considered "defeatist" by the Cuban government, which marked her as a dissident. That year she stopped painting and withdrew from many artistic circles, devoting her life and talents largely to Cuban crafts, as well as teaching and mentoring emerging artists privately. In 1993, Eiriz obtained permission from the Cuban government to move to the United States. Upon arriving in the United States, he returned to painting and lived the last two years of his life in Miami, Florida.