El monte - Painting by Carlos Luna:

Provenance

Private Collection, Mexico.
CCG Art Collection, Miami, Florida, USA.

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Exhibited

Miramar Cultural Center - Artspark, Mirimar, Florida, April 3 - September 7, 2009.

Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, October 2, 2008 - February 23, 2009.

Museo Amparo, Mexico, August 4, 1995 - September 16, 1995.

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Literature

Carlos Luna, Mi Madre, Mi Patria, Museo Amparo, August 4, 1995 - September 16, 1995, p. 31, Published July 1995, Illustrated in color.

Pablo Picasso Ceramics, Carlos Luna Paintings, p. 173 (Cat. 57), Published 2008, ISBN: 978-0-9678056-8-9.

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Museum Description

Carlos Luna
El monte

… one icon, one sign, one motif, infinitely repeated throughout the artist’s oeuvre, occupies the most exalted hierarchical distinction. This figure appears as a half-moon with nose and eyes, and it is the mark of the sacred, the essential, upon Luna’s work. In it, we recognize the figure of the orisha Elegguá, a god in the Yoruba pantheon. Wifredo Lam, the artist best known internationally in the first generation of Cuban artists, said that he tended not to use a “precise symbology,” although this sign for Elegguá often appears in his paintings.

Elegguá is a deity that mediates between men and nature, and … he presides … over this apotheosis of Afro-Cuban imagery. Devil or saint, Elegguá is an incorrigible peeping-tom who takes on the role of witness and embodies the critical vision of life central to the work of Carlos Luna. He is present in melodramas involving romantic affairs gone awry, in political attacks against Castro, and in the farces starred in by the Guajiro-Man — three main subjects constantly repeated, with variations, throughout Luna’s work. The Sexy Lady, The Cayman (which the outline of the island of Cuba is often said to resemble), and the Horse complete the dramatis personae of Luna’s theater. It is important to note that the use of these signs is one of many revelations of Luna’s profound and complicated positioning within the rich tradition of twentieth and twenty-first century Cuban art; all of the signs are related to the affirmation of national identity through Afro-Cuban symbology.

- Enrique Garcia Gutierrez ©

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The Cisneros Capital Group (CCG) Art Collection is a private art collection represented by Latin American Art Investments Corp. (LAAIC) - primarily made up of Latin American paintings. We are pleased to present paintings, sculptures and drawings by Carlos Luna, an outstanding Cuban painter and sculptor.

The CCG Carlos Luna Art Collection is being presented online so that more people can enjoy these great paintings. If you work for a Museum, City Cultural Center, or University Institution and are interested in an exhibition of Carlos Luna, please contact us.

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