Caribbean Art Objects–Congos–

Gustavo Esquina from Panama painted Negremachas or Congos in 2000.

Esquina used acrylic on a canvas to create Congos. Broken mirrors are used as borders for the painting.

Congos was juxtaposed between two rather mundane pictures that served to bring out several qualities that caught my eye in the first place. The first quality being the vivid and bright colors used to bring to life the picture. This is a painting of three uniquely dressed and masked individuals together on a beaten path surrounded by trees painted with a bright green and the sky with a bright blue. These colors manage to come together to be very warm and pleasing on the eye. Still, the part that I found interesting was the ability to pique my interest. I was curious as to what came before this? What came after? I soon found myself staring at the painting and imagining a story for a long time until I realized that this was not a story of three adventurers carving a path out of the Congos. The broken mirrors, it seemed to me, symbolized that this was a reflection of the person viewing the art. This was the representation of every man’s journey to discover his identity. There was one man looking forward, one looking back, and the third down. I took from this, the idea that on every journey to find one’s identity, there will be two negative forces pulling us back, and the other keeping us in place and the third positive force pushing us forward. I am truly grateful to Esquina for renewing my belief that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.