Tag Archives: El Museo del Barrio

El Exodo Cubano

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The second piece of art that appealed to me was called El Exodo Cubano or the Cuban Exodus. This painting was made in 1963 by Asilia Guillen, who is from Nicaragua. This painting was made of oil on canvas. It is a moderately sized painting, about two feet in width and a foot in height.

I liked this painting because of the intricate detail in the vast landscape of Cuba and detail of the tiny people fleeing. There were several paintings in the museum that caught my eye; this was one of them because it sort of just popped out at me. It popped up at me because of the various colors utilized in the painting. I thought that the water in the painting was so blue and clear. Guillen uses so many eye catching colors; they are vibrant and full of life. There’s green and brown in the middle; blue in the ocean, and yellows, reds, oranges, grays and whites in the whole painting.

I believe this painting depicts the serious nature of the Cuban exodus. It is evident that the people in the painting feel an overwhelming sense of desperation. Cuba in the painting, is still evolving; it is still has its basis in agriculture and farming, something that doesn’t seem to satisfy the people and their needs. People want to leave; one group is even leaving on a barrel. The desperation is also seen in the people waiting at the edge of the shore while others leaving are waving white rags. The seriousness of the painting is also evident in the scene on the bottom left hand side where there is, what I think, cannons firing at people. This fits the desperation of the people to flee the country. Overall, the painting delivers a message of great sadness as the people in Cuba flee from its terror.

The Prize

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One of the first pieces that I really liked at El Museo del Barrio was a piece called The Prize, or in Spanish, El Premio. The Prize was created in 2007 by artist Hew Locke. Locke is a British artist of British and Guyanese descent.

The actual object itself is not too large, a little over two feet in height and a little over a foot in width in my estimation. For the main body of the piece, he uses golden pieces to mimic the coloring of a trophy. Several of the pieces are lion heads and circular pieces with a sort of face on them while others say ‘Get Well’. There are some plastic green plant fronds and different plastic colored flowers: pink and yellow. There is even a wand, some tinsel with stars on it, and several strings of small golden beads that wrap around the entire piece.

I thought this was appealing because it was just mix of everything. It had bits and pieces of objects that seemed to be scraps. It reminds me of the left over pieces and scraps that we place in the art bin for future use. I thought it was cool how Locke used a bunch of seemingly unrelated objects and put them together into one cohesive piece that, for me, makes sense. I also thought it was cool how he made flat pieces come alive into a three dimensional object. For me, the title also shows how we may “prize” the bits and pieces in our lives, the small things that other people may not think are important but are important to us. The fact that one can make things from little scraps and bits and pieces, things that we may even “prize” and cherish.

I think this piece is playful in that it uses different things like flowers and beads and a wand even, to make something whole. I think it shows us how seemingly unrelated things can be made into something beautiful. It shows how bits and pieces that one would normally throw away can come together to make something unique. Overall, I think this piece begs the question, what can one make from leftovers?