|
Hugo de Soto’s art in Havana
• His exhibition covers the secular
walls of one of the cloisters in San Francisco de
Asís Convent
BY MIREYA CASTAÑEDA —
Granma International staff writer —
THE
first exhibition of the works of Hugo de Soto (1928)
in his native Cuba brings together recent and other
works from the City Museum collection.
According to City Historian Eusebio Leal, at the
inauguration of this diverse display, “there is no
better place than this cloister of San Francisco,
the birthplace of important things for Cuba, and
which is now a temple to art and high culture.”
The
name of Hugo de Soto — Leal affirmed — well deserves
to be among Cuban artists, not just because of his
work, but because of his family history, given that
he is the grandson of the boatman (Carlos Soto) who
in the dark of night took General Antonio Maceo from
one side of Mariel Bay to the other to escape the
ambush on the trail from Mariel to Majana set up by
the Spaniards (during the 19th century independence
wars).
As
the artist has explained, from an early age he used
to hear that story told by his grandfather, and
memories of that narration remained etched in his
mind, and were vividly aroused during his brief trip
to Havana in 1984, when he visited the City Museum
and found the original boat in the Flag Room.
He
then painted a canvas – two meters high – to
immortalize that moment. He donated the painting,
Cruce de la Trocha de Mariel a Majana, to that
museum, and it is now on display next to the small
boat, just four meters long, and the emblematic,
large-format work by Armando Menocal that depicts
the death of Maceo, the Bronze Titan.
The
painting could not be left out of this exhibition,
and in that respect, Leal said that Soto, “always in
discretion and modesty,” depicted his own
grandfather with a hat and with his head bent
forward. “Before, there was not that practice of
placing ourselves in the foreground,” he said,
adding that from his lookout on a Rome street, the
creator serves Cuba and has been able to make his
country’s name appear in pontifical collections;
always faithful to his country’s missions, with
opportune help and wise comments.
Based in Italy since 1962, the artist also placed at
the disposition of the Havana public many of his
portraits, in which one may appreciate his incisive
viewpoint and his delicate, harmonious and often
sensual lines.
While he considers himself to be self-taught, De
Soto studied painting at the San Alejandro Academy
in Havana, and in 1946 won a scholarship to Detroit,
in the United States, where he studied under John
Foster at the Society of Art and Craft.
His
work, as may be read in many catalogues, has been
exhibited in galleries in the United States,
Denmark, Britain, Colombia, France, and Italy, and
some belong to private and museum collections, such
as that of Emilio Bacardí in Santiago de Cuba; the
Library of Congress, in Washington; that of Vatican
City, and of Monterrey, Mexico.
De Soto, as Leal says, “¼has been able to project
his art without losing that flame of infinite love
for his homeland.”
|
