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FIESTA |
Drawings with Oil on Canvas |
- From "Five Leyends to Put a Child to Sleep."- |
Exhibit in the Government Building of the
Culture Secretary of State in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Nov. 7 to Nov. 29, 2007). |
By Felix Berroa |
- Third Part - Version in English - |
“The drawing is the foundation of all fine arts. A great artist is recognized through the improvement of his/her drawing, which is appreciated by the cleanliness, precision and confidence in the course of his/her lines. The opposite, will be pretend”. Félix Berroa, 2007.
I arrive to Santo Domingo in October 24, two weeks before the opening show and immediately I contacted the Ramón Oviedo Gallery director of Secretary of State of Culture artist Gabino Rosario. (The Secretary of State of Culture is Jose Rafael Lantigua).Although it is the institution most important that officially directs each area of the Dominican Republic culture (Modern Art Museum, National Theater, Dominican Men Museum, etc.), their gallery do not had a computer. Therefore, the director of that gallery had not opened up the attached files that I had sent him with the pictures and informations on the subject "Party", although in that entirety goberment building, each department has one. So my work there was double. Stretching the canvas and having everything right with the gallery director Gabino Rosario with the text and photos that would be printed in the catalog (Some Dominican Republic artists -also I find many in USA-, are resist to the use of the computer, to investigate, mailing files and communication with others). I complained so much about that to the gallery director Gabino Rosario, that he put a lot of pressure to the bureaucratic mechanisms of the institution and finally they gave him a computer two weeks after being had initiate the exhibition.
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CLICK PHOTOS TO GO OPENING SHOW GALLERY |
Scretaria de Estado deCcultura, Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana |
Secretary of State of Culture, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
CLICK PHOTOS TO GO OPENING SHOW GALLERY |
On October 27, Saturday night, a strong rain with winds began and it extended per hours without any sign to be finish in a great part of the Dominican Republic nation. On the following day, Sunday in the morning, the people was not enough informed of a tropical storm (The storm get forms in Dominican territory). In the afternoon of that Sunday, I went out with my brother to pick up a relative at the Airport Las Americas. The situation was not very well, in spite of having already have lapsed more than 15 hours of the intense and continuous rain. That concern me on the exhibition, mainly when seeing that a great one numbers of poor neighborhoods were flooded and crawled by the waters of the storm. (RD News: www.diariolibre.com, www.diariolibre.com2, www.clavedigital.com, www.hoy.com.do).
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The Fiesta catalog was finish printed hastily the same day of the opening show. What is made accelerated and under pressure is never well. The quality of the paper was not the correct one, and the catalog was printed in a smaller size than the one I had been informed will be. Also, the selection of some texts were not the most appropriate.
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Artist Friends |
Poet Friends |
CLICK PHOTOS TO GO OPENING SHOW GALLERY |
MATEO MORRISON, FEDERICO JOVINE, FELIX BERROA, ALEXIS GOMEZ ROSA, Y HAMLET RUBIOCLICK PHOTOS TO GO OPENING SHOW GALLERY |
The time for the opening show arrive and so the assistants, a group of art lovers and friends, poets and artists. During the following two hours of the opening show, Teo Terrero and Gabino Rosario, with the poet Mateo Morrison, present the exhibition. I begin a photographic sequence of my works in a computer that covered my trajectory from 1959 until the present days with a musical background with the different genres represented in my drawings: Portorrican "danza", "tango", "merengue", "bachata", Venezuelan "drums", Colombian "gaiters", "zideco" and "cajun" of Louisiana-New Orlean, and "funana" of Cape Verde, an island colonized by Portugal in the west-northwest of Senegal, Africa.
(Open Newspaper News about the show:
Possibly, the theme “Party” originated at the moment I was born in the countryside of San Pedro de Macoris, in the Dominican Republic. In some regions of the traditional countryside, the native Dominican “...grows between infantile rhymes and sung games...he sings in the work, among thousands “plenas”, their songs of axe or cow or their tunes of conucos...” (conuco: plot of land granted to slaves for cultivation); “...he also falls in love singing…he sings his prayers in the night’s vigil to the Divine...” In short, “The song accompanies the man at all times continuing inseparable, from the trajectory of his life from the cradle to the sepulcher...” (Sebastián Emilio Valverde).
The song is accompanied with music. The expressions or gestures taking place in the songs, manipulations of the instruments, and the dance of the music are visual. There I intervene as a visual artist.
Since boyhood, I have always been amazed by the music and dances in the different cultures in the world that I observed through the movies. Inspired by the movies, I daydreamed traveling in the time and imagined living experiences in the old North American West, Mexico, Spain, France, the old cultures of Egypt, Greece, Rome, Arabia, India, and other civilizations of the Old and Middle Ages, or to cross black Africa, between drums, warriors and beautiful tribal women, in search of adventures.
In real terms, I had already lived encounters with other cultures that had immigrated to the country, as the Haitians with their celebrations of “ga-ga” and the drums beating in its “voodoo”; and the culture of black immigrants from the English islands of St. Kit, St. Thomas, etc. that we called “Englishmen” (because they spoken English) or “Cocolos”, with their “guloyers” or “buloyers”, and “momies.”
I grew up among parties of “palos” or “atabales”, a genre dedicated mostly to the festivities of the Virgin Mary. Three long drums, one or two “guiros” and a group of women singers broke the night silence in a great “enramada” (open terrace) illuminated by several gas lamps, hung in the main wood support, and where people danced on a dirt floor. It was the biggest celebration in many areas of the Dominican Republic. The “palos” or “atabales” were the most important musical genre in the Dominican Republic, but for their religious character, not secular, it was overcome by the “merengue” that crossed over frontiers.
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"Antolin Reyna" -My Father- |
My Family in an "Atabales" Party in 1954. I'm the litle boy. |
"Atabales" |
During my childhood, the 1950's, the world was opening to music outside of one’s own culture. It was a time that the North Americans listened tango, mambo, chacha, calypso, merengue and others. In the Latin American countries, it was not unusual to hear in the radio or the “vellonera” (jukebox) of any neighborhood, Mexican “rancheras” y “corridos”; the Cuban “son”, “guaracha” and “guaguanco”; the Peruvian “vals” and the “polka”; the Colombian “cumbia” and “vallenato” (at the present time weakened by the popularity of “Salsa,” as promoted by many Colombian salsa-groups, and the tremendous force of artists like Shakira or Juanes, influenced by the North American rock); the Venezuelan “joropo”, “llaneros” and “calypsos” (The Venezuelan calypso is from the region The Callao, where the song “Woman del Callao” originated that our Juan Luis Guerra interprets successfully); and the Argentinean “tangos,” carried to their maximum expression by Carlos Gardel.
Some people acculturate or copy patterns of behavior "by fashion" -in the fine arts, the music, the way of dress or use a hairstyle -, of certain society, adopting the cultural traits of another group, without understanding the historical process that gave origin to such a behavior. Félix Berroa, 2007
In 1978 I visited Kingston, Jamaica, in a cultural encounter with young people of that country, and also from Surinan, Barbados, and others. The cultural differences were more than the language, a situation that made the encounter an exciting adventure. There I saw for the first time people using thin African braids, their characteristic caps, the execution and dance of the authenticate reggae and, very particularly the “Rastas” or movement “Rastafari” and other “Afrocentrisms.”
(Afrocentrism: cultural and political movement that promotes the idea that the African-American and all the Blacks from other countries descending from Africa should reflect the values of the African tradition. It also claims credit for all the contributions denied to Africa in world History. The word “Afrocentrism” had its beginnings in the early XX century).
The Dominican Republic, a country mostly populated by mulattos, for its historical antecedent, doesn't practice “Afrocentrisms”, as in the United States, Haiti and Jamaica, except for a few "acculturateds". Help to that the invasion of the Haitian army, that dominated the Spanish section of the island for 22 years (1822-1844), was an event that threatened to annihilate Hispanic culture, and substitute it by the invader’s language and culture and convert the island in “only one nation and indivisible;” an idea developed from the beginning of their freedom. The Dominican Republic celebrates its independence from the Haitian occupation each February 27th. Also, it is important to mention the patterns of behaviors originated during the 30 years dictatorship of General Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina (The Dominican Republic, has racially a approximated statistic of 80 percent of "mulatto", 10 percent of "straight white" and other 10 percent of "straight black". This without counting the enormous population of inmigrants Haitian in the country). Our African inheritance is present in our skin color and the rhythms of our music and timidly, in other areas of the folklore, but not in our dress or hairstyle, like it is the case of many blacks and mulattoes of those three previously mentioned countries. Dominican avant-garde folklorists have worked strongly to rescue hidden links to our African inheritances.
In 1978 I visit La Havana, Cuba, for a festival, in which I delight with a great variety of the Cuban musical genres. The contagious music and the happiness of the Cuban attracted me to be part of an extensive "conga" thru the city's streets.
In 1979, I traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico to take an advanced course of Printmaker and Experimental Drawing and, the “plena” and the “bomba” appeared quickly in the parks, beaches, in “La Marginal”, etc. among the young boricuas. ("plena", "bomba", "seis chorreao" and "danza" are the most authentical musican genre of Puerto Rico. The "salsa" is an acculturation taken place by the encounter of the Porto Rican and the Cubans in the city of New York).
In 1981, I traveled to United States spending two years in Chicago, in New York for twenty two, and lately Atlanta, Georgia, where I reside for three years, In USA I found the whole world.
In some moment in the history of their slavery, the African-American "lost their drum" (the same as the Negroes of Trinidad, who were prohibited their use and changed the musical course of its “calypso”). This loss in the African-American produced great contrast with the other African populations in the American Continent. Each African ethnic group has its drum, but not the North American. The Negroes in this North American nation clapped, tap-danced and sang, moving all its body to express the energy of its primary feelings: Africa. Is not the African-American extraordinary in the song and the dance? The African-American created the “blues” that derive in the “jazz” (from the state of Louisiana, specifically of New Orleans) whose quality marvels the world.
As a Caribbean, I like music whose rhythm is produced by original African drums, mixed with the cultural elements of our colonizers: acoustic guitar and the introduction of the German accordion as was the case in the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Colombia. (Southwest Louisiana also uses a German accordion in its contagious “cajun” and “zydeco”, but different.) Later brass instruments as saxophones, trombones, trumpets and others were introduced.
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"Ventana Alta". 42"x48". Oil on canvas. 2007. Dominican Republic. |
"Cajun".
48.75”x41.5x1.5”. Oil on canvas. Luisiana, USA |
"Adios Nonino para el Bandoneon ". 44"x48". Oil on canvas. Argentina |
"Compañero de la Montaña" (Partner of the Mountains). 40"x42". Puerto Rico. |
A person that had not yet heard the beat of the Venezuelan “tambores” (drums) has missed something extraordinary! The drums are a basic element in most of the musical genres in the rest of the American Continent, and very particularly the Hispanic countries, except in those where the enslaved race was almost completely indigenous, as is the case in Mexico. I am attracted by music with small town or country flavor. In the United States this is found in Country Music, Bluegrass, Cajun, Zydeco, Blues and traditional Jazz, among others. Of course, I love classical music, mainly quartet. My favorite classical music composer is Amadeus Mozart.
The Brazilian “samba” is a genre that quietly crossed-over around the world and has influenced great interpreters and composers. Years ago, like a magic action, came to life the “lambada;” sensual, although no more so than the “merengue”. The famed sensuality of the “lambada” (practically only one song) is due to the beautiful women that danced in front of the orchestra wearing ultra-mini-skirts that allowed the audience to see their “secret colors” in each turn that they do. It was not really about the dance! The modern merengue is danced with full contact of the man and woman’s body (chest and pelvis) as the "champeta" of Cartagena, Colombia.
In the same way that the “lambada” came, it disappeared in less than one year. But it awoke in me the idea to search for other musical genres from Brazil. I found, among others, the contagious genre of “funana.” The “funana”, the “cajun” and “zydeco” of Southwest Louisiana and the “vallenato” of Colombia, use the melodies of the German accordion, like in our typical “merengue”. The Argentinean “tango” also uses a “bandoneón,” also from Germany.
Authentic music from many different places will always move my sensibility, my feelings, and my body.
FIRST AND SECOND PART OF "FIESTA" |
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OTHER ENCOUNTERS AND NEWS |
Danilo de los Santos Publishing Two New Books: "Memory of Painting of the Dominican Republic". "Continuity of the Languages" and "Generations of the Languages"
One of the pleasant surprises I find back to my original country was the inclusion of two pages of my works in one of the books of art history of the Dominican Republic write by the art critic, historian and artist Danilo de los Santos, called also as Danicel. Below, some photos of the books presentation by the also art critic Marianne de Tolentino.
The art history encyclopedias of the Dominican Republic began to be published next year after my departure from Santo Domingo to Chicago in 1981. A lack of the official institutions dedicated to the art it is that they didn't conserve records on the national artistic activities, specially in the two main cities: Santo Domingo and Santiago. Cándido Geron, the one that wrote the first encyclopedia of the fine arts of the Dominican Republic (1982) obtained my information "by mouth" from a common friend, the writer Diogenes Cespedes. From then (on 1982), this author has published in his books, only a small paragraph about me, from the informations he get "by mouth". That small paragraph has an errors: I visit Cuba in the 1978, but don't study there. I travel to study in Puerto Rico. I meet Cándido Geron in the house of Rosa Tavarez the past November-2007, and he felt interested in a meeting with me. Late we meet against in the exhibition of the "Colombian Masters", and he express me the same interest. The meeting was never done. I will be waiting, although in a communication via email or telephone.
I thanks to Danilo de los Santos. Although have passed 28 years without seeing me, he remembered what I did in Dominican Republic as a printmaker, drawing, installations, the first Artist's Book that hat been presents in the National Biennial of Dominican Republic, etc. . He looks for the way to communicate with me. Last year (2007) I received an email from him requesting images of my art for his book and mmediately I reply him with his requirements. Thank you Danilo. |
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1: Books presentation by Marianne de Tolentino. |
Photo 2: Danilo de los santos. |
Photo 3: The assistants revises the books |
Photo 4: Artist Felix Berroa, Curator Justo y Artist Manuel Montilla. |
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5 : Felix Berroa -Artist- |
6: Justo Liberato -Curator- |
7: Manuel Montilla -Artist- |
8: Felix Berroa -Artist- and Freddy Ginebra -Curator- |
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9:9: MEMORIA DE LA PINTURA DOMINICANA. Continuidad de los Lenguages |
10: MEMORIA DE LA PINTURA DOMINICANA. Generaciones y Lenguage |
11: From left: Art Critic Candido Geron, artists Cespede, Antonio Guadalupe, Kirssys Ángeles , Alberto Bass, show host Ángel Lockward, Rosa Tavarez and Felix Berroa. |
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OTHER PAGES RELATED TO "FIESTA" |
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Check most recent creation of pages in www.felixberroa.com
Contact - Contacto
Felix Berroa. 678-355-1473. felbere@hotmail.com |
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| Felix Berroa's Works - Trabajos de Felix Berroa |
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| Outdoor Shows - Exposiciones al Aire Libre |
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| Contact - Estableciendo Contacto con Felix Berroa |
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| Santo Domingo, San pedro de Macoris, Republica Dominicana |
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| Travel - Viaje - a Bogota, Colombia |
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