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Raul Enmanuel Biography
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1958 |
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Born in San Luis de Cuba
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1976 |
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School for Plastic Arts, Jose Joaquin Tejada, Santiago de Cuba
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1976 - 1980 |
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National School of Art, "CUBANACAN," La Habana, Cuba
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1980 - 1985 |
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Higher Institute of Art "CUBANACAN," La Habana, Cuba
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Excerpts from an article by Carlos M. Luis:
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It is not by chance that I make a reference of Amelia Peláez as a component of Raúl Enmanuel Pozo’s work. The same should be applied also to Wifredo Lam, with whom this painter maintains close affinities. In spite of the fact that through Enmanuel's process of maturity, he has managed to elaborate a language of his own, his work obeys a tradition that cannot be discarded. In that sense his paintings represent icons that renders homage (consciously or unconscious- ly) to a past that remains in many ways alive in Cuban art. Raul Enmanuel Pozo’s icons originate as images that arise from a past that is being brought to a modern scenario. I refer to a cultural history that saw its first lights in Cuba during the nineteenth century until the present time, passing through the great moment of the vanguard during the first decades of the twentieth century. Raúl Enmanuel Pozo is an actor of an intense artistic process, which has witnessed numerous ramifications inside and outside Cuba, since the advent of the revolution in 1959.
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Let’s enter then, into the world of this painter taking into consideration two concurring points of his work: form and color. Form in the first place gives us the opportunity to recognize different aspects of his pictorial imagination. One of these forms suggests the structures of Cubism, reminding us of ancient dolmens whose volumes weights as sculptures inside his paintings. There is a tendency in some of his paintings to create sculptural elements such as in “Silla de Otra Forma” (2004) or in “El Reposo” (2004). Both of these paintings executed in mixed media, offer us the opportunity to discover his concern with an expression that reaches its peak in the art of Wifredo Lam. In this sense, his debt with the richness of Lam’s world is unquestionable. Every artist is always in the process of assimilation of other legacies, and Raúl Enmanuel Pozo is not the exception to the rule. The question resides though, in how and also through what means an artist incorporates the discoveries of the other, transfiguring it into his or her own. In Pozo’s case I believe that his strategies of assimilation are the result of an acculturation of the different elements that eventually he will place at the disposal of his work.
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If the dolmens are an essential part of his paintings, other forms tend to be converted in totems, as the artist identifies them in paintings such as “Totemico Simbólico”. The totem is one of the most rich and complex manifestations of the so called primitive cultures. The surrealists and along with them Wifredo Lam, felt attracted by the presence of these objects with their carved images representing the history of their clans. On the other hand, from Sigmund Freud to Claude Levi-Strauss, the totem has been the subject of studies of different nature that eventually helped to enrich the poetical arsenal of numerous artists. Whether or not, Raúl Enmanuel Pozo had read these authors is beside the point, since their findings are “in the air” ready to be aspired by any sensitive spirit. On the other hand it is quite possible that he could be familiar with the writings of the great Cuban ethnologist Fernando Ortiz who wrote an important monograph on Wifredo Lam. In paintings like “Son Varias Señales” (2004), “La Familia del Caballo” (2003) or his series “Los Detalles”, we can distinguish both aspects: the cubist structure plus the surrealist poetry acting like a visual palimpsest within the composition. By achieving this, he allows suggestion to prevail over evidence freeing the imagination of the spectator to do the rest.
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I have pointed out three main aspects of Raúl del Pozo paintings related to form. However these forms are created within a rich gamut of colors. It is not my intention to follow the well known stereotypes pertaining “tropical” color etc. Cuban painting had witnessed masters such as Fidelio Ponce or Rafael Blanco that refused to fall into that category while others like Rene Portocarrero or Amelia Peláez made a vast use of all the possibilities offered by color. The expressiveness of Pozo’s color is an indication that he followed the steps of these masters. The way, though, by which he crystallizes them is entirely his personal doing as well as his treatment of textures. What is important in my opinion is that his “ars combinatoria’ with color, succeeds in creating a number of chromatic variations that place him as a colorist to be reckoned with. In that sense his entire opus adds to the already intense developing of Cuban painting, a new and original component.
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Ariticle excerpt courtesy of MLA Gallery.
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| Selected Exhibitions |
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2007
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Elements of abstraction, Gallery on State, Santa Barbara, CA
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2007
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Outstanding new contemporary artists, LS Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
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2007
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Brewery Artwalk, MLA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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2006
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Brewery Artwalk, MLA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
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2005
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Contemporary Visions, Audis Husar Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA
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2005
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Brewery Artwalk, MLA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
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2005
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Crosscurrents, Soho Gallery, Studio City, CA
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2004
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La Locomotora de mi papa, Canvas Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico (solo)
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2004
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Tropico Profundo, MLA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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2003
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Cuban Artists, Galley Nader, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
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2003
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Brewery Artwalk, MLA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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2003
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MLA Gallery, Absolut LA International Biennial - Art Invitational 2003
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2002
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Cuban Painters, Naipe Museum, La Habana Vieja, Cuba
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2002
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Buscando Caminos, Galeria Juan Marinillo, Institute for the Friendship with People, La Habana, Cuba (solo)
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2002
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Buscando Caminos, Hotel Florida, Colonial City, Habana Vieja, La Habana (solo)
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2001
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Cuban Artists, Galeria Nader, Santo Domingo, D.R.
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2000
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Four Abstract Painters, Galeria San Ignacio, La Habana Vieja, La Habana Biennial
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2000
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Mi Tiempo Vegetal, Casa de Teatro, Colonial City, Santo Domingo, D.R. (solo)
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2000
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Mi Tiempo Vegetal, Casa de Arte, Santiago de los Caballeros, D.R. (solo)
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1999
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Acrilicos sobre Telas, Galeria Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba (solo)
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1999
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End of the Century Hall, Emilio Bacardi Museum, Santiago de Cuba
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1999
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Serigraphy Workshoop, 'Rene Portocarrero'
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1999
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Cuban Painters, Museo de las Americas, San Juan, Puerto Rico
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1998
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Galeria de Arte Universal, Santiago de Cuba
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1998
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Galeria Oriente, Santiago de Cuba
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1997
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Salon 30 de Noviembre, Santiago de Cuba
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1994
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Galeria Coral, Santa Fe de Bogota, Colombia (solo)
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1993
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Tropico, Center of Applied Studies, Santo Domingo, D.R. (solo)
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1991
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Amuletos Recuerdo de mis abuelos, Galeria Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba (solo)
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1988
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Dibujos sobre Cartulinas, Cultural Center of Costa de Arte, Burdeo, France, il Festival of Cuban Culture (solo)
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