vergrössern

Manuel López Oliva

In our country a number of artists, specialists and officials are dazzled by the principle that the art’s goal is a financial gain. So I have no other way to disagree with this pragmatic idea that is distant from the art and makes the «seller» a sort of «Pharaoh» or supreme ruler of the value of visual art. There is a noticeable difference between the seller who works in pursuit of legitimate aesthetic and cultural development, and that other for whom the only thing worth are those pieces of art that have become successful merchandises, or that have been manufactured for that purpose.
Since a «social revolution in culture» took place in Cuba, I must say that the genuine art (autonomous, that expresses the existence and the subjectivity of the authors, who contribute from the personal or generational to the artistic evolution, etc.) has not always been the one that has attracted the various view, actions and assessments at the state level. I should also point out that there are social and cultural institutions that have actually recognized and defended real teachings and works that contribute the most.
What has been observed is that, as a rule, the artistic work has been subject to external contents and objectives; some practical lines of the promotional work on visual arts have been opposed to the approaches of cultural policy and it has been adopted foreign paradigms over what really has greater rank, etc.
And what prevails now is: the «art dealer» and their operational tools (gallery, auction, fair, price guide, etc.) that have been proclaimed as if they were compasses dictating what needs to be created, recognized, collected and supported within the art world. (To be continued)