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Cosme Proenza Almaguer

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Cosme Proenza Almaguer (Holguín, 1948) has created his own universe in his painting that distinguishes him in the Cuban art scene. He was born in Tacajó, where he dreamed of many things. “I lived on a beautiful estate, a paradise created by my grandparents. I was not a prodigy child like Mozart. I liked painting a lot and read a lot. That created a foundation that made me jump in the thought. I lived there and was a teacher in Holguin. I worked on the weekends, painting a lot in one of the rooms of the house facing the street. There, I did much of my work.”
Luis Cosme went to the National School of Art with a different vision. "It was a very hard regime, but it seems that such things accelerate the human spirit. It was a time that generated a lot of spirituality, perhaps because of poverty and lack. There is a drawing of mine, of the little that is exposed in the National Museum of Fine Arts, which I did while in the boarding school.
He then studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Kiev. “The discourse of my work – based on the analysis - has a lot to do with the technological learning that I incorporated in Kiev. There were two options: either to continue with easel painting or monumental painting. I thought this was fabulous. Yes, I learned a lot. I enjoyed the great Ukrainian and Russian culture. It is millennial and with very high standards. I lived six years in that city; it's not little time.”
Many have described him as a “post-medieval”painter, but Cosme defends himself. “That's nonsense. The post-medievalists were painters, who did their work after medieval times, but they are in a museum, they are dead people. I am a researcher who works with the codes of European art. In my case it has to do more with the historical investigation of something we inherited from the West. My painting is pure research. "