Bejarano The Rites of Silence
Agustin Bejarano (Camaguey 1964) is by far one of Cuba's top contemporary fine artists. This many-sided creator has excelled as an engraver, drawer and painter. Since his first personal exhibit -mounted at the Alejo Carpertier Gallery in his hometown back in 1979- those who have followed his paintings have had the chance of going through more than 45 personal exhibitions in the turf and overseas.
His works of art have made the rounds in Puerto Rico's San Juan, Mexico City, Monterrey, Zurich, Tokyo, Zaragoza, Santo Domingo and Toronto. He's also taken part in scores of collective expositions and has grabbed countless national and international awards in the three categories mentioned at the top of this article.
Always reinventing himself, Bejarano now presents The Rites of Silence. Asked about the artist's new vision, this is what outstanding fine arts expert and writer Caridad Blanco had to say: "Agustin Bejarano's work is basically a rewriting of genres."
His latest collection is pointedly leaning to the representation of a landscape that swerves off from the more traditional painting. There are no classical sketches or lines, but as an experienced surgeon with a scalpel in his hands, Bejarano slits a deep cut to expose some of the most nagging problems that choke today's societies: lack of communication, loneliness, fragility and powerlessness towards some of the major tribulations that bug human beings in today's world.
Blanco de la Cruz chimes in: "The point that Agustin Bejarano depicts life as a dawn or a sunset, as twilight or the noon blinding light is because life is not gone yet; it beats and vibrates in a hush in the prison cell and burden of silence. He depicts a silence he probably belongs to, or worse off if he belongs to those who have been silenced."
And Mr. de la Cruz goes on to say: "These rites are a token of strength with a sacred stature of its own that claims no mercy, a sign of abatement that under no circumstance implies a defeat. That's why he's chosen men untouched by frivolity, purely essential men in their daily chores (fishermen, peasants and utopians); men who carry their truths on their shoulders and seek the mercifulness of inner enlightenment from the bottom of heathen things; men who turn to meditation by either getting carried away with time, sitting in rundown wharves or climbing up rustic scaffolds, trapped in watercourses, flowing into a river, the sea or his own dreams."
We invite our readers of Caribbean Tourist Excellencies to take a closer look at the works of Agustin Bejarano, this time around through The Rites of Silence, a new collection that seems to pierce the depths of the human soul and the artist's own universal vision.
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