63. Carlos Garaicoa
Cuba b. 1967
Aquí estuvieron los cubanos (I and II) each numbered “AP #1” lower lef; further signed “C Garaicoa” lower right colored photograph, in 2 parts each: 19 3/4 x 23 5/8 in. (50.2 x 60 cm) Executed in 1996, this work is artist’s proof 1 of 3 from an edition of 5. Estimate $10,000-15,000 Provenance Acquired directly from the artist
Carlos Garaicoa participated in a project in Cuito Cuanavale, Angola, a place where many young Cubans fought a war far away from home. A whole generation was scarred by this experience. Noted Cuban writer Orlando Hernández wrote a moving essay about this work, from which we have selected a passage here: “Logically, the photograph was taken afer the inscription was made. It has no other choice than repeating and overwriting the phrase. Not only does this turn it into an evidence of the matter, but also a commentary. Whether such commentary represents an adherence or accusation will only depend from our own reading of it. If the photographer had moved slightly to the right or to the lef, the inscription could have been lef out from sight and our judgment would have not been afected by its presence. The intentional selection of the objective is what makes the photograph, not the inscription, the thing that is telling us with the unobjectionable language of the image that ‘Aquí estuvieron los cubanos (Here were the Cubans’.”
Sold to Beneft FLORA ars+natura
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