Art and History at the Banco popular dominicano visual arts collection
of Caribbean and Central American Painting, promoted by the Museum of Modern Art, the new name of Gallery Plaza de la Cultura. Because of their programmatic nature, the national exhibitions contests became far-reaching public events, also obtained by a variety of exhibitions such as: «Art since Independence 1844-1969,» organized at the National Gallery (1982), «100 Years of Dominican Painting, Continuity and Rupture,» centennial exhibition of Brugal & Co. (1888-1988), the sequential samples «In Search of the Roots of Dominican Art,» organized by Club Art in 1992 and 1993, and among others «Anthology of Santiago’s XX Century Art,» consisting of four sequenced samples in 1996, organized by the Santiago Board, showcases in the Town Hall and in Santo Domingo with the support of Banco Popular Dominicano. This is the first bank sponsoring in New York at the Collective «Contemporary Dominican Art,» The Sing Gallery, with works by Gaspar Mario Cruz, Eligio Pichardo, Domingo Liz, Silvano Lora, Paul Giudicelli, Ramón Oviedo, Peña Defilló and Rincón Mora. The retrospectives were the preamble samples of Gilberto Hernández Ortega, Yoryi Morel, respectively in 1978 and 1979, subsequently adding Jaime Colson, Darío Suro, José Vela Zanetti, Silvano Lora, Ramón Oviedo, Luis Desangles (Sisito), almost all of them with careful editions and catalogs, plus copious monographs about artists and national art history. The crucial year 2000, the border between two centuries, one that ends and another that is born, drags the maelstrom of events of recent decades (1980-1990), as vulnerable as the extension of one single insular junction –own and near– already incorporated to global relations and universal links. Such confluence takes place in a country that fluctuates with two economies, that of the agricultural land and the urban industrial and commercial one, both dual and contradictory at the same time, as the national condition dependent of new neocolonial forms. Opulence and social deprivation, conservatism
and renewed liberalism, social awareness and reactionary anachronisms, pessimism and hope, they all are shadows and lights. These elements enlighten those who believe and feel the Altagracian homeland, familiar, tricolour and Trinitarian which was revamped with the discussion on our modern Dominican democracy years ago (19611964), years in which actions and foundational dreams emerged, as Banco popular, which rises with credible credentials similar to the erected Architectural Tower with colossal duplication of the ancient Cordón door, work that was executed by Pedro José Borrell, and inaugurated in 1992, and since that date called the «Popular Tower.» In this building, they exhibit and intimately collect the bulk of its Art Collection. In all the territorial branches where Banco Popular offers its reliable and diverse services, is shown the miraculous icon of the Virgin from Higüey. The Altagracia Province and its basilica, become annual route of offerings and sponsorship of the banking family headed by charismatic entrepreneur Don Alejandro Grullón who, incidentally, is the promoter of the collection of drawings, sculptures, photographs and paintings that summarizes the book «Art Treasures of Banco Popular Dominicano,» authored by Jeannette Miller, renowned academic, critic and historian. Marc Van Troostenberghe is responsible for the photographic reproductions, with bilingual edition, printed in full colour in 2001. It is the only collection treasured by a private institution that was made public through a book and sample exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in 2002. The accumulation of Dominican art takes place in a similar fashion as the story of the Popular Financing Group created by Don Alejandro Grullón, considered the father of Dominican banking, as private entity and foundational milestone that marks the differentiation from gubernatorial and foreign banks with branches in the country. It is composed of multi-bank companies, credit business, real estate, monetary shares, and various financing services, including institutional policies, the
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