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Saturday, February 27, 2010

SELGAS /Les dieux interdits// Du 4 au 27 Mar 2010 CLICK HERE for Ricardo Vega' Video




ofeliaI2008 & escapeI2009 / Catalogue front & back covers.
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Both images turn into inside-front & inside-back covers, respectively.

Friday, February 26, 2010

HABLANDO BLOGUERIAS No. 16

Cepp Selgas / ciel cubain / Acrylic on canvas / 40X20in. / 2009.

Recientemente estuve buscando en You Tube, por música sinfónica cubana, y entre otras cosas encontré dos piezas de Paquito D’Rivera con el Latin Sax Quartet; mi primera favorita La engañadora y muy en especial Kites Over Havana , que sin duda viene muy a tono con mi cuadro ciel cubain-cielo cubano y su papalote rojo, azul y blanco.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

February 24 / A Day in Cuban History


On February 24, 1895, the Second War for Cuban Independence began. Numerous demonstrations were planned throughout Cuba, but many were forestalled when Spanish authorities arrested prominent agitators. Those demonstrations that did occur sparked within a few days uprisings throughout the island.

"Cuban Rebel Is Visited ...The secrecy they attached to their efforts collapsed on February 24, 1957, when the New York Times published the first of a three-part series on Fidel in the Sierra Maestra, reported by Herbert Matthews under the front-page headline, "Cuban Rebel Is Visited in Hideout." By sneaking Matthews into and out of the mountains, past army checkpoints, Castro had won his first public relations battle, as he would most subsequent ones until recently.

On February 24, 1996, Cuban MIGS shot down two unarmed, civilian aircraft of the Brothers-to-the-Rescue organization in international airspace. Cuba's callous disregard for human life resulted in the murder of four individuals and outraged all Americans.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Selgas' Paris Catalogue / infanta / 2009

infanta I 2009 / Acrylic on canvas / 20X20in.

This painting was also the illustration in My 2010 Zoe' Calendar for January-Janvier.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

CARMEN HERRERA / THE GUARDIAN / Experience: I became a famous artist at the age of 94


'I've made it on to the cover of the New York Times without ­having to kill anyone.'
Photograph: Caroll Taveras

Five years ago, some of my canvases were ­included in an ­exhibition in New York showcasing female g­eometric painters. There was an element of chance ­involved – a good friend put my name forward when one of the other artists dropped out. A collector bought five of my pieces, the first I had sold. I was 89 years old; I had been painting full-time for more than 60 years.
Over the decades I had occasional exhibitions and good reviews, but never sold a painting. The type of work I was doing simply wasn't fashionable. There were knock-backs, too, such as a gallery owner who loved my work but wouldn't show it, because I was a woman. Benign neglect, I call it – there was never any malice intended. I ­suppose I was a little bit ahead of my time and paid for it.
Perhaps if I'd been more a­ggressive things might have worked out differently, but for me, the work was everything. Recognition and money have never been an issue, painting is ­simply my vocation.
In 1939, when I met my husband in my native Cuba, I was studying architecture. I had done some sculpting, but after I married Jesse, an English professor, and moved with him to New York, my ­priorities shifted. I started training at New York's Art Students League, but wasn't satisfied. It was all so ­academic, and though I felt there was something I needed to express, I wasn't finding a way to do it. It wasn't until we spent some years living in Paris after the war that I made the discovery that was to change the course of my life.
Browsing through some ­bookstalls on the banks of the Seine, I came across something I simply hadn't known existed. Every two years, Le Salon des ­Réalités Nouvelles had an e­xhibition of practically every geometric or ­minimalist ­artist in Europe. I opened a catalogue of one and was floored by some of the ­images I saw. I i­mmediately knew this was the path I wanted to take.
I had to change my way of ­thinking and feeling about painting, and reject everything I'd been taught. I gave up representational art entirely and started working in the abstract. It was a struggle, but an interesting struggle. I worked very, very hard, and little by little, over many, many years, I came to find my own voice.
Jesse was endlessly supportive and one of the very few people who understood what I was aiming at. Poor man – I inflicted a lot of ­difficulties in his life. We had to move to neighbourhoods that were cheap but sometimes a little dangerous so I could have a big enough place to paint, and he did this with a lot of grace. I had a secure existence. We had no children, so once Jesse left for work in the morning I'd get any necessary housework out of the way and then paint for hours. Many talented people drop out of art because they can't afford to do it, which is terribly sad. I was a very lucky woman. Even after Jesse died, in 2000, I carried on. I had no choice – my work really needed to come out, it was a necessity, as well as a pleasure.
After those first paintings were bought in 2004, word spread quickly and other pieces were sold. I was in shock for days. Now I have pieces in collections all over the world. Yet perhaps it's been a good thing I was able to work for so many years without recognition. I was left alone to refine and distil my art for decades, paring things down to their essence. I have no regrets, no complaints, and my work is more important to me than ever. I'm not as well as I would like to be, but as soon as I b­egin painting all my aches and pains disappear.
I don't know how I would have ­reacted if I had been more ­successful when I was young. Now it's nice, and I have more money than I could ever have imagined earlier in my life. Yet I'm not ­overwhelmed by it at all. I've always been a private person, and my work is my private life – I'd resent it if I felt people were ­intruding when I was trying to paint. But it is very pleasant to be recognised a little bit – I've made it on to the cover of the New York Times without ­having to kill anyone. All I had to do was get old. The world came to me ­eventually – I just had to wait 94 years, that's all.

• As told to Chris Broughton
Saturday 20 february 2010

SELGAS / Les dieux interdits / Calalogue


Partial view of Les dieux interdits' catalogue (front and back).
It was designed by Gustavo Valdés, with Michaelangelo Di Nonno' photographs, and texts by several authors.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

HABLANDO BLOGUERIAS / No. 15 / ALABBI

Alabbi / Acrílico sobre lienzo / 20” x 20” /2008.

Alabbi: “El manto que todo lo cubre”; es el significado de esta palabra en Yoruba. Las cosas que no “vemos-sabemos”, que nos están vedadas. Una simple palabra con un peso aplastante. Alabbi es la imagen en la invitación a mi exhibición Los dioses prohibidos en el Ars Atelier de Paris. Y ese "manto", el cual usé como tema aleatorio, está presente en cada una de las piezas de la muestra; desde Fontainebleau hasta Cielo cubano.
Las nueve imágenes de mis cuadros han sido reproducidas en un catalogo, magníficamente diseñado por Gustavo Valdés para esta muestra.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Le Nouvel Observateur anuncia a Selgas en Ars Atelier (click here)

Roger Salas / Dressed to Dance

Guggenheim Museum / Flamenco Festival Rotunda Performance


Roger Salas (back-stage) showing me his own design of "Village woman" for "Bodas de sangre", inspired by the drawings of Federico Garcia Lorca.


My dear friend Roger, and I, standing before five bullfighter's capes, designed by Pablo Picasso.

Despite the extreme winter weather conditions, more people than the Guggenheim Museum could take, showed up for this event that turned out to be a completed success.
With a prior special historical presentation by El País dance critic Roger Salas, the foremost Spanish dance and costume historian; Dressed to Dance took place in the New Media Theater.
This was a "One Night Show Only"; with sixty costumes including historic designs by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí with a magnificent dance performance/runway exhibition in the Guggenheim’s rotunda. Choreographed by Carlos Chamorro and directed by Margaret Jova, the performance featured costumed dancers including María Pagés and Company, Rocío Molina and Company, Manuel Liñan, and others from Flamenco Festival 2010.
Dressed to Dance (Wednesday, February 10, 2010) was sponsored and made possible by the Regional Government of Madrid. Additional support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Christine Burke & Kley Reynolds

...Culver Academies (final)

Christine Burke, 12th, Plymouth, IN
Me gustan mucho de las pinturas de Selgas, y también aprecio su arte más, después de ver el video de él pintando en su taller. Creo que la pintura con el titulo Trespassing es muy interesante y curiosa, aunque no es muy complicada. La pintura que me gusta a mi más, de Selgas es Ophelia. Debido al uso de la yuxtaposición y la manera en que Selgas ha deshecho el cuerpo de ella.


Kley Reynolds, 11th, Austin, TX
Me gusta este dibujo porque es muy diferente. Representa la noche y las estrellas pero también se puede ver una interpretación del símbolo de Escorpión. Me gusta que use solo dos colores, negro y blanco. La técnica que Jesús Selgas usa es muy interesante. La interpretación se le da al que la mire. Es un dibujo sencillo que me gusta mucho. A mi me gustan las estrellas que ha usado para la constelación. Las pinturas más sencillas son mas tranquilas.

Mis notas:
Muchas gracias a Kim y a su alumnado por esta experiencia.
En cada una de las notas pude ver el interés de explicar lo que vemos, mas allá de la complacencia visual que nos causa cualquier obra de arte a priori.
El usar una misma forma para diferentes significados, esconder formas dentro de otras, burlar el arriba y abajo, etc. Ha sido siempre la intención principal al realizar mi obra.
Quiero aclarar que; lo fácil o difícil de encontrar en mis archivos, las imágenes para cada nota, determinaron el orden en las que fueron publicadas.

Sidney: Goodnight kiss es una pieza romántica, y la observación de “personas que se han deshecho” es muy acertada pues la “ausencia” del beso es el tema real.
Kirsten: “Diseño único”; nunca mejor dicho.
Anna: “Tiene mucho sentido”. Describe muy bien el hecho de que los dos personajes comparten la misma silueta al revés y al derecho.
Morgan: “La forma de reloj de arena”. La capacidad de ver la forma mas allá del significado.
Victoria: La última línea de tu nota es muy ingeniosa.
Ashley: “La pintura esta al revés”; exacto.
James: “yuxtaposición” (de fondo y figura!)
Kley: “La interpretación se la da el que la ve”, muy bien!
Christa: El tatuaje es una isla de Cuba. Y siluetas de la isla (como yin & yang) se esconden en la cinta acuática. Y es un cuadro político!
Christine: “Selgas ha deshecho el cuerpo de ella” (Ophelia). Mi Ophelia es también la silueta de la isla de Cuba.
Ariana: Mi fascinación con expresiones idiomáticas de la lengua inglesa. Y en este caso “Now you see it, Now you don’t”; que es el verdadero titulo del cuadro en cuestión, me inspiró a pintarlo usando el juego de “La gallinita ciega”; titulo con el cual fue identificado en la revista Vanidades. Otra cosa curiosa es que Goya tiene un cuadro con el tema de “La gallinita ciega”, y yo me inspiro en las infantas de Velazquez !

Ashley Dawson, Sidney Finan & Ariana Garcia

...Culver Academies continues (2)

Ashley Dawson, 12th, Crozier, VA
Me gusta la pintura que se llama Isla de las muñecas. Me gusta la pintura por muchas razones. La primera razón es porque me encantan los niños. Me gusta la amistad que los niños tienen en la pintura. Yo tengo una variedad de amigos y la pintura tiene una variedad de amigos también. Los barquitos de papel que los niños tienen y los botes en el agua me gustan, me encanta el agua el agua del mar y navegar en velero. La pintura tiene varios colores en la ropa de los niños. Me gusta que una parte de la pintura esta al revés porque se ve diferente de otras pinturas y de todas las otras pinturas y de todos los otros artistas. Los niños representan la mezcla de las culturas en La Habana. La imagen de la pintura es muy tranquila.


Sidney Finan, 11th, Chicago, IL
De Berland, Lago, y Selgas, en general Selgas es mi artista favorito. Muchas de sus pinturas son muy interesantes y tienen muchos diseños y colores. Pero de todas sus pinturas esta es mi favorita. Me fascinan las personas porque ellas son muy sencillas y se han desecho. Creo que es muy interesante como la pareja besa las lunas. Es una idea original. También la pintura es un poquito romántica. Me agradan los colores (rojo, azul, negro) porque son oscuros pero muy bonitos y los diseños también son interesantes. El fondo es similar a un mosaico. Me fascinan las lunas porque se parecen cintas.


Ariana Garcia, 12th, Chicago, IL
Mi obra favorita de Selgas es La gallinita ciega. Me gusta porque es una pintura muy original. Me fascina el estilo de Selgas. Es bastante diferente. También me interesan lo que eran las Infantas Velazqueñas y como eran sus vidas. La pintura me recuerda a la Reina de corazones de Alice in Wonderland (Alicia en el país de las maravillas). Me gustaría aprender mas de Selgas y saber que le inspiró a pintar esta pintura.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

James Kinsey/Victoria Weitgenant&Kirsten Elliot

...Culver Academies continues (1)

James Kinsey, 11th, Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Me gusta su arte mucho, y cuando lo estudié en la clase, hubo un dibujo que me gustó más que todos. Se ve interesante y tranquilo al mismo tiempo. El nombre del dibujo que me gusta tanto es Zapatero Zapato. Es una yuxtaposición en que se ve exactamente como dos cosas, depende de si uno esta mirando los colores oscuros o los colores brillantes. Para terminar, me gusta su estilo mucho y por eso, ami me gusta ese dibujo tanto.


Victoria Weitgenant, 12th, Valparaiso, IN
Me gusta más la escultura de la infanta Velazqueña.
Es simétrica y tiene cierto equilibrio. Hay una bandera que me gusta. Además, no era confortable para llevar pero la Infanta y muchas otras mujeres tenían que llevar ropa como esa. Me recuerda un esqueleto. Y que la vida no es complicada, es tan simple como la base que se usa.


Kirsten Elliot, 12th, Culver, IN
Me encantan los mosaicos de Jesús Selgas. Yo hice un mosaico para mi clase de matemáticas y fue muy difícil. Mi mosaico era de peces y aves.
Mi mosaico favorito de Selgas es Bloque Motociclo, porque es muy creativo. Me gusta el diseño único. Yo se que los mosaicos son muy complicados de hacer, y pienso que Jesús Selgas es un gran artista.
More notes coming soon!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Kim White'Class on Selgas'Art/Culver Academies

Kim White is a Master Instructor at Culver Academies in north-central Indiana, a private boarding school comprised of Culver Military Academy and Culver Girls Academy. Students are in grades 9 through 12 and come from all over the U.S. as well as a variety of other countries.

KIM:
I had three days left before the start of Winter Break. What could I do in my Spanish 4 Hispanic Art class to capture and hold the attention of 11 boarding school students, their thoughts already on vacation. Why not feature the three Cuban artists I had found, each with his own fascinating style? I set to work. The first two days went well but the last day before a vacation is always the most difficult and I had decided to feature (Jesús) Cepp Selgas as the artist of that day. He was such a hit that he made me look good, and upon their return a month later, I asked them to pick a Selgas from the gallery that they liked the best and write about the work.

Anna Rich, 12th, Culver, IN
Pienso que Jesús Selgas es el más moderno con su arte. Es interesante como él usa las Infantas de Velázquez, y me gusta esta versión. Parece simple, pero se que hay bastante creatividad en esta pintura. Esto tiene mucho sentido.


Morgan Boundy, 12th, Midland, MI
A mi me encanta la pintura de Jesús Selgas con la Infanta Velazqueña. En la pintura el emplea una Infanta y un santo. El emplea la forma de un reloj de arena; es muy diferente de artistas normales. La pintura representa un cruce de calles en La Habana. Me gusta la pintura porque la princesa está muy bonita y joven y el santo tiene una corona de sol. La princesa y el santo tienen el mismo tamaño porque Selgas pinta los rayos de la corona del santo, muy grande. Los colores del santo son negro y café y los colores de la princesa son blanco y amarillo.


Christa Finley, 12th, Plymouth, IN
Mi obra favorita es Escape por Jesús Selgas. Es una declaración política. El tatuaje es inesperado. La pintura captura el desafío de los inmigrantes, pero él lo cambia por una cosa hermosa y rara. La cinta flotante representa el mar, pero más dócil. Selgas hermosea la inmigración. Lo mejor de esta obra es la autenticidad.
Selgas ha usado realismo fantástico, pero el tema es completamente obvio.

More notes coming soon!

CLASS:
The students who wrote these pieces are in their fourth year of Spanish, none of them native speakers of the language. The Spanish 4 Advanced Hispanic Art course is an eight-week course taught entirely in the target language and features a variety of 20th and 21st century artists, most from Latin America.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Found It! / My Louvre' Souvenir / Paris, 1988

Gabrielle d’Estrées and the Duchesse de Villars/Schools of Fontainebleau/Anonymous/Louvre Museum/Paris.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Narciso / 2008

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This painting is my most recent Narciso, before leaving for Paris to be exhibit with my show Les dieux interdits at Ars Atelier March 4, 2010.

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Narciso/Acryilic on canvas/20X20in./2008.
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Monday, February 1, 2010

Ode to Narcissus / 1988

This painting, Ode to Narcissus is February' illustration in My 2010 Zoé Calendar.
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Ode to Narcissus/Oil and acrylic on canvas/46X40in./1988.
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