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An interesting take on the current state of the Cuban art market outside of Cuba from Daily Campello Art News:

“The collectors are taking advantage of a little-known exception to the U.S. trade embargo with Cuba: It is legal for Americans to buy Cuban art.” –Wall Street Journal

This suggestion and idea is simple, and has been proven recently by the super hot rise of Chinese artists: when a closed society is opened up a little, its top artists see a substantial rise in exposure and thus in demand, and of course, in prices!

And it makes sense (if you buy art as an investment strategy rather than love of art).

Generally speaking, when an artist is in certain major collections around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Tate in London, and other such giants of the museum world, it attracts a certain level of collector interest, and it is almost always associated with a certain price range.

And there are many contemporary Cuban artists whose work has been in those and many other important museums around the world for a very long time, and whose work continues to attract curatorial, critical and savvy collector interest, but because of their lack of exposure to the American market in general (often created by their closed societies), their price range is not in par with their colleagues from other nations in the same level.

Read the whole blog entry, Aqui Estamos.

Afro-Cuban artist Wifredo Lam’s art is on exhibit at the Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida through January 11, 2009. The show displays Lam’s groundbreaking work with pieces from 1927 through 1972.
Lam, a contemporary of Dali’s, allowed his work to be influenced by his Chinese, African, and Spanish heritage, as well as by 20th century European painting. The second half of his career was heavily influenced by African forms and religion. His work gained international acclaim by the 1940’s, and its fusion of African, Caribbean and European themes remains influential to this day.
Salvador Dali Museum of Art, 1000 Third St. S, St. Petersburg; ongoing thru Jan. 11. Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, extended hours on Thursday to 8 p.m. and Friday to 6:30 p.m.; noon to 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission: adults $15, seniors $13.50, students 10 and older $10, and children 5 to 9. $4. (727) 823-3767.

Peter Pettegrew

Over the summer, Peter was contacted by Baxter of Florida Frame House to submit a painting for the poster celebrating the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival. On September 17th they had a big unveiling and signing event at Florida Frame House with all of the board members of the show and the Mayor of Winter Park, David Strong, in attendance. Everyone agreed that it was a fun evening of good food and cheer in the beautiful gallery setting, and all are looking forward to the show, which will be held the weekend of October 11th and 12th along Park Avenue in Winter Park. Peter will be in attendance, signing posters and meeting art collectors from around the area.

Peter, Baxter and Mayor David Strong

Peter with collector Kimberly Roberts

"Magia" Oil on Canvas (53"x41")

"Modern Fairy Tales, Chapter I" Oil on Canvas (39"x78")

Untitled Oil on Canvas (51″x70″)-Available

“Melancolia” Oil on Canvas (46″x34″) -Available

He captures the city’s soul like no one else, beyond all visible forms. Gazing at his canvases, we forget that painting is two-dimensional as we “penetrate” those idealized panoramas, where it’s always noon and everything seems to doze in the stupor of the siesta. But that sun doesn’t burn us. That’s how pleasant Ferrer’s Santiago is.
In this regard, Jorge Hidalgo comments:
There are some of Ferrer’s cityscapes that I call “rooftop landscapes,” because clearly he has painted them from his studio or some high point, and they are impressive. This is something that no other painter has achieved, not even the golden watercolorists, as I call Hernández Giro, Bofill and others who – although they are masters – have not portrayed that Santiago de Cuba that Ferrer captures from the rooftops.
And Julia Valdés adds:
No one else is as adept in capturing our city’s luminosity and brilliant color in those landscapes, and from the viewpoint of composition, the city’s architecture and the contours of the land. His stroke is dynamic and I would say that his most recent phase is more daring than the previous ones, and his palette much richer.…
Ferrer Cabello creates Caribbean images. Feverishly devoted to them, he has delved into an iconographic world which is ever richer and more diverse, in constant evolution. The men and women are inserted in the city as if it were a huge, colorful fan. In careful detail, he explores the possibilities offered by his surroundings. Nothing escapes the master’s palette: carnival, the Cubans’ joy and love of crowds. He has given us a vast collection of portraits of conspicuous characters from Santiago de Cuba and other latitudes, as well as affectionate views of the countryside. Ferrer seems to feel a constant need to reveal life itself. He is a man in his 90s who is born each day, creating scenes full of images that are significant, among other reasons, for their documentary value.
His works are like windows opening onto the world, helping us to shape our values and ultimately our consciousness. This master has the constant need to find the essential nature of the reality surrounding us, often by delving into its narrative content. Ferrer presents us with his own universe, which seems to be inexhaustible.

Currently showing at the Goddard Center for the Arts, in Ardmore, OK, Harry’s works have generated tremendous interest and brisk sales.

"Our Masks, Our Selves" Harry Ruiz Moreno

Oil on Canvas, (43″x63″)

Born in Holguín, Cuba, 1973. Studies: 1984-1992: He attended Professional Holguin Art School “El Alba” at the same time he was receiving private lessons from another Holguin born artist: Cosme Proenza (a world-known painter graduated from Kiev Beaux Arts Institute.) Main Personal Exhibitions: 1992: Graduation Thesis. Moncada show room. Holguín,Cuba. 1995: Personal Exhibition. Anonimous Gallery . Panamá 1997: “Everything on Harry”. Graphic Workshop Gallery. Habana, Cuba. 1999: “Deceiving our eyesl”. Internacional Press Center. Habana, Cuba. 2000: “Harry”. Galería Adriano, Milán: Personal Exhibition. Galería Pernik.Holguín, Cuba. 2007: Personal Exhibition. San Lucas Gallery. Chueca, Madrid Collective Exhibitions : 1993: “From the drawing”. La Acacia, Habana, Cuba. 1995: Modern Cuban Art Exhibition . Santiago de Chile. 1996: “Comtemporary Cuban Landscapes”. Anonimous Gallery. Panamá 1998: Cuban Contemporary Art showroom,.Milán, Italia 1999: “Arteba” Fair :Buenos Aires, Argentina 2001: “20-21”. Collective Cuban Contemporary Art Exhibiton. Acacia Gallery Habana, Cuba. 2005: Collective Exhibición. “Encuentros” Gallery, Panamá. His works may be found in many private collections in countries such as Italia, Panamá, Estados Unidos, Puerto Rico, México, Costa Rica, among others. Under Cosme Proenza tutorial, he became a skillful painter, a very virtuoso exponent of the Russian academic school ready to mingle Cuban social speech and tropical spirit with ochre and sepia colors, accurate drawing with loose brush strokes to express a boring state of mind as well as a desire of intellectual freedom. On several of his canvas naïve characters appear just posing themselves as part of an absurd scenario with suspended stones and upside-down flying birds which somehow reflects the uncertainty and chaos that for decades has been dominating Cuban life. Masks serve to depict a double moral society. Houses refers to belongings we left behind when we part, the nostalgia of not recovering our roots, our past. Children and old men together are supposed to express a very short route from birth to death, as if middle age life doesn’t count that much (no plans, no future), while migration seems to be the only and eternal way out. Harry wouldn’t call his work surrealism but something rather closer to nihilism. As he often says he hates painting beautiful things unless absurdity is present. Absurdity is still the most representative characteristic of human nature.

When Peter hooked up with Jim in 1993, Jim took over the selling so Peter could devote more time to hittin’ the highways and back roads finding new subjects with the “right place with the right light.”

Although Pettegrew’s style has more of a Hudson River School feel with many layers of paint– more like Beanie Backus (one of Peter’s favorites and a Highwaymen mentor), in fact, his work has a lot in common with the Highwaymen. All of the Highwaymen artists are largely self taught, sharing ideas and learning with fellow painters, occasionally doing workshops together and separately.

Here is Pettegrew with Sam Newton who, along with brothers Len and Harold Newton, are among the best known original Highwayman. Peter took Sam’s workshop and they had much to talk about… a lot of years and stories on the road painting in Florida.

Peter’s favorite time to work is always what is called the “golden time,” just like Beanie Backus and most of the Highwayman.

“My favorite times of day were late afternoon or early morning, because the light is more alive then. I like the effect of light on the color of an object, and how light differs from day-to-day, season-to-season, place-to-place.”
Beanie Backus

JC