artwork inspired by Cuban folkloric music and dance
traditions by Susan Matthews, Oakland, California
to go the the artist's webpage and view
her most
recent paintings click
here |
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"Los Abanicos" 1999
36” X 53” acrylic on canvas
"Los Abanicos" means, The Fans. An abanico is also a roll on the
timbales. The man in the foreground is Adel Gonzales, currently the conguero
for Chucho Valdes quartet. I had the good fortune to study with Adel in
Havana as part of a Caribbean Music and Dance Programs course. This painting
is based on some photos I took at a party the last day of the course. |
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"Los Tambores del
Conjunto Clave y Guaguanco" 1998
acrylic on canvas 480" X 720"
This is a representation of the drums of Conjunto Clave y Guaguanco, one
of the great Rumba groups in Havana today. They often perform in Callejon
Hamel. The actual drums and murals were painted by Salvador Gonzales Escalona.
I wanted to avoid copying his murals in my painting, so I did some symbols
of the orishas, and on the far right, an Ireme costume. In the center of
the painting I placed a symbolic altar to Oshun, the goddess of love.
The drums pictured are congas, cajones (wooden boxes), and a secularized
version of the sacred bata drums. I am sitting in the middle of it all because
one of the women in the band pulled me in out of the sun.
Two people spontaneously sent me photos of this scene: one from Alaska and
one from Los Angeles. I used the photos to work from. |
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"Obba Wemilere" 1997
acrylic on canvas 480" X 720"
"Obba Wemilere" means "King of the Party" in Lukumi,
one of the ancient languages brought to Cuba by Africans hundreds of years
ago. It is the name of the Rumba group shown in the painting. The setting
is Callejon Hamel, Centro Habana. Callejon Hamel is a narrow street full
of folkloric murals painted by an artist named Salvador Gonzales Escalona.
Every Sunday at mid-day there is a Rumba in the Callejon It is a great opportunity
to see and hear some of the great Rumberos and Rumberas playing and dancing
in Havana today.
One day, a year after I did this painting I was walking down Calle Obispo
and I saw someone I knew. I showed him a snap shot of the painting, at that
time titled "Rumba en el Callejon". He looked closely and said,
¯I know those guys! that's Obba Wemilere". I immediately changed the
name of the painting to "Obba Wemilere". |
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"Rumba Morena" 2000
acrylic on canvas 720" X 480"
The quinto is the smallest and highest pitched of the three drums played
in rumba. The quinto is the improvisational drum. This painting is a loose
representation of one of the drummers in Rumba Morena, an all women rumba
band in Havana. I saw Rumba Morena perform several times at Callejon Hamel.
This painting depicts a fictionalized performance at the malecon, Havana's
seawall promenade. |
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"Suite for Iya" 1998
acrylic on canvas 480" X 720"
This painting was done in collaboration with Guillermo Céspedes for
his premiere performance of folkloric music entitled "Suite for Iya", presented
by La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, California. "Suite for Iya"
was an instrumental and choral work involving over 70 vocalists and musicians,
dedicated to Oshun, the goddess of love.
The painting contains images that are associated with Oshun, such as the
gourd, the color gold, the river, and the violin. The batá drummer
is singing and playing the sacred drum to Oshun and the other deities. |
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"El Columbiano" 1998
acrylic on canvas 480" X 720"
Columbia is one of the three rhythms of Rumba. It is the fastest of the
rumba rhythms and is traditionally danced by men as a competition to show
who can do the coolest moves. These days a few daring women also dance Columbia.
The setting here is Casa Fina, a dormitory near Escuela Nacional de Arte
in Havana. The man in white does not want to quit dancing. Everybody else
is taking a break. His only audience is a tourist with his camera in his
bag. |
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"La Ola de Yemayá" 1998
acrylic on canvas 480" X 720"
"La Ola de Yemayá" means Yemaya's wave. Yemayá is
the Afro Cuban goddess of the ocean, and of a mother's love. This is a representation
of rumba as it is played and danced in Havana. The fact that the woman dancer
is wearing blue and white and is shaking her skirt to imitate the ocean
waves, invokes the idea of the ocean goddess. All of the people and elements
in the painting are real but they have been rearranged to create this fictionalized
scenario. In the background Cristobal Larrinaga, formerly with Conjunto
Clave y Guaguancó, plays quinto as he takes a drag from a cigarette. |
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"Changó" 1999
acrylic on canvas 480" X 360"
Changó is the god of thunder, lightening, and male virility. This
painting is a representation of Jose Francisco Barroso, a dancer formerly
with the Ballet Folklorico Nacional de Cuba, now residing in the San Francisco
Bay area. Barroso posed for the painting and it was used for the poster
for the 18th annual Encuentro del Canto Popular in December, 1999. |
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"Miguelito Bernal" 1998
acrylic on canvas 480" X 720"
Miguel Bernal is a folkloric musician who lives in Havana and recently spent
six months teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area. This painting shows him
with three sets of folkloric drums, the sacred Bata, the Tumbadora or Conga
drums, and he is playing the wooden Cajones. During colonial times dock
workers developed a style of drumming using shrimp boxes. Today people make
their own wooden Cajones.
In the background is a woman dressed in yellow, the color of Oshun, the
goddess of love. She is faceless because I wanted her to function as a symbol
of the muse. I also wanted her to represent a female presence in the largely
male dominated world of drumming.
The painting is loosely based on an afternoon in Havana when I was studying
at the Escuela Nacional de Arte. Students and teachers were stranded during
a violent thunder storm and while we waited a fantastic rumba spontaneously
took form in the cafeteria. The tape recorders are a humorous testament
to the fact that Cubans are teaching and sharing their musical knowledge
with the world. Foreign music students are never seen in Cuba without their
tape recorders. |
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Susan Matthews: artist's statement
I am a painter and musician, and since 1994 have been studying Afro-Cuban
music intensively. I have traveled to Cuba six times with study programs
in order to see the music and dance in its own context, and to study with
master drummers.
For the first few years, I was in a state of despair wondering how I could
pursue two separate art forms. Gradually the obvious thing happened. I began
incorporating my experiences playing and studying the music into my paintings
and the two art forms began to merge.
More than once I have shown photos of the paintings to musicians in Havana.
They recognize everyone in the paintings and tell me the names of the
people I don't know. They marvel at seeing their world in paint.
As I work on these paintings I realize that a Cuban may not want to paint
these pictures any more than I want to paint the street I live on and
the air I breathe. As an observer I notice details that might be invisible
to a person who is living the culture every day. To me, everything is
significant. At the same time, I have the awesome responsibility of depicting
cultural elements correctly and respectfully.
It is essential to the content of the work that
I spend time in Cuba immersed in study of the music and culture, and in
contact with people who can counsel me on specific cultural references.
The appreciative response I get from practitioners of the music and dance
gives me the courage to continue painting these images. These paintings
are part of a cultural bridge that exists between the musical communities
of Havana and the Bay Area during a difficult political time.
The art of drumming and the art of painting are cultural forms that have
been passed from teacher to student over thousands of years. What we possess
today is the result of a genealogy that could probably be traced in both
mediums over several centuries. Such preserving and passing on of traditional
art forms becomes more precious each day as we rely more on technology
and participate less in community.
In Cuba, miraculously, some of the ancient African ways survive intact.
They are integrated into daily life as they were in the African villages
in ancient times. In this series I am loosely documenting a particular
moment in contemporary Cuban culture. I see these paintings as one way
of helping to keep a cultural phenomenon alive at a time when I fear the
extinction of ancient knowledge and ancient cultures all over the globe.
Sue Matthews contact info:
susanmat(at)lmi.net |
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