Carlos Estevez Mixed Media - "El Arte Sin Su Historia"

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Exceptional Antiquities, Ethnographic and Fin...

By Artemis Gallery

Jun 29, 2023

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• Lot Description
  Carlos Estevez (Cuban, b. 1969). "El Arte Sin Su Historia" mixed media on paper, 2002. Signature, title, and date with location (Havana) handwritten below. A powerful piece by Cuban artist Carlos Estevez titled "El Arte Sin Su Historia" which translates as "Art Without Its History". Estevez presents a marionette figure, one of his recurring themes, raising both arms and the right leg in an elegant dance-like pose while its head lies on the floor suggesting that "Art Without Its History" amounts to a disfunctional puppet. All is delineated in a simple yet dramatic palette of red and white on a black ground, mounted behind plexiglass in an elegant custom frame. Size (sight view): 28.25" L x 19.75" W (71.8 cm x 50.2 cm) Size (frame): 29.125" L x 20.875" W (74 cm x 53 cm)
  
  About the Artist: "Carlos Estevez's work is animated by a deep interest in questions of human spirituality. His stated goal is to use his work to reveal the invisible realm to the spirit that lies hidden beneath the visible world, a process that he refers to as an alchemical, metaphysical transformation of mystery into knowledge. The imagery that populates his paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations bears a dreamy, child-like quality, with recurring references to marionettes, automatons, fantastical architectures, cosmic geometries, angelic beings, and strange, chimerical creatures.
  
  A recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, the Cintas Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts, and the Grand Prize in the First Salon of Contemporary Cuban Art in Havana, Carlos Estévez was born and raised in Cuba and moved to Miami in 2004, where he lives and works. He graduated from the University of Arts (ISA) in Havana and solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami; Center of Contemporary Art, New Orleans; Lowe Art Museum at Miami University, Florida; and the Stoors Gallery at University of North Carolina Charlotte. Estévez has participated in group exhibitions presented at the 6th and 7th Havana Biennials; the 1st Biennial of Martinique; Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida; Maison de l'Amerique Latin, Paris, France; Casa de América, Palacio de Linares, Madrid, Spain; and several others.
  
  Estevez has been an artist-in-residence in Academia de San Carlos, UNAM, Mexico; Gasworks Studios, London, England; The UNESCO-ASCHBERG in The Nordic Artists' Center in Dale, Norway; Art-OMI Foundation, New York; The Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris; Montclair University, New Jersey; Siena Art Institute, Italy; Sacatar Foundation, Isla Itaparica, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; and McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC; among other places.
  
  His work is included in numerous prestigious collections, such as those of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; The Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany; The Bronx Museum, New York; Perez Art Museum Miami, Florida; Drammens Museum for Kunst of Kulturhistorie, Norway; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut; Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona; Fort Lauderdale Art Museum, Florida; The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at FIU, Florida; The Mint Museum, North Carolina; BNY Mellon Art Collection, New York; and The Lowe Art Museum, Florida.
  
  Estevez first monograph Carlos Estevez: Entelechy. Works from 1992 to 2018 by Carol Damian, Ph.D. was published in 2019 by Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block, Arizona; also, Images of Thought. Philosophical Interpretations of Carlos Estevez's Art by Jorge J. E. Gracia was published in 2009 by State University of New York Press, Albany; and Carlos Estévez: Bottles to the Sea, edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia was published in 2015 by State University of New York Press, Albany." (Artist's Website)
  
  Artist Statement: "Art for me is a learning process. It is my way of understanding life. My work is very connected to my own experience. What I think, what I feel, and all my dreams are contained in my artwork.
  
  My process is similar to the process of alchemists. They were looking for the formula to make gold, and what they found instead was knowledge. My goal is to find knowledge through art. I want to translate my life experiences into images and share them with other people. I think that art is a magic form of communication and the key is to look at yourself as deep as possible so that you can communicate with the deepest territories of others.
  
  The source of my work is the human existence. Of course, my work is influenced by what I read, which is mainly philosophy. However, I don't transfer any concept to my art intentionally. It does not work that way. I read a book and I use it as fuel for my brain. What I get from readings could be far from its original intentions. I do my own interpretation and this becomes the inspiration for my work. I never know exactly what, how, and when it is going to happen, but one day an image appears that is connected with something I have read.
  
  I work in different media –painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and finding objects. I jump from one to the other and this sequence is interrupted constantly. The work that I do reflects my inner world, and it must be done with all the complexity that this process requires. That is why it need to be very detailed. Every single element is important: the background images, colors, textures, lines and the title.
  
  The fragments are the way in which we think. The thinking process or the perception process as a whole is not linear or compact. My obsession is to discover the meaning of life. Why are we here in this universe? This transcendental answer can perhaps never be answered, or perhaps it has many different answers. One thing is for sure, neither science nor history can reach the human knowledge that art achieves." (Artist's Website)
  
  Provenance: Private Los Angeles, California, USA collection
  
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  #179259

  Condition

  Signature, title, and date with location (Havana) handwritten below. Artwork is mounted in a custom frame behind plexiglass. Artwork has not been examined outside the frame but appears to be in overall excellent condition. Frame is excellent as well and fit with suspension wire.
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