Big Head

Remember that I told you about the "Giants in the City" art project which opens later this week an will be at Bayfront Park in Miami from 2-7 December?

Below is my good friend and well-known Philadelphia artist Frank Hyder working on his giant head inflatable sculpture.

Room with a view

Done with the 1100 or so miles of driving in two days. Done with the mandatory visiting of relatives. The fair installation and VIP preview is tomorrow. Meanwhile, just to make you jealous, here's the view outside my hotel room door, about ten feet from the beach.

Ernesto Lecuona

There is more to Cuban music than salsa, mambo, rumba, son, guaracha, danzon, cha cha, bolero, habanera, zapatilla, zapateo, punto guajiro, criolla, contradanza, and the other many Cuban music genres that have worked their way into daily Western culture.

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Ernesto Lecuona, a Cuban composer and pianist of worldwide fame who composed over six hundred classical pieces, mostly in what he described as "the Cuban vein."

And yet it is an interesting paradox that perhaps his most famous work is Malagueña (The Girl from Malaga) from the Suite Andalucia.

I say paradox because this classical piece has been now interpreted as being the music that bares the soul of Spain in the piano, rather than Cuba, but betrays the island's cultural chains to the colonial mother.

But Lecuona wrote hundreds of other classical piano pieces that incorporated Cuba's unique musical legacy. Perhaps Siboney (a tribute to Cuba's lost Native American tribes) is his best.

Below is Thomas Tirino, Pianist, recorded live November 14, 2003 at the University of Miami, Gusman Concert Hall performing Malagueña. Below that is the great Placido Domingo performing Lecuona's most Cuban work Siboney. If you'd rather listen to just the piano (as it was intended) then the great Ruben Gonzalez plays it last.

Queen Isabella II pulls one on the Pope

“New research reveals that Queen Isabella II of Spain (1830-1904) knowingly gave Pope Pius IX a fake painting of a 16th-century original in her collection. It has also emerged that ten years after her “generous” gift, the Spanish queen gave the original work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo to King Luis of Portugal.

Read about it here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: January 11, 2010.

The Public Trust of Jacksonville, Florida seeks artists. All participants will electronically submit a detailed pencil drawing of one of the three Le Moyne/de Bry original works, together with 4 other examples of your past paintings so the judges can select the ten best artists to be commissioned.

Artists must also submit an entrance form which may be downloaded from their menu under "Art Contest Entrance Form." No entry fee.

If you are selected as one of the ten commissioned artists, you will complete a painting (sized 24" by 30") by June 11, 2010. At that time you will be paid your $2,500 commission and shortly afterward be featured with your fellow top ten artists in showings of all the new art work at two premier art galleries in Jacksonville.

For complete guidelines, please visit this website. Questions? Contact Andrew Miller at adm@publictrustlaw.org or call (904) 247-1972 ext. 418.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that you all have the luck to spend today with your families and that we all think a thought for all those who can't.

Below is how pumpkin pies are made, source unknown, but clever!

Cuban art: Still caliente!

Cuban art continues to rise and gain importance in the international market. Last week, during the New York Latin American Art sales, on November 17 and 18, two major Cuban masters from the vanguardia period reached new world auction records.

My friends from Cernuda Arte in Miami tell me that a work titled Guajiro con Gallo (Cuban Peasant with Rooster), a signature oil on canvas, 24 ¼ x 20 inches, by Mariano Rodríguez, was offered at Sotheby’s November 18 sale. It reached a final hammer price of $482,500, exceeding the artist’s previous record of $354,500 attained eleven years ago.

Another success was, Carnaval (Carnival), an oil on canvas work, 20 x 16 inches by the revered Father of Cuban Modernism, Víctor Manuel García, offered at Christie’s November 17 sale. The painting logged enthusiastic bids before setting a new auction record of $182,500. The former record for a Víctor Manuel painting was $141,900 six years ago.