Cesar Santos
b. 1982, Santa Clara, Cuba
2023
Oil on linen
154 x 96 cm (60 5/8 x 37 3/4 in.)
‘The materiality of the paint and the canvas becomes an eco-system of relationships, representing colors, space and solidity with their potentiality in motion. I make new objects communicate in their environment, becoming stories of the visual system with open possibilities.’
Santos’ inspirations are drawn from the more awkward or subversive corners of art history, such as Old Masters who were the eccentrics of their era, such as Giuseppe Arcimboldo, or those whose style was at odds with conventional beauty, such as El Greco or Francisco Goya. Further, his paintings take influence from the fleshy forms of Peter Paul Rubens and the expressive grandeur of Michelangelo and Raphael.
Alongside his European Old Master models (experienced first hand in Florence, where the artist has lived and worked since 2021), in these artworks the artist incorporates elements from the cultures of his native Cuba, and the United States, infused with his own interest in psychology. Santos synthesises these diverse experiences with a rigorous understanding of design, colour, and the structure of his materials, giving birth to his art.
Each painting gives rise to a short poetic musing, a verbal companion to the visual entity. The text that Santos pairs with Prelude is as follows:
With reason, I bring into life what never existed.