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Lot Essay
Among Cuba’s most distinguished artists, Mendive is celebrated for his colorful interpretations of Afro-Cuban history, religion, and mythology that have evolved over six decades of painting, sculpture, and performance. A graduate of the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in 1962, he has long drawn from Yoruba myths to imagine new and universal worldviews rooted in the symbiosis of man and nature. Mendive represented Cuba at the Venice Biennale in 1988 and received Cuba’s Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas in 2001.
“I am often asked,” Mendive says, “‘Why fish? Why the waters?’ Sometimes I answer: ‘Well…the fish just because, the waters because maybe they could be the memories, the failed dreams, the tears.’ The water? Ah! A house, like the air, like the sky, another house, like the earth that is also our home. I’ve always used water. The mysteries of water, the energies of water are very important to me. Water is everywhere... It has mysterious and very magical inhabitants who also accompany us on earth and in heaven. Those are the fish that I paint” (J. Cordones-Cook and E. Aballí Morell, “Manuel Mendive: Embellecer la vida es mi gran objetivo,” Afro-Hispanic Review 36, no. 2, Fall 2017, p. 250). The Sons of Water, Talking To A Fish imagines such an enchanted encounter between man and fish with divine wit and solemnity, honoring their communion in a boat that floats on stylized waves, the water alive with magic and memory.
Abby McEwen, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
“I am often asked,” Mendive says, “‘Why fish? Why the waters?’ Sometimes I answer: ‘Well…the fish just because, the waters because maybe they could be the memories, the failed dreams, the tears.’ The water? Ah! A house, like the air, like the sky, another house, like the earth that is also our home. I’ve always used water. The mysteries of water, the energies of water are very important to me. Water is everywhere... It has mysterious and very magical inhabitants who also accompany us on earth and in heaven. Those are the fish that I paint” (J. Cordones-Cook and E. Aballí Morell, “Manuel Mendive: Embellecer la vida es mi gran objetivo,” Afro-Hispanic Review 36, no. 2, Fall 2017, p. 250). The Sons of Water, Talking To A Fish imagines such an enchanted encounter between man and fish with divine wit and solemnity, honoring their communion in a boat that floats on stylized waves, the water alive with magic and memory.
Abby McEwen, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park