 
WARNING: Use cotton gloves for reading this book, because you'll be an influential person.

José A. Buxadó & Celia Charlotte

Conjurations

Initiation ceremony 1

The silence's face 2

The secrets of Mr. Snorkel 30

Soul and faith 39

Underground 43

Beyond canvas 50

Vade retrum 58

Silence stream 77

Overexposure 91

Libera eos 100

Painting appraisal 108

Writing style 116

Provenance research 123

Project profile 130

Biography 134

Chronology 136

Catalogue Raisonnée 145

Information asymmetry 158

Key findings 166

Monopoly 173

Recommended readings 186

Annexes 189

"No agradezcan el silencio".

(Don't be graceful of silence)

KCHO

Havana, Cuba, 2014

#  Initiation ceremony

No matter what is your current situation, just think that your career will flourish far beyond your expectative, and you will feel much better to create authentic art. You will find light just from the beginning of these conjurations. Knowledge and motivation will come to you from your critic reading. To be sure, read once again on the incredible life of Camille Claudel and Vincent Van Gogh, and you will understand that something is wrong a long time ago. It's just unacceptable that your devotion to beauty, love, peace, and justice remains enslaved by phantasmagorical forces. Your resistance to those entities that distort your career should be subtle, without direct confrontation, because you need resources to create art and these forces are out of control. Start by showing the best of your mastery to scholars, writers, and journalists for leaving a well-documented contribution to art. Certainly, documenting art is a weary task, but keep in mind that many professionals are searching and cataloguing information on art, and that an invisible silence machine is feeding from the uncertainty generated by the information asymmetry prevailing in the art market. This book has been written thinking on you and those that live and work trying to connect your art with the world. Believe, unflinchingly, in your power as the most influential force of the art world, because you are unique, and you need freedom to create art.

#  The silence's face

Transcendence of human conscience may take the appearance of imperceptible matter, like the number cero, but nobody should ignore that it actually means something. It exists, and it's indispensable for humankind. Silence also looks like nothing, but its consequences suggest transcendence far beyond the common sense. This story may be read as an empirical guideline for scenting, touching, hearing, observing, and understanding the invisibility and transcendence of the silence.

There are a few moments in life when rareness gets sense during a few seconds, and we feel the need to be able to hold the spirit of this ephemeral flash of transcendent conscience before finding plausible explanations. This stormy cluster of images, feelings, comparisons, contradictions, and maybe much more, reach us like a fulguration, leaving a very short time to be aware. Sometimes, confusion and simultaneity of these deep meditations cloud our reasoning showing us the ethereal figure of a phantom playing a dark game, between silence, noise, light, and darkness. Then, most of the time, we think that it was a hallucination, because the world continues being as crazy as always, but nobody wants to hear about crazy ideas.

Although articulating a coherent thought from a fulgurating perception of reality looks like a chimera; it could not be absolutely impossible. That's why I decided to visit a painter who had been waiting for me a few years ago. I wanted to know the true, although I felt that it could be a waste of time. That was, undoubtedly, because I was wrong on the nature of visual arts, and the life of an artist.

Most days of Havana City seem to be similar for foreigners, at first sight, but not at all for Cubans. Some days, no matter the season, suggest luxury, other days invite to visit friends and family, listening music, falling in love and other ones, but most of Havana's weather is hot and wet. People live with windows and doors opened to the world, and every secret die in a few seconds. This entropy governs human behaviours in an exuberant city with more than 400 religions and cultures coexisting in holly peace. Therefore, visits are not preceded by phone calls, and they are usually accepted as pleasant surprises.

The north of Havana has been well-known during the last five centuries. A city founded in 1515, re-founded in 1519, and rebuilt several times after attacks of British and French corsairs and pirates, during the 16th century, Havana has an honourable place in the History of America as a genuine anthropologic singularity. There isn't too much to say, however, on the south side of this spread, legendary, and overpopulated civic body. This side, little travelled, is notable for its rough topography, if compare with the remaining of the city. Irregular streets, dissimilar buildings and houses, abundant vegetation and a middle urbanization level are some of the most notable features of Arroyo Naranjo, one of the municipalities located on this side of Havana. Mostly populated with workers, artists, craftsmen, farmers, medical doctors, lawyers, and many other professionals; it is difficult finding notable differences of acquisition power among inhabitants in this segment of the city. Ethnic diversity, however, is as wide as may be in any other territory of the island, with a few notable exceptions.

In front of a modern, although small, market an unavoidable building with an unnameable architecture can be found, erected as one of thousand monuments to the philosophy of certain missing link in the history of architectural aesthetics. The street is a hill with large gardens, in front of every building, that reinforce natural smells remaining suspended in fresh and humid morning atmospheres. Air and light invade houses and apartments whose windows remains opened for hearing hawks. There, merchants can be seen, selling fruits, vegetables, honey, bread, cheese, and craftsmanship. Random combinations of buildings and houses host a set of workshops where painting, sculpture, and goldsmith works flourish, occupying intimate spaces of restricted access, reserved for connoisseurs. Consciences, on the other hand, are more opened to the world than would be expected, and there is not mystery inside these apparently closed edifications. People accustom to exchange good, information, opinion, and ideas every time, feeling happiness when success touch the door of his neighbour. The place, overflowed with art and refined taste, where this story begins was an apartment of one of these horrible buildings.

The fraternal meeting had been waiting as a very low probability event; but my persistent wife insisted without imagine the result, because I had been always exclusively interested in science, and never in visual arts. Working in complex fields of knowledge which are apparently distant from fine arts, with a very basic education on art appraisal that included a few lectures at University, and sporadic visits to museums and exhibitions, I had not devoted time to enjoy national art. The worse is that I had never found art in science, nor science in art. Fortunately, imagination, intuition, abstraction, and eclecticism had kept a door open in my mind, reserving a potential space.

Finally, the artist received us in his incredible temple of beauty, and good taste. At first sight, Fidel Micó seems to be a typical Latin: gentle, familiar, sincere, talkative, and merry fellow, but a few seconds looking at his oil on canvas are enough to understand that he isn't an ordinary person. At the entrance, we were received by his wife, Lidia, with an authentic exclamation of happiness:

– I thought that you would never come to visit us! What a wonderful surprise!

– Lidia, who is there? – asked the artist from the backyard.

– They are here! Finally, they are here!

– Who? – insisted Micó, once again.

– Labrada and her husband – answered Lidia while invited us to come in and seat down.

The smell of an exquisite dinner was invading the house along with a strong positive energy that rebounded in every landscape painting. However, a phantom looked at me for a few seconds. I saw the silence's face while I experienced the first visual impact from the right side of the living room. A large painting immobilized me, isolating my mind from reality, because I had never seen oil on canvas painted by an ambidextrous artist. I could only remember two artists with this exceptional characteristic: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), and Miguel Angel Bonarroti (1475-1564), who is best known as Michelangelo.

A wide river flowing on a highly fractured land, falling through an irregular wall of sharp rocks seemed to be the subject of the painting "El salto de la Yagruma" (2010). Evocative of a huge amount of seducing, wild, and stormy feelings entangled between the foaming warm waterfall, and the large river's bed, this painting suggested me the need for a deep study, because it seemed to be much more than a simple set of pictorial problems solved with unusual mastery.

A meticulous care of light, colour, line, and shapes seems to be evident. This artwork relays on a diagonal special arrangement presented in its most extreme form. The space unfolds in-depth along with the diagonal, from left to right, where the river recedes, and from the background. Contemporary trends of landscape painting seem not to be a matter of concern for this artist, because he actually emphasizes on many background details. The line of trees, and the line of the river's margin, beginning in the left foreground, automatically suggests the painting's depth. A further line of smaller trees enhances the linear perspective, from the right, leading the viewer's eyes into the centre of the river.

Coherence of the attention centre, shape, and line guides the viewer to the background through the parabolic contour of the waterfall's edge, and the river's margin, but the interest would be frozen in a closed space of exuberant vegetation in absence of a few critical details. The structure is not only interesting, but also exiting, because it suggests an insolent challenge to contemporary painters to demonstrate a better treatment of foaming water, and gravity in horizontal oil on canvas.

Seductive rocks are dressed with transparent bedclothes that seem to be eternally falling without showing the massive silhouette of her aromatic and warm body. Masses and forms have enough separation to emphasize representation of volumes at both sides. An innovative combination of horizontal triangles and cylinders display the three-dimensional structure of the waterfall, and prepares the viewer to penetrate in-depth from the left river's margin through a slightly diagonal rocky line.

Fidel Micó, El salto de la Yagruma, oil on canvas, 130 x 180 cm, 2010, Collection of the artist.

Variety of line, spacing, tone, and colour of water, rocks, and vegetation transport the viewer into a privileged watch-tower of the painted place. Birds seem to be critical elements of this composition, because in absence of them the harmony of proportions of lines, forms, tones, and colours would not prevent weakening of motivation in the background. In such a case, nothing would suggest dynamics of events around the waterfall. Unfortunately, birds were removed from this extraordinary artwork, 4 years later.

The central element of this artwork attenuates the impact of repose components, but in-depth unfolding of the space is limited by the dense green wall of the forest. Certainly, giving life to this subject could suggest the artist's preoccupation with the pictorial problem of conveying light-and-air medium, and colour reflection. Colour accent, white foaming waterfall, and the sweet green reflection of vegetation on the river are skilfully balanced. Therefore, an arrangement of in-depth elements should be built to release the background pressure toward the viewer by filling the third dimension over the river, adding gravity, levitation, and movement to the story.

My first words to the artist were as ingenious as unavoidable:

– Really, did you paint these?

Micó answered me, smiling:

– Yes, I did. Maybe you don't believe, but I did!

I could not avoid stare at him while he continued smiling, and repeating:

– Yes, I did.

– They are fantastic – I said.

Then, I made a serious effort for appealing to my weak capacity to believe and reasoning, at the same time, by keeping an open mind. I looked around me to find more paintings in different stages of the creation process. Actually, I was not prepared to assimilate this reality, because I was stand in front of a great master, for the first time. Fortunately, I didn't accept the imperative invitation of the silence's spirits; maybe because I have always been sure that nothing was ever born from nothing. I knew something on the history of the number cero, and that not always nothing imply absence of meaning. Many questions could wait for an answer, but only one was urgent:

– Your paintings are so beautiful and extraordinary. Then, why I have never found them in national publications?

The artist's face changed almost immediately, but he made a huge effort to feign, because he knew that I was actually impressed. Then, he came to the point:

– Once, a journalist visited me for an interview, but she gave me questions and answers. Of course, I said her that I could not accept this fallacy.

I suggested him to stop by moving my right hand. His few words were enough for me, because I had just seen this kind of situation many times. This kind of writers defends their ideas unflinchingly without meditation on the consequences. They need to hear predictable answers for writing in accordance with an individual editorial policy. By that time, I knew on the abundance of this rigid behaviour, and I didn't need asking him on his international visibility, because the answer would be similar. That night, Micó let me observe his finished and unfinished artworks while we were dinning, drank a delicious coffee, and talked on his past and future. He showed me catalogues of exhibitions and some international publications, but many other issues were unclear for me. Finally, he clarified most of my doubts when said to me:

– Some people don't like hearing the true, face to face, and I can't lei! This has always been my big problem with journalists, galleries, and some artists. I just say what I fell and think, and, for this reason, some of them don't like hearing about me.

Henceforth, thoughts, moral and feelings of this artist were clearer in my mind. He isn't only a notable model of pictorial mastery, but also a great artist that rejects falsehood and dissimulations. Obviously, authenticity is essential for him, but it could also be argue that Micó is a conservative person representative of ancient aesthetic principles. On the contrary, this man is plain people, modest, and generous, with a great faith in humankind. Fame seems not to be a milestone for him, but feeling the pleasure of a finished painting is so important for Micó as breathing. A painting finished in 2003, and shown at a local exhibition in 2005, which remains in the collection of the artist, reveals innovative intentions that position him far from conservative artistic principles. The subject of the painting "Otra oportunidad" (2003), and the combination of genres are evidence of his vision on the future of the pictorial art.

Actually, the painting "Otra oportunidad" decorated his daughter's room as an undeniable evidence of humanistic principles. This is a highly complex composition, as much concerning to the subject as to abundance of symbolic details with great artistic value. Beyond doubt, this artwork tells us a story with a persistent intention to attract the viewer's attention to a dense academic exercise. Transcendence of this painting invites to a deep meditation on the evolution of the pictorial art during the last century.

Fidel Micó, Otra oportunidad, oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm, 2003, Collection of the artist.

Light and shadow have been placed according to a carefully planned intention, from the right foreground to the centre middle ground. Line, form, and colour coherently contribute to put emphasis on a serious warning message, without resorting to objects that had not been previously included in thousands of paintings for centuries. Beyond the first message, asking for protection of our deteriorated planet, Micó has endeavoured inviting to contemporary artists to represent their deepest feelings, without abandon the fight for surpassing the pictorial mastery that great masters let as invaluable heritage, because this knowledge contain the access code to most people from different cultures, religions, and levels of social inclusion.

The sight is immediately guided to the attention centre of the artwork: a human. It is here where the narrative starts masterly by a dry streamlet disappeared along with the surrounding biotic pump. This visual run also points into opposite direction, which is critical for understanding the message: from the human to the fruit, on the right. The first run suggests what happened in the past, but the second one, implies future decisions that will depend on the human. In spite of many branches coming from the leafless tree, on the left, could deviate the viewer's attention, inviting him to abandon the painting, this doesn't happen, which suggests that the artist's intention has been facing the challenge of the viewer's appraisal by using branches as instrument for measuring the expressive strength of the remaining elements.

In absence of repetitions, exaggerations, and imitations, the tonal scheme expresses the dominant felling: desolation and guilt. The world-wide interest on this subject is as much notorious as the demonstrated lack of will-power from those who could do something. This artwork represents the extinction of the humankind as unavoidable, leaving, however, an open door to other opportunity for humans to make more rational and less selfish decisions.

There is not space for identity confusion in this canvas. In addition to the above mentioned compositional elements, a sand-glass and a small plant with two flowers, placed at the foreground, contribute to reinforce the emotional load, because the painted human has found hopes, but the time has gone for making the best decision. Diversity of line, spacing, tone, and colour become into reality an imaginary scenario, in spite of being undesirable for any human. The satisfactory relationship obtained between compartments is an additional evidence of the enormous effort inverted by Micó in the creation of a so scaring image as a vision of what will be our natural habitat if something doesn't modify our current behaviour patterns.

Contrary to expectation, the artist has worked on the high-key, as the dominant tone scale, maybe for suggesting hopes, but turning off colours from the middle ground to the background to highlight the dramatic nature of the painted place. Details simplification is not found, nor even in the background, where wide tones give unity and equilibrium to the subject. Harmony has been obtained by continuity, but repetition of line, rhythm, and cohesion of form, tone, and colour, were not excluded. Subject and emotive reaction are inextricably interconnected by chromatic schemes in every compartment of this painting. Micó has preferred a logical development of light, instead of light contrast, maybe, looking for representing authenticity, because there is a sharp difference of brightness between the principal elements and those placed in the background.

The development in-depth was not introduced according to traditional techniques of landscape painting. The left compartment of the middle ground was used to create a set of diagonal irregularities descending under the central elements placed in the foreground, which introduces a complex problem to be solved in pictorial terms. Little resistance is found by the viewer in search for the background, after that, the sight remains trapped inside the painted place without stumbling motivations to abandon this extraordinary artwork.

Inventing a landscape, including conceptual proposals, is a serious challenge for any painter, because a huge amount of pictorial problems must be solved to represent the magnificence of a nature imagined by the artist. Finally, "Otra oportunidad" seems to be a notable example of intuitive allocation of the focal point: around the human over the floor, driving the viewer attention to the left background.

A few days after our first meeting, Micó called me to talk on the silence's scratch. We had not enough time to talk on his interaction with the art world, and he decided to tell me more. Emotional depression was visible in his face, and, trying to start from the beginning, I asked him:

– When did you start painting?

He looked at the room's ceiling, trying to find a right answer, because he had never given enough relevance to this particular issue. After a few seconds, he said to me:

– I was ten years old when a friend of my father gave me a photo of a Spanish woman, and challenged me to paint her. She was beautiful, and even though I didn't know her name, I made some brushes with my hair, found a piece of cotton fabric, and my neighbours gave me several portions of industrial paintings out of expiration date to start my first artwork. That was more than enough for me! I painted that portrait from my heart, felling that I had created peace around me while I was painting. A few persons know that I discovered my ability to use both hands when I felt tired painting with the left hand. That is why I have never stopped painting. Unfortunately, I lost that important work, but, fortunately, I gave much more pleasure and happiness to my parents.

Micó had released a large emotional pressure from his soul, while was talking to me about his memories. Then, I thought that I could continue with some traditional questions to know more on his career, while was helping him to organize his thoughts:

– Usually, memories influence on the artist's space. Have you something more to say on your childhood?

– I was extremely happy in the glamour of my humble infancy. There was culture, beauty, and good taste everywhere. There was also love, friendship, solidarity, honour, complicity, and too much more. I remember all my neighbours as part of my family. You may imagine the result: I grew in a rich environment decorated with the best of the human nature, without paying attention to material issues. As result, I do my best!

– Do you remember a moment where your spirit was put at test?

– Yes, I will never forget that day! My father was almost sure that certain famous artist, "...de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme..." (Whose name I don't want to remember), would encourage me, and would be a good example for my future education as visual artist. Fortunately, he was absolutely wrong. We were received by the artist's assistant, at the entrance of the apartment, where we waited for him a few minutes. Finally, an effeminate man, dressed like a woman, told us "...I can't waste my time with you, honey...", and closed the door. Maybe, this awful memory has been my strongest motivation to pay attention to every young artist that visit my studio asking for advice or training to survive in the art world.

Understanding the whole emotional load of his words would take a time. I went to the kitchen for making coffee to take a break. Micó was working in a new painting, while I was surprised by other three artworks located in the second room. I could not avoid standing before them. A small mass of light is the principal element of the painting "La despedida en la Moca" (2008), intentionally placed for irradiating the landscape, but been interrupted by clouds which tones extends from orange to blue. A slightly different, and less extensive transition, takes place on the mountains while the sun shines. A wide and diversified framework of lines traps the viewer's attention, after understanding the central idea of this artwork, without fatiguing his/her sight. Forms of unaccountable details of tropical vegetation are excellently defined.

Fidel Micó, La despedida en la Moca, oil on canvas, 120 x 160 cm, 2008, private collection, Russia.

In this painting, the sight remains trapped between the mass of light and the reflection of the palm placed under the sun. After that, it falls to a group of palms where finds rest among wide green tones for finding a second landscape between the sun and the clouds. The sight starts from the centre of major interest and return to this, with similar strength, but in opposite direction. The colour scheme is exquisitely suitable for representing the subject, highlighting a beautiful fact happening in the painted place while pleasant memories are awakened.

Line arrangements are also visually interesting. A palm limits a region of abundant diagonal lines and delicate curves, on the right side of the frame, from that of extensive vertical lines in a sharp contrast with curves of the palm branches that once again return the sight to the second landscape. The taller palms and the principal mass of light are placed as to ensure the attention to the subject, and to the emotional content of the painted event. The enormous diversity of vegetation, more abundant in the lower right compartment, is one of the most interesting issues of this artwork, because it suggests an inquisitive dedication for finding perfection.

Forms clearly represent the diversity of species present in the painted place. The treatment of light builds forms that give the impression of being in the painted place, and the volumes are well-defined by light and shadow. Concerning diversity of lines, spacing, tone and colour, it can only be argued that are wide. There is a linear base with golden proportions, as well as a triangle between the sun, the palm placed under it, and the taller palm. In addition, the crest of the mountain is placed in line with the upper golden mean. Tones are proportionate; extensive light areas over less light backgrounds strengthen the remoteness of the ridge, and high concentration of light at the centre with a few details in the background accentuate the centre of higher interest over the right golden mean. Warm colours are suitable for the subject, and the dominant feeling.

Equilibrium of line, mass, tone, spacing, and colour are immediately perceptible from the visual impact. Extensive tonalities are balanced by more reduced gray masses. The principal element is placed on a lighted area in equilibrium with gray trunks of palms at the foreground to suggest a three-dimensional remoteness. Light gray and green areas are repeated on the vegetation as rapports. The equilibrium between vertical and horizontal lines, contrasts of tone, and the preponderance of warm colours accentuate the vitality. Tones are wide and unified, with simple conjugation to offer resistance to detail simplifications, because the artist intention is to show the complex richness that may be found in nature. This painting has always evoked a beautiful emotional reaction, mostly because the linear, tonal, and chromatic schemes take control of the viewer's thinking, and feeling for leaving him within a deep contemplative ecstasy.

Fidel Micó, Atardecer en el riachuelo, oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm, 2011, private collection, China.

After careful attention to the second painting, "Atardecer en el riachuelo" (2011), viewers feel them-self immediately lost into the background of a dazzling landscape where light and shadow works as attraction factors creating two sceneries: one in the background, and another around the streamlet. The subject of this masterpiece penetrates into the subconscious almost at the same time as the viewer feels as to be into the painted place, mostly because the artist has been able to communicate a sensation of light fade-out within the foliage of an entangle vegetation. Contrary to expectation, balances of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines were not sufficiently difficult for Micó, and he put at test his capacity by introducing two more subtle shapes for guiding the viewer's eyes to the centre.

The visual impact of painted forms at the foreground, dribs the viewer of being in a tropical landscape, preparing the scenario, at the same time, to attract his interest to the background, where contrasts of yellow and dark colours take control of the subject. A central parabola is the origin of all lines and forms, and the ellipse placed over it reinforces the attention centre to the left side of both shapes. The parabola marks out the ground, and supports the elliptical diagonal light as a balance of vertical palms hiding the sunshine. The sight is initially guided to the parabolic branches, and gently slipped to the upper elliptical branches through an unavoidable pathway to the subject: sunshine between two palms. This visual effect may be considered as an exceptional feature of this painting, because the viewer is not directly guided to the principal elements, but firstly, the composition forces the viewer to find the third dimension in the background to avoid finding other distracting elements, different from the elliptical light over the parabola, and then approach the sight to the principal components.

The triangular shapes of leafs work by dosing diagonal lines as a balance of the streamlet's horizontal lines. Enough separation between forms and masses is clearly perceptible, but deeper than in "La despedida en la Moca", in the small vegetation of the foreground, which demonstrates the high level of pictorial mastery for solving almost microscopic details. The contours of three groups have been traced with particular care: i-) palms on the left side, ii-) trees on the right, and iii-) vegetation on the lower foreground. The accumulation of contours in a vertical space is an extraordinary pictorial challenge, in isolation, and all together, where the reflection of the first group over the streamlet's surface points to the third one, which traces the contour of the second one with a parabolic shape that works avoiding the loss of interest for the painting. Volumes are clearly defined with high accuracy.

Three lines and forms are excelling in this artwork: i-) lines and forms of the trees, ii-) trees' branches and iii-) palms' panache timidly fondling trees' branches which suggest the beginning of a long-lasting and deep relationship. Unaccountable conjuncts of different forms interrupt the space joining all together, at the same time, in a highly sophisticated geometric arrangement. The development in-depth of diagonal curves delineating the right margin of the streamlet rebounds in the middle of a succession of contrast and small "rapports" that show the extensive diversity of living forms hosted in the smallest nature's nooks. The balance of colour on the streamlet's surface shows a right proportion of area and intensity that reinforce the development in-depth, from the right foreground to the dark background of the left foliage.

Each golden compartment fills the viewer's eyes with abundant visual pleasure. If the painting were divided in nine equal compartments, a different subject could be found in each one. Three-dimensional compartments in-depth are also notably relevant and audacious. At least, three levels are immediately identified in-depth as a non-linear development of the third dimension, following a half parabola from the group of trees to the palms, and finally to the background's trees, in opposite direction to the right.

The equilibrium of line, mass, tone, space, and colour have been more than carefully worked by this artist. Unaccountable details demonstrate the excellence on the equilibrium of each element. The principal element is highlighted and placed over the line of the left golden mean, and equilibrated by the grey of palm's trunks placed in the middle ground, strengthening its perception as a distant but prevailing element. A succession of warm colours, white, light grey and yellow, and contrasts reinforce the vitality of the composition.

The treatment of light from the foreground to the background is particularly interesting. The almost empty space suggested by the streamlet, from the foreground to the group of palms, prepares the viewer's mind for penetrating into a middle ground defined by the orange that vanishes to the white clouds. Although, as usually in tropical landscapes, this painting is plenty of green in the high-key, these areas are balanced with small dark areas, and forms are built with interactions between light and shadow. Green tones are much more extensive in this painting than in "La despedida en la Moca", and unity is much more evident. Details are not simplified, but reality is intentionally highlighted.

Chromatic and tonal schemes transmit a deep emotion to the viewer, not only through the principal element, but also through each nook of the painted place. The dry fallen branch and the rising one on the surface not only delimit the streamlet surface, but also work as a balance of extensive green tonalities. In addition, the frame-work of branches entangled with green climber on the right golden compartment draws the attention to the middle ground, enriching the authenticity of emotions transferred to the viewer by the linear, tonal, and chromatic schemes.

A detailed observation of the streamlet is the key for penetrating an almost imperceptible interface between repose and dynamics suggested in this artwork. An issue that could be easily ignored, is a light increase of the water flow at the streamlet's background that suggests the existence of a small waterfall behind or within the middle ground vegetation on the left. A more pleasant grace-note is donated by the sunshine behind the palms suggesting a time scale, and the appearance of the painted place during the next hours of the evening. The fallen branches and those without leafs in the trees propose an intermediary state between repose, and the paused relentless advance of nature. Additionally, the climber suggests a more extended time scale.

As distinguished from "La despedida en la Moca", and "Atardecer en el riachuelo", in the third painting, "Transpiración" (2005), light and shadow works for defining three landscapes: lower, middle, and upper. The lower principal element is a streamlet where light functions amplifying the vision, as opposition to verticality, and invite to penetrate into the painted place by two change of direction of the streamlet, and chromatic transition from transparent light yellow to light green hiding the exact point of change and transition. In the middle and upper landscapes, light functions highlighting the haze surrounding resurgent shrubs covering the middle ground.

Almost exclusively vertical lines, in the lower landscape frame, the development in-depth to the middle landscape where the artist's intention of showing diagonal lines in opposite to vertical lines begins to be perceptible. In the upper landscape, the geometric balance is much more explicit than in the above mentioned parts of the painting. The utilization of forms in the lower part of this artwork to suggest nature, direction and course of a continue exchange between earth and atmosphere as a biotic pump, is particularly attractive and interesting.

Fidel Micó, Transpiración, oil on canvas, 120 x 160 cm, 2005, private collection, USA.

In this case, unlike in "La despedida en la Moca" and "Atardecer en el riachuelo", forms describe the subject. In spite of the attractive potential of the streamlet and the tree placed on the right side of the painting, the sight immediately penetrates into the haze through the shrubs to be attracted by the background's vegetation on the mountain, walking downward through the trees' forms, and finally, running over the streamlet surface to penetrate once again into the depth of the painted place. The colour scheme, between greyish and pleasing, is suitable, since the subject is a source of gladness for our specie, and every earth's ecosystem.

An innovative detail found in this painting is the presence of vertical and horizontal acute angles that smooth abundance of vertical lines necessary for intensifying the subject. An element interrupts the space, and adds unity to the conjunct, at the same time, and a three-dimensional arrangement is built within the branches and foliage. The texture of the volumes should also be mentioned with particular attention to diversity on the trunks' surfaces. Forms are sufficiently defined for accentuating volume representations. From the most unnoticed stone of the streamlet to the elegant tree, an extensive diversity of lines, spacing, tone, and colours are well-attained on the development in-depth from the middle ground's shrubs to those immerging into the background. Tones and colours are of restricted ranges in each compartment to obtain a harmonic fitness with the subject.

Equilibrium of line, mass, tone, space, and colour is not obtained by contrasts, but by smooth transitions between elements on the lower landscape, while the contrary is observed on the upper one where equilibrium is obtained by a balance of light grey over a green background. Innovative transitions are intentionally delayed for allowing a detailed appraisal while penetrating into the painted place to understand the relevance of the process shown in the landscape. Once again, the enormous pictorial complexity of this artwork is so teaser that leaves the viewer almost literally defenceless for articulating coherent thoughts on the nature of emotions. The painting "Transpiración" is an exception regarding to the representation of infinity. The haze observed in shrubs and mountains becomes denser in the background for communicating a sensorial feeling of an endless and imperturbable process.

After a coupe of coffee, we continue talking on his childhood, the academy, influences on his work, and contemporary Cuban artists. This conversation was extensive, penetrating into little noted issues: exhibitions, local and international recognition, awards, Cuban landscapes, artistic tradition, technique, style, future directions, and market pressures.

#  The secrets of Mr. Snorkel

A warm day, I was walking near from the Havana's Central Park when I saw a peculiar man who looks like someone coming directly from a washing machine. He wore a youthful form, with yellow shirt, short knickerbockers, and rubbers. Only shoes seemed to have slipped away from the cluster of rumpling. His resemblance to a new born chicken was amazing, particularly concerning to his scrapped blonde hair. Every thing drew his attention while walking, but he seemed to be happy in my beautiful city. He had reasons to feel fine, because that serene and cloudless day was an invitation to enjoy visual pleasures.

His irregular silhouette promenaded around painter's easels. Portraits, urban and rural landscapes, and abstract paintings were in exhibition for sale under the shadow of trees as tall as the highest buildings that surround the park. The notable presence of the National Academy of Science, the Great Theatre of Havana, and the Hotel "Inglaterra" becomes this place into one of the cultural nucleus of the city. Writers, musicians, painters, sculptors, dancers, choreographers, performers, and plain people meet here every day for talking on sport, art, literature, architecture, and quotidian themes. The endless visual pleasure of this place makes losing the sense of the time.

He seemed to be looking for something difficult to find, and I decided approaching to him to know his opinion on the national visual art. Identifying his geographic origin was easy, because I had been in his country a few years before, and I knew something on its culture and people. This person was also trying to escape notice for most people, but the result was contrary to his intention, and I thought that he should know it. I introduced myself, but he thought that I was trying to sell something, and asked me:

– What do you want? What are you selling?

I could not avoid smiling, and, looking to an interesting painting in exhibition, I asked him:

– Do you like national paintings?

A change of his facial expression was immediately visible. He felt more relaxed to answer me:

– Yes, most of them show the artists' passion and dreams. Their souls are transparently exposed to the world. They are authentic artists, but they need something more. Have you seen the artwork "A wall built to face land and face the water at the level of the sea"?

– No, I haven't. – I answered him.

Mr. Snorkel showed me an image of a certificate of authenticity and told me:

– This is art..! Do you see it?

We both smiled at the same time, and I answered him:

– This kind of piece is actually difficult to find here. I think that these types of proposals are almost unthinkable for national artists. I'm sure that our academies of fine art don't teach to do that.

Turning his sight to other paintings, Mr. Snorkel told me:

– That's why I said that they need something more.

I couldn't do more than scraping my head while smiled, being sure on the notable information asymmetry between us. After an instant of distraction, comparing a well-done tropical woman with a portrait on exhibition, Mr. Snorkel displayed his point of view:

– Dissimilar objects have been transferred to museums of fine art without making any arrangement, within the most important cultural institutions, claiming that a new mode of looking at artworks has been created, and that we all should understand art around us in these terms. Consequently, logical thinking, common sense, feeling, and taste should be forgotten for understanding the contemporary art. That is why separating these objects from art is certainly difficult, simply because we believed to know what is art. In addition, subjects are not more important than medium and composition.

Suddenly, a voice, as powerful as those of the most important starts of "belle canto", stopped our conversation:

– Pea-nut, pea-nut, pea-nut, hot and savoury! If you eat one, you will come for more! Come, come, and take your pea-nut here! Pea-nut-seller is going! Pea-nut-seller is gone!

I thought that I have lost Snorkel's attention, but, on the contrary, he asked me:

– Is this good?

I said – yes, it is –, and I bought some paper cones of pea-nut before restarting our interesting dialogue. At this point, I was in a maze. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, because all this meant a chaotic breaking with my limited cultural background. To my knowledge, art should function as a universal language of creation for supporting the development of educational and civilizing values that contribute to peace and human rights. Therefore, if the contemporary art can only satisfy a narrow range of tastes in specific territories, a straight forward conclusion, as logical as hair-raising, could be that the art world is under a twisted reversed evolution.

We continued walking to the "Paseo del Prado", where much more painter easels can be found and talking on the well-preserved ancient buildings around the Havana's Central Park. Mr. Snorkel never stopped for taking notes while observed every painting, but never asked for the artist's names. He seemed to know very well his job! I took advantage of other distraction for asking him:

– Maybe, you mean that they need more exhibitions and publications. Is that what they need; isn't it?

Awaking from a deep hypnotic ecstasy caused by the harmonic walking of a young and very well-shaped mulattress, Mr. Snorkel answered me:

– Well, this is important, but they will need more in order to survive in the art world. Artists don't receive training in academies for conquering social recognition and reputation. They only learn art as if economic support were unnecessary for creating artworks. In addition, developing their artistic prestige not only requires a significant investment in exhibitions and publications, but also a systematic documentation of the artist's career.

Snorkel's words opened my eyes on the real nature of the contemporary art world. It seems to be a system that depends on many different issues intentionally hidden to create a visible gradient of advantages and opportunities between participants. On one hand, every young artist should be working for years, after graduated, in search for perfection, without imagine how difficult will be opening the world's eyes. On the other, art lovers believe that the artist's career is a paradise, plenty of opportunities and happiness. As a consequence, both sides are conveniently disconnected to create doubts and speculative environments. However, I felt that I had not taken into account a principal component of the system: art critics. I will never know if Mr. Snorkel actually foretold my thought, because he introduced this medullar subject by telling me:

– I understand your confusion. This is only the beginning, because you haven't heard the worse. The artist visibility depends on magazines, influential persons, critics, journals, newspapers, and research projects. Only from this moment, the artist begins to be actually free from the market forces, having the opportunity to create according to aesthetic precepts, personal style, and inspiration, instead of working for satisfying individual clients, with specific tastes or lack of it, to survive.

My previous experience on academic publications was the worse model to understand this apparently simple idea, because most academic editorials only ask for well-written manuscripts containing relevant data and analysis, interesting for the broadest audience in a particular field of knowledge. That's why I told him:

– I don't understand why this is the worse. Artists only need calling to historians, journalists, and writers. A group exhibition could be more than enough to write on many artists.

Mr. Snorkel looked at me as if I were a foolish. He smiled once again, and asked me for a break time to enjoy the Caribbean Sea, breathing the fresh air of the "Malecón de la Habana". I understood his reaction. Probably, there was too much to say on pencraft, but maybe giving a comprehensive explanation wasn't easy for him. The "Malecón de la Habana" is a small dike that avoids penetrations of the sea into the city, particularly during tropical storms. It's located along the west coast of Havana Bay where the ancient fortresses "El Morro" and "La Cabaña" add an evocative environment to this embankment. Ships from foreign navies are frequently received here with spectacular military ceremonies as fervent demonstrations that peace isn't just a dream for Cubans. I could have anticipated that Mr. Snorkel would enchant at this point of the walk, because thousands of local and foreign people enjoy every day this marine landscape decorated with great monuments internationally recognized as heritage of the humankind. Certainly, sojourners fall into a transcendent meditation that removes preoccupation, sadness, disappointment, and bad feelings when walking along this beautiful place.

Assuming that he was trying to find a potable answer, I left him alone for a while. After all, I had enjoyed his conversation, in exchange for a few paper cones of pea-nut. I was ready to dive into a charming matter when a big dog almost demolish to Mr. Snorkel riding full speed behind a cat that held a fish like a royal spoil of war. Being afraid for his life, I tried to help him, but Mr. Snorkel withstands the onset, and visibly peevish uttered some Celtic words to both animals. I didn't know what to say, but he calmed me telling:

– Don't worry, my friend. I'm fine.

Looking to the brace of irreverent mammalians, Mr. Snorkel made some interesting comments on our ethnic diversity, and returned to the point:

– It may sound crazy, but it's true. Commercial magazines are the primary information source in the art world, and artists must pay to be featured in this type of publication. Although newspapers and academic journals are also useful for starting to build the artist's visibility, I don't know why they are mostly reserved for dead artists. I think that a Catalogue Raisonnée is more consistent for a systematic research, and trustable appraisals. In any case, artists must pay to obtain social recognition; no matter how relevant has been his career.

I immediately understood that something was so morally wrong that the beauty of the Caribbean Sea would not be enough to recovery me from so devastating disappointment. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing, and I asked him:

– How someone may believe in an artistic reputation that was built on the basis of money?

– That is right! Finally you have come to the point, –answered Mr. Snorkel –, and I insisted on this perturbing subject:

– Let me see if I understood you. If an artist has more money, he/she can buy more social recognition, and his/her artwork will be featured in more publications, which will be understood as synonym of more relevance in the art world. Am I right?

Mr. Snorkel answered without drawing breath:

– Yes, and it can be worse..! If the artist gets notoriousness because of any other non-artistic reason, the result will be equivalent; no matter what has been his/her contribution to art.

Finally, I could understand why I was wrong when I thought that something was wrong. Actually, everything seems to be more than wrong in the art world. The cost of my meditation to get this mundane conclusion was losing definitively the Snorkel's attention by hands of a monumental woman who had been observing us for hours. I saw them, walking away toward the sea, while she made serious efforts for putting some kind of order in his turbulent hear.

#  Soul and faith

For centuries, the literature on visual art has been based on the assumption that artists can see models and scenario to be represented, compositional elements, lines, forms, colours, light, contrasts, and their finished artworks. The contrary seems to be unthinkable for scholars and critics, maybe because the expected result is a visual pleasure. Several basic questions would rise if this fundamental supposition had to be removed from the aesthetic knowledge, and the answers would transcend any contemporary appraisal of visual art. Undoubtedly, a new field of knowledge would have to be built to study the art created by blind artists, because the unique known reference system would be absent from any rational analysis. The absence of the human sight would impose, at least, a new perspective that implied a radical review of the current definition of visual art.

For instance, close your eyes and try to imagine that you are painting a place. How would you start it? Probably, you would need hearing a detailed description of the place and making comparisons with images stored in your visual memory. Later, an unimaginable task should be performed. Translating this three-dimensional information into a bi-dimensional image is almost impossible to imagine for most people. Even more difficult is to imagine how to select a color without see it. But, here I am! Near from the studio of the ambidextrous painter Fidel Micó, surprised by a set of oil on canvases painted by a blind artist (signature: "RMichel"). The pieces represent four tropical landscapes, and one still life, which were donated by the artist to a clinic where tenth of pregnants receive customized medical attention 24 hours a day.

R Michel, Untitled, oil on canvas, Collection of the Clinic "Celia Sanchez Manduley", La Habana, Cuba.

I hadn't enough data, but something is for sure: every line is a mystery. Composition, balance, contrast, and the development in-depth of natural scenarios are undeniable visual evidences of a great pictorial mastery. Standing before these findings I felt as the less qualified person to evaluate them, but there was nobody there to do it. Making a reasonable appraisal of these artworks was far beyond my intellectual background, but I felt that there was too much to say of this artist after careful observation of basic details.

He doesn't care light at all! This seems to be intentional, because this artist probably enjoys a monumental interior life that has guided him to deep and exceptional state of the conscience where the surrounding visual reality disappears when he is painting. Maybe his mind can travel to a world unknown for people where smells, sounds, and flavour, and his memories conforms a unique reality.

Arguments on the appraisal of works painted by a blind master can only be back up by logical reasoning and individual interpretations. Maybe, first of all, this artist is demonstrating us that beauty isn't only visual, but also sensorial and intuitive. This speculation moves us suddenly into the depth of an existential question: What sensorial capacities will need humankind for surviving out of the earth? Living in dark, unexplored, and hostile environments requires more than two eyes, and the remaining sensorial capacities are useless.

This artist can't see his artwork, and he need to perform a huge effort to imaging scenarios, compositions, colours, and the final result. R Michel has penetrated into the surface of every detail, transferring to the viewer a message that is far beyond any known theoretical development, because the viewer rejects the first ideas that cross his mind: "I can't believe what I am thinking, because it isn't possible. How could he create such a visual beauty without see it?"

The still life shown at the clinic, which could be named "Girasols", look like simple at first sight, but, in this case "sight" is a key word to imagine how does it was painted. In absence of this essential sense, the remaining must be coordinated to obtain a type of data that can be translated into visual information. These senses may develop to become more sensitive and interconnected than usually, giving raise to persons with radically different thought, taste, and perception of the surrounding reality. Maybe that's why this artist didn't avoid a green background, and accepted the challenge of painting the leaf's shadows over a light blue.

# Underground

I had been a few days calling Micó to continue our conversation, but he always answered:

– Take a rest, my friend. I have something better for you.

I had to wait until November 2010, when he invited me to the collective exhibition "Homenaje al Maestro" at the white saloon of the monastery "San Francisco de Asís". Daineris Peña and Roberto Alfonso were curators of an exhibition of landscape paintings that was supported by Margarita Suárez, Director of Museums at the Office of the Historian of Havana City, and organized by Arlette Castillo, and the technical staff of the monastery. The scope of this relevant cultural event was the celebration of the 170th Anniversary of the Birth of Esteban Chartrand, who was one of the first Cuban painters that made notable contributions to the genre.

I couldn't imagine the artist's intention until I was at the monastery. The environment was exactly like any artist would dream for showing his/her art. Describing this building would actually require holding a well-settled encyclopaedic knowledge on art, history, and religion. Maybe that is why it was difficult focussing my attention on the 35 landscape paintings in exhibition as individual reverences of the artists Aguedo Alonso, Agustín Bejarano, Alán Manuel González, Alfredo Rodríguez, Álvaro Serrano, Ania Toledo, Antonio Espinosa, Carlos Mata, Dayron Paz, Diego Torres, Dionel Delgado, Eduardo Estrada, Elpidio Molina, Esteban Machado, Fidel Micó, Humberto Hernández, Jesús Gastel, Joel Ferrer, José Inastrilla, Juan Alberto Díaz, Lester Campa, Lorenzo Linares, Luis Torres, Mario García Portela, Michel Micó, Omar Felipe Torres, Pedro Pablo Domínguez, Ramón Velazquez, René López Silvero, Rensol González, Roberto Alfonso, Vladimir Iglesia, Víctor Reyes, Yaciel Martínez, and Yussuan Remolina to the great master.

Catalogue of the collective exhibition "Homenaje al Maestro" at the monastery "San Francisco de Asís" (2010).

Entering the exhibition, visitors felt an influence transmitted in different ways, which seems something like a rain of "artrons" coming from every wall. At first sight, there wasn't a particular artwork standing out from the rest. A wide diversity of styles and subjects was immediately perceptible at the entrance of the exhibition. Oil and acrylic on canvases seemed having been arranged according to a particular order to show the explosive expansion and evolution of the landscape painting in the island. The persistent invisibility of this genre in most institutions of the international system of galleries became this show in an almost exclusive and unusual cultural event. Certainly, this genre seems has been forgotten in most of the art world.

Artworks created between 1990 and 2010 were shown at the monastery as a form of worship to the heritage that Chartrand let in the form of many original oil on canvases preserved in national museums. The paintings "El día", "La mañana", and "La noche" created by this remarkable artist in 1873 have been one of the most important inspiration source for an artistic movement that has been named "Horizontes" due to its constant search for innovative representation styles of contemporary subjects taking advantage of the landed knowledge. The presence of "De la serie Caribe", painted by Aguedo Alonso in 1990 and "Rio Toa", painted by René López Silvero in 2010, points to a multiplicity of evolution pathways, because realism hasn't lost timeliness while combinations with other styles take root into the landscape painting.

More than framing the roaming speculation of any conflict between old and new styles, the placement of the paintings "Huracán" (2010), "Transición" (2010), and "Raíces II" (2010) in the same exhibition space indicates that prospectives should be understood as a complex and growing pictorial movement. Like so much of the work on view, these are evidence of a massive amount of artists working in accordance with the highest quality standards, concerning to technique and subject representation.

Relying on extensive experience, curators traced the continuity of the genre, making pertinent references to its origin and influence of the French painting. They also examine how Chartrand assimilated European and North American theories for representing the tropical landscape, keeping the magnificent beauty of all its elements. Their work conveys the relationship between an ancient pictorial movement and its contemporary evolution, in spite of instabilities on exhibition frequency and public acceptance. They emphasized that a research argument has been built at exhibition, highlighting aesthetic forces that remains underground for most of the art world.

Works such as "De la serie cañón del Río Santa Cruz", "Salto de agua" (2010), "El jardín secreto de Don Tomacito" (2010), and "La hormiga que violó un principio composicional y salió ilesa" (2010), have extracted a fresh and desirable beauty from intimate narrow spaces, transforming small rocky streamlets, and entangled tropical woods into meditations on our perception of nature.

Our current mind configuration gives us poor access to reality. Maybe, different configurations could coexist if we assume that every product of a normal human brain is a component of the nature's plan, and that a plan actually exists. The subjects represented by Rensol González, Michel Micó, Luis Torres, and Yussuan Remolina get space into the viewer's subconscious as fast as the sight penetrates into the painted place. These artists were able to communicate a feeling with solid pedestals in our current mind configuration when light fade-out within the foliage, not only in the background, but also in the foreground. They have populated both compartments with a dense accumulation of young plants, accepting the unavoidable risk of loosing the viewer's attention due to unaccountable details.

Contrary to expectation, the sight is trapped in every painting by round dances of high-key tone, moving the viewer into the background with sudden gyres and pirouettes that leave him/her in ecstasy. Elements allocation creep the viewer into an endless dance that makes losing our current sense of time, suggesting several fundamental questions: how much time delayed the transition from animal to human?; was there an exact boundary or an ethereal transition interface?; and what intuitive perceptions were accumulated as knowledge in the human brain?

Missing for those not deeply versed in the history of this pictorial movement is the search for perfection taking Chartrand's works as seminal models to be followed. This learning process can be observed in "La primera luz" (2010), and "Paisaje con bohío" (2000), painted by Jorge Inastrillas and Eduardo Estrada, respectively. Light treatment in Chartrand's painting is one of the most intriguing issues for contemporary artists. Some historians has referred that he painted directly from nature, took notes, and drawn sketches for finishing works at the studio, which reinforces the argument in favour of his preferences: mists, twilights, dawns, and eventides. Others have argued in favour of a European influence on his treatment of tropical light, and vegetation.

The works "Cayendo la tarde en el Escambray" (2009), and "Suave luz" (2010), painted by Roberto Alfonso and Pedro Pablo Domínguez, remark the intensity of the current brain stormy around the actual inspiration source of Esteban Chartrand. Horizontes, on the other hand, sets a stage for reappraisal while signalling that landscape painters will truly yield relevant contributions of the broadest interest, not only for art lovers, but also for those persons that usually doesn't visit exhibitions of visual art. Before making a final judgement, I thought that Micó could clarify some issues for me, and I asked him:

– What do you think the most appealing aspect of this exhibition is?

– Everything is excelling, – answered Micó –. I can only talk as a mere artist. This is much more than we could expect. Our paintings are being shown in a patrimonial building preserved as a valuable treasure of the humankind. In addition, a variety of styles have been shown by several generations of artists with the same intention: heart-felt recognition and acknowledgement to the great master.

– Micó, why do you think that they organized this exhibition?

– Well, usually galleries and museums perform only certain types of exhibitions in order to give themselves a unique reputation, – said the artist –. You know... galleries are always looking for something like a trade mark. But, in this exhibition, every thing has been different, because their unique driving force has been free exposure to good art. There hasn't been other intention, at the monastery, different from an authentic veneration to Chartrand, and his pictorial art.

After receiving this encouraging avalanche of art and knowledge, I visited the monastery more often than I would have suspected before that night, not only looking for visual art exhibitions, but also for concerts of classical music offered at the small royal palace of the monastery known as "Basílica menor del Convento San Francisco de Asís". Since that day, I swore that I would do my best to show the existence of this exceptional pictorial movement to the art world, because humankind deserves to enjoy its work.

#  Beyond canvas

The walk with Mr. Snorkel encouraged me to visit a wonderful museum near from the Central Park of Havana for learning more on national and international painting. I felt a deep gap in my mind just because I couldn't believe that the worst were publicly recognized as the best, and the best were just ignored as inexistent. That's why I needed to see the best art at the National Museum of Fine Art (NMFA), and maybe finding someone to talk on this taste's holocaust. With a heart-felt conviction, I thought that someone had to do something about this global disaster, and I wanted to be prepared for fighting on behalf of common sense.

A visit to the NMFA is a stupendous opportunity to meet valuable fragments of universal history. Its highly qualified staff keeps in exhibition thousands of artworks created by foreign and national artists in two buildings under exquisite conditions for preservation of valuable pieces. The first building is devoted to universal art, and the second one, located at two blocks from the first one, has been exclusively reserved for contemporary art. Both public facilities are accessible 7 days a week, for an affordable price, and experts' attentions to visitors can't be better.

Visits can be conveyed by specialized personnel that display lectures in the form of unconventional friendly exchange of knowledge with visitors to facilitate understanding provenance and extension of the collection, but I preferred walking along through roomy salons of the museum, because I had a second intention. The universal art in exhibition at the NMFA could be as pleasant as architectural details of the building. In the fifth floor, oil on woods, painted between 15th and 16th century, are abundant and religious subjects are predominant. In the next lower floor, portraits are ubiquitous, but I don't know why a central pavilion of this floor drew my attention on that occasion. It was there where I saw Mr. Whisper when he couldn't refrains emotion after finding beautiful Egyptian pieces in this particular place of the museum. Coffins, vessels for oils, wines and spices, and stones with hieroglyphs were some of the treasures that hypnotized Mr. Whisper. Probably, he didn't expect to find something like that in Havana, because he seemed to be very impressed. Taking advantage of this emotional opportunity, I introduced myself, and I asked him:

– What's your appraisal of this artwork?

Of course, he looked at me with absolute displeasure. My boarding had been like a Viking horde against a monastery. I should imagine that reaction, because my interruption had been irremissibly unsuitable. However, Mr. Whisper boasted of a phlegmatic personality to answer me:

– It is difficult to say, Mr...

Then, we made a formal introduction, and Mr. Whisper kindly continued our fortuitous conversation by marking a clear boarder:

– I am not Egyptologist.

Once again, a combination of semantic differences between our languages and information asymmetry seemed to be driving this pleasant exchange to a misunderstanding, and I tried to make a sort of damage control by saying:

– I mean, what could be its fair value?

Mr. Whisper opened his small blue eyes, and, making a Nordic mow, amended my words by saying:

– Ah, you mean its valuation.

After understanding implications of my serious mistake, I insisted to know more on the difference between valuation and appraisal, and, hiding my extensive ignorance on the matter, I told him:

– Yes, I would like to know what could be a reasonable valuation of this ancient artwork.

Mr. Whisper observed the piece once again, and said:

– It is also difficult to say, because there isn't reasonable valuation in art business. Every valuation comes from random interactions between many factors. I will try to draw the most simple and gross sketch on this art's crusher.

Mr. Whisper took a small notebook and drew a complex block diagram.

While making the intriguing drawing, Mr. Whisper explained to me that B2B means business to business interactions, and B2C means business to customer interactions. After been sure that nothing had been omitted in the sketch, he gave me the paper. Then, I asked him:

– How does it work?

He asked me the paper to take a look, and told me:

– Interactions between artists and galleries don't follow any predictable behaviour, but it could be described in general terms. Usually, artists are represented by galleries, which make investments in exhibitions and publications for building and developing the artist's market. The gallery performs B2B interactions with many factors of the art world, and it also plays a critical role as information source of auction houses. Finally, if an artwork is sold, the gallery should share gross net income with the artist.

Careful observation and understanding of the Whisper's sketch could suggest that artists are the most important factors for valuations, but I had to ask him, because I wasn't totally sure on that:

– Does it mean that good artworks reach higher values than bad artworks?

Mr. Whisper suspired as if he were enjoyed the excellence of a Burgundy wine, smiled, and, raising both hands, told me:

– Relax, my friend! This is only the beginning. You haven't seen the worst.

Then, I knew that I was penetrating into a dark world, plenty of irrational events, and unrevealed laws. However, it was quieting to know that maybe there would be an explanation. With a patient voice, Mr. Whisper explained to me his perception on the algorithm of this entropic system:

– Art lovers, collectors, dealers, museums, and the media are also information sources for auction houses, which generate incomes from their private secret databases, and the information asymmetry between their clients. It means that during bidding, bidders don't know individual valuations of other bidders, and the auction house takes advantage of these valuation gradients to obtain the highest possible price.

Then, I thought in the possibility of more complex interactions between the principal characters of this entangled thriller, and I asked him:

– Are there more interactions?

– Yes, – answered Mr. Whisper –; little information has been revealed on internal interactions at auction houses, but it is clear that they exist, because appraisers have opportunities to manage every appraisal in favour of his company before publishing the reserve price. More difficult to know, however, are interactions between dealers, collectors, and galleries, because they are also bidders.

I observed the sketch once again, and I thought that it could be reworked. Then, I realized that this complexity could be unacceptable for some factors of the matrix, and I asked him:

– Artworks are only sold at auction houses?

  * No, – said Mr. Whisper –; they are also sold by dealers, collectors, galleries, and exceptionally by museums. An artist may remains at the primary market for decades. It means, selling artworks at the studio subordinating his talent to clients' whims. This is noxious for both factors of the art market, because the artist' taste is more distinguishable and developed than tastes of dealers and collectors. Therefore, most of the time, these factors face problems for re-selling artworks. They have to make huge investments in advertising to develop an artificial market that isn't based on the relevance of the artist's career. Auction houses are the centre of public auctions performed according to the British style: all bidders are known, as well as estimate prices. There are also private silent and private hybrid auctions as more subtle alternative interactions between the remaining factors. In the first one, bidders don't know the others, neither their valuations, there isn't auctioneer, and the winner pays the price of the best offer. In hybrid auctions, the winner pays the second highest price offered. In both cases, the artist remains in the primary market without receiving anything. These alternative auctions not only deprive to the artist from social recognition, but also from significant incomes, because the price realized isn't published. In addition, the repercussion of these sales in the media is null.

We continued walking through extensive halls of the NMFA, and talking on the excellent preservation of every piece. By the end of the morning, Mr. Whisper invited me to launch, but I had a meeting with a friend on the other side of the city, and I lost the opportunity to know his arguments in favour of a more transparent information flow in the art world.

#  Vade retrum

A persistent paradox on the development of aesthetic concepts has remained unsolved for a century. Essential concepts of the artistic representation have been modified without adding innovative aesthetic principles to open pathways for further theoretical developments. The result has been a coexistence of apparently empty artworks and classic genres based on the old canon at similar levels of social and academic recognition. I argue in favour of the Latin American Art as a source of diversity to explore the possibility of reviewing the old canon to improve the strength of contemporary messages, and opening the current cycle of viewers far beyond artists, experts, and investors, since aesthetic proposals of a broader interest and visibility may generate a favourable synergic effect on the evolution of art. In other words, the Latin American Art could be the "vade retrum" against the silence machine.

Science and art have navigated in the fourth dimension, separated by a delicate membrane: the viewer. At both sides, the verb "to be" has been put in doubt and the presence of the viewer has changed the appearance of the perceptible reality. Simultaneity of deep crisis, coming from paradoxes, has been the origin of radical transformations up to submerge both fields of the human conscience in abstract environments that defy common sense. Science and art have broken nexus with previous concepts, almost simultaneously, but nothing suggests that motivations of scientists and artists had a common philosophical origin. Scientists modified interpretation of previous experience for keeping a logic development of ideas, but artists abandoned all previous work and knowledge for inventing and imposing a different vision of aesthetics, forgetting that nothing was ever born from nothing. This subtle mistake has positioned art in a paradox that could only be solved by reviewing interpretations of the previous knowledge.

The history of Latin America, and its convulsive evolution during the second half of the last century and the beginning of the new millennium has been sufficiently relevant to attract attention of intellectuals from around the world. Literary accomplishments of Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (1928-2014), Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa (b. 1936), Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, best known as Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), and Octavio Paz Lozano (1914 - 1998) have been exhaustively analysed by academics, and awarded with the most important recognitions. The painters Fernando Botero (b. 1932), Leonor Fini (1907-1996), Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Roberto Matta Echaurren (1911-2002), Carlos Mérida (1891-1984), René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Diego Rivera (1886-1957), Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991), Francisco Toledo (b. 1940), Joaquín Torres García (1874-1949), and José de Jesús Francisco Zúñiga Chavarría (1912-1998) have also contributed with an extensive body of aesthetic knowledge to enrich investigations in prestigious academic institutions. It could be reasonably expected that such precedents were the foundations of the contemporary art in this continent, but reality has been richer than fiction.

Although price and reputation are different words, these seem to be synonyms in the contemporary art world. On one hand, a set of Latin American pieces have received a massive public recognition as artworks without deserving this appellative term at all. On the other one, master pieces painted in the 18th and 19th centuries seem to be unknown for historians and art lovers. Untitled paintings, empty canvas, small hooks, stains, and estrange origami have received most of the attention on the basis of a hedonic price index that depends on the correlation between return on Latin Art and return on the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Portfolio 1.

Financial decisions have positioned artists in the art world, and, from now on, their artworks will represent examples to be followed by next generations, as good art contributing the most relevant aesthetic value. Not to mention, potential conflagrations between students and professors at colleges of fine art. The merit of individual artworks will not have any significance, if an artist has obtained the artistic authority granted by investors that decided becoming each artwork into a unique and exclusive paper currency with a growing value.

Is artistic authority a letter of marquee? No. Artistic authority is a huge responsibility with the future development of art. Unavoidably, every artwork is associated with an artist, and when he/she is awarded in virtue of his/her intellectual performance, the artwork receives the same recognition, assuming that it will be a contribution to improve educational, civilizing, and aesthetic values of the humankind. Consequently, every owner of the unnameable objects that populate prestigious museums and galleries is always uncomfortably obligated to say: "This is art..! Do you see it? Lev Nikoláievich Tolstói, best known as Leon Tolstoy (1828-1910), and José Julian Martí Pérez (1853 - 1895) would have answered: – No, definitively, this is not art.

In times when darkness wrapped most of the societies, the task of articulating a coherent and sensitive aesthetic thought, with universal relevance, should has been difficult, even for genius with solid humanistic convictions and remarkable erudition. The extension, diversity, and depth of the literary work left as heritage to the humankind by Leon Tolstoy, shuddered foundations of a society that hardly resisted a massive stream of knowledge for which it was not prepared. The Russian Society of the 19th Century was surprised with a few primitive weapons available for censoring a novel, articulated, and authentic philosophical thought. Deletions, prohibitions, and every sort of tergiversations were components of its "armata brancaleone" against the unavoidable advance of a vertical human conscience.

Tolstoy's remarks on the editorial environment by the end of that century are eloquent testimonies of the challenges and limitations of writers to evade persistent and fierce interferences of censorships with the natural evolution of the philosophical thought. His words left no doubt on this subject: "The causes which led to the publication of the book, with my name attached to it, in a mutilated form, were the following: In accordance with a decision I arrived at long ago, not to submit my writings to the Censorship (which I considered to be an immoral and irrational institution), but to print them only in the shape in which they were written, I intended not to attempt print this work in Russia" 2.

Omissions and tergiversations were abundant and noteworthy in the Tolstoy's work 3. Copies printed out of Russia are stupendous starting points for comparisons, because every crime can be easily revealed by a careful reading. The complexity of feelings, smartly treated in moral tales, was one of the favourite targets for censorship. Extensive fragments of his most important analysis on the Census of Moscow, his opinions on poverty, luxury, and death penalty were just removed without any intelligible reason. Reflexions on poverty and luxury, obtained as results of Tolstoy's investigations, were suppressed from original copies of his articles.

The damage acquired a monumental dimension in a major subject suggested to him by the passant Siutaef who said: "True charity consists in teaching the poor. Take your proportion of the poor, work beside them in the fields, and they will learn; eat at the same table with them, and let them hear your words". He believed in education and brotherhood to reduce disparities between poor and rich people, but official censors felt fear of the consequences, and the potential visibility of the difference between charity and giving alms.

Even an extraordinary conclusion on himself, as a person poorer than poor people, was rejected by censors, maybe because this idea directly pointed to bankers, merchants, land-owners, and the church. He found contradictory that people who are "weak, good-for-nothing parasites, who can exist only under special conditions; who can exist only when thousands of people toil for the support of this life which is useful to no one" said that "I go to help poor" when poor people "are good-for-something". He surprised himself believing that "money represents labour", even without doing anything, and named it "a new form of slavery". Although at present seems to be incredible that a wealthy man had to suffer these humiliations, the true seems to be that most of his outstanding contributions were treated as unacceptable for publication in Russia. Then, what was the best scenario for poor writers?

Thoughts were erroneously attributed to Tolstoy, and probably many other writers living and working under the pressure of editorial and spiritual censorships, but, unavoidably, unifying definitions of art were born in these beautiful minds. Contemporary, but geographically distant from Tolstoy, José Martí also manifested solid convictions on the significance of art for humankind, while lived, worked, and fought in a society that was much more hostile for freedom than the Tolstoy's Russia, because slavery was its "raison d'être". José Martí faced several complex issues of censorship from different pragmatic points of view. Certainly, he argued that: "Ignorant and malign censorship can do less than the useful and simple true" 4, but he also recognized the need of critical thought and effective methods for correcting misconceptions. In this sense, his words to writers were: "Do not see in critics the intention of blaming a reputation that has not even been conquered, but the impartial moderation whose, only for benefit and honour of the belle letters, undertake a so awful and hard task as is making a judgment" 5.

Patriotic and daily obligations were not obstacles for Martí. His writings on art left a valuable legacy of contributions to philosophy and history. Being conscious of the philosophical debates on art, and the intellectual confrontations between idealists and realists, he wrote: "Art was born from seeing and imitating, from feeling and saying" 6. The study of aesthetic trends guided the Apostle of the Cuba's independence to discover the deepest contradictions and paradigms of the most relevant theories on the nature of art. One thing was sure for him: "Art has a common element, and without knowing, it goes to the same object" 7.

A comparison between definitions written by Tolstoy and Martí, points to an unexpected finding. Tolstoy wrote: "Art is a human activity, consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings, and also experience them" 9. Tolstoy also highlights the need of a previous individual experience as the origin of art. Therefore, art should be born from authentic emotions, but art becomes into reality when emotions are transferred to other persons. By the same age, Martí wrote: "Art always starts from men, always goes to improve men by emotions, without they feel such improvement" 10. Obviously, these extraordinary intellectuals never met, and Martí could not have read the Tolstoy's book "What is art?", because it was published in 1895 when Martí died fighting for Cuba's independence.

Martí could not ignore the twoness of art. For him, art could not be absolutely idealist, but neither totally realist. As an elegant demonstration of his visionary capacity for solving highly complex contradictions, he wrote: "From here on, two classes of art, that non aesthetic should separate, and that should not go unified, because although they usually meet in the medium, they do not come from the same origin, nor have the same object" 11. He signified that art should not be absolutely realist, because it may fall into the freezing positivism, losing its beauty, and remaining reduced to imitation. On the other hand, an absolute idealization may isolate artists from a real world that need them, as much as oxygen, to create artworks as finished representations of the purest feelings.

Martí found greatness in the original individuality of every artwork, and recognized it as its intrinsic idealism. The authenticity and coherence of artworks were critical issues during his frequent visits to art exhibitions in Latin America and New York. His attention was mostly drawn to a kind of harmony that he described as: "harmonies that wanders in spaces of heaven, and untouchable conceptions that shake in spaces of the spirit" 11. His critics to improvisations, imitations, vagueness of messages, and extemporaneity were abundant in articles published in Venezuela, Argentina, and the United State of America 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.

The collection in exhibition at the NMFA may suggest the erroneous idea that the Cuban painting was born in the second half of the 18th century, but findings reported in 1987 moved the starting point two centuries back, rising more questions than answers on this subject 17, 18. In 1584, the Council of Havana agreed the acquisition of eight paintings for interior decoration of the city hall, and in 1599, the Cuban painter Juan Camargo received a payment for painting the altar-piece of the parochial church, where in 1663 a wood statute would be painted by Luis Esquivel 19. In a letter signed by Juan Salas Argüello in 1646, he donated an altar-piece with paintings and the image of "La Purísima Concepción" to the monastery "Santa Clara". The artworks "San Miguel Arcángel" and "Dios todo poderoso" are carefully preserved at this monastery, where Argüello was buried in 1649. The purchase of two oils on wood at one of several ateliers of Havana in 1660 was reported by the historian Pedro Antonio Herrera López.

In an article published in 1792, a first critical evaluation of Cuban painters can be found: "Concerning to art, it is undeniable that in the joinery "Blanco y Rivero" there are many operators of sculpture, wood-carving, painting, gilding, and architecture with excellent taste as testify several artworks that have deserved many praises, not only from nationals, but also from foreigners, with the particular circumstance of being the natural artificers of Havana" 20.

The testament of the painter Pedro Acosta, preserved at the Actuary Office of Marine, is evidence on the existence of two Cuban paintings dealing with the British invasion to Havana in 1762. Other historical event was represented in a large canvas commissioned by the Economic Society "Amigos del País" (ESAP) to the painter Juan del Rio in 1794. Refined miniaturists were probably highly demanded, as may be assumed from an advertising published in 1794: "white gum arabic is useful for miniaturists to give tenacity to colours without perturbing vivacity" 21.

Among the masters of the 18th century that teach painting in their ateliers to students and assistants named "oficiales" were: Juan Rosa (Italian), Julio Gamarra, Felipe Lago, and Valentín Arcila. The existence of, at least, three mercery houses that offered pigments, resins, and oils imported from Spain, The Netherlands, and The United Kingdom was well-documented at the National Archive 22. According to this source, the most demanded colouring substances were pepper gold, verditer, yellow ochre, garcinia, white lead, and carmine.

José Nicolás de la Escalera y Domínguez (1734-1804) was one of the masters that stand out from other artists in the second half of the 18th century. He worked in the cupola, and family compositions of the church "Santa Maria del Rosario", where he dressed virgins with traditional and temperate colours, without great blending, and using sienna to obtain a marked delineation of figures. Other contemporary master was the above mentioned Juan del Rio. His favourable reputation among members of the ESAP came from his smart drawing, careful representation of tiny details of jewels and laces, and his excelling work with the prestigious engraver Francisco Javier Báez (1746-1818). A notable example of both 18th and 19th century was the portrait-painter Vicente Escobar (1757-1834) who was appointed as chamber painter by the Spanish king Fernando VII in 1827.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Italian painter José Perovani (1765-1835) proposed the foundation of an academy of painting to the bishop Juan José Díaz de Espada y Fernández de Landa (1756-1832), but Perovani didn't received attention, and he decided founding a workshop for teaching the pictorial art, opening the pathway to a future academy. The ESAP inaugurated the Free Academy of Drawing and Painting in January 11th, 1818, and appointed as Director to his founder, the French painter Jean Baptiste Vermay de Beaume (1784-1833) who had been organizing the academic staff one year before. Henceforth, the development of visual arts in Cuba was inextricably associated to every avatar of the currently well-known Academy of Fine Art "San Alejandro" (AFASA).

The great masters Esteban Chartrand y Dubois (1840-1883), Valentín Sanz Carta (1849-1898), José Juaquín Tejada (1867-1943), Guillermo Collazo (1850-1896), Federico Martínez (1828-1912), Leopoldo Romañach (1862-1951), and Armando Menocal (1861-1942) set foundations of further developments. Remains, however, unanswered, a fundamental question: what did they actually paint during the 19th century? The power of the Catholic Church in Cuba was absolute by that century, and painting with freedom had an unaffordable price for artists, because explicit representations of reality were unacceptable for colonial and religious authorities. On the other hand, it is difficult to believe that all Cuban painters kept four centuries absolutely subordinated to this fierce censorship without representing slavery, injustice, conspiracy, and fights for independence. Therefore, painting with authenticity required a code that showed uncensored images hiding censored messages.

The most recurrent code accepted by the Cuban Colonial Society was a kind of twoness of catholic images imposed to slaves as analogous or similar to African deities or gods. Supposedly, when slaves showed adoration to catholic saints, they would feel the same to their actual gods, obtaining the benefit of keeping their most important rituals as secrets. Maybe, Cuban painters enjoyed this kind of hidden power and creative freedom, leaving a huge amount of puzzles to be solved by art historians. After all, freedom has not price.

The evolution of this pictorial movement had a remarkable influence on the aesthetic vision of Martí, and strengthens his convictions, because he learned from the old masters at the AFASA where he studied drawing in 1867. After a visit to an exhibition, he wrote: "The painter that want to be more than a portrait-painter should habituate his brush to the richness, mobility, light strokes, and contrast of colour" 16. Turning to the rational of his ideas on art, he highlighted the harmonic confrontation between idealism and realism by writing: "Sometime, irregularity is artistic, but in painting, this irregularity should be logical among accidents as inventions of poetic fantasies should be coherent and grouped in unity" 16. His artistic sensitivity suggested him the need of some type of compositional order to transmit feelings from the artist to the viewer as coherent messages that educate, and improve humans while they feel edifying pleasures.

Almost immediately after arriving from USA to Mexico City (February, 1875), Martí was introduced to the editor of the newspaper "Revista Universal" by his friend Manuel Mercado. This publication dealt with politics, literature, economy, and art, which was an optimum environment for his intellectual needs. A month later, Martí published his first article in this newspaper, and translations of French books. In May 7th, 1875, Martí published his first editorial, as staff writer, using the pseudonym "Orestes", which dealt with a polemic discussion on the independence of Cuba, against the newspaper "La Colonia Española".

In a letter to his best friend, Manuel Mercado, Martí described one of his deepest convictions on the development of the pictorial mastery. In his own words: "Those who feels nature, should love it, sunshine and sunset are the actual studies of an artist. A painter is a sick eagle at the studio," 23. By that time, he also had to hide his name to travel from Veracruz (Mexico) to Cuba. Making a pertinent reference to French painters, he pointed out: "The architectonics is one of the most difficult issues for painters, because even the best, often fail in this issue" 24. It is predictable that visual impact was an intriguing issue for Martí, because he left testimony of the intuitive and subtle difference between absence and presence of artistic interpretation in a painting by writing: "Deserve naming himself a painter who know how colouring an extensive piece of human skin without monotony and hardness, distinguishing it, smiling and perfumed, from the canvas" 25. As a demonstration of a solid coherence of his aesthetic thought, Martí wrote, eight months later: "In painting, as in love, the greatest and most singular merit is fidelity" 25.

Teachings of those great thinkers that developed a coherent aesthetic vision before the 20th century, and the images of the most important artworks of the last 100 years 26 suggest the need for new points of view to make more rational proposal to current art lovers and future generations. Art was intentionally changed because the world had changed. Breaking with the old canon did not change any society, nor solved the most urgent contradictions of the world. It could be possible without abandoning the very rich precedent knowledge by representing innovative massages taking advantage of artistic mastery accumulated for centuries.

Contemporary art is constantly avoiding confrontations with structured, rational, intuitive, and harmonic scales of aesthetic assessment. A well-known contemporary modus operandum consists of four steps: i-) creating an artificial viewer, ii-) performing a theoretical development on a comfortable and convenient scale of aesthetic assessment, iii-) showing work of art derived from theory at exhibitions, and finally, iv-) looking for space in peer-review publications and commercial magazines to authenticate a contribution to the history of art. Among the most serious consequences of this sterile search for recognition are: i-) art is not changing the world, but the contrary, ii-) art is narrowing the cycle of viewers, and isolating it from people that actually need culture and iii-) art has become a highly convenient asset for financial transactions. Fortunately, Latin American Art remains with sufficient diversity to offer hopes of future recovery and contextualization of the forgotten canon.

Artworks have generally been acknowledged by viewers as reflexions on the action of visualizing ideas and feelings. Therefore, monetary reward should not be understood as synonym of artistic authority. This one should be obtained by creating artworks that actually contribute noteworthy to the development of aesthetics. An artwork should include identifiable elements, comprehensive actions, a credible composition, and the capacity of transferring feelings and significance from artists to viewers. Composition, aesthetic values, scenario, unity, details, diversity, and maybe illusionism are essential ingredients of a desirable artistic representation of life, and maybe hopes. Interpretative diversity should motivate intriguing questions that last unanswered for centuries as engines of further intellectual development. These are relevant challenges that should not be abandoned in search for a shorter and faster pathway to social recognition.

A polished technical mastery is only a tool for creating symbolic representations, having a great purpose in mind. Starting from the very beginning of sketch drawing to visualize the original idea, the artist should keep alive the spiritual component to feed his ideas with the purpose of projecting his work into the history of art. In painting, for instance, the brushwork define the authenticity and credibility of planes in-depth, interactions between light and dark, light sources and pathways, shapes, colour's harmony, and vitality of compositional elements. At a higher level of creativity, combinations of genres in a single painting may be also accepted as a rewarding challenge, for highlighting significance, supported by a personal style.

Major decisions should be taken by defining: i-) where will be the artist? ii-) where will be the viewer? iii-) what will be the importance of each one in the final artwork? An infinite range of significance may be generated from including the artist into the artwork, and granting different levels of importance to viewers, a similar diversity of ideas may be expressed. An artist should be able to say, at least: "This artwork has a meaning, and it represents an idea" to obtain attention, not only from art lovers, but also from those persons that need art without being an expert. Painting not what the artist see, but what the viewer see is a clever way to show deference to him. Finally, giving a feeling of unreality to a credible scenario opens the viewer's vision to universe, stimulating thoughts, and enthusiastic debates between artists, researchers and art lovers that shall certainly guide art to a more sustainable and sincere body of knowledge.

Endnotes

  1. Sebastian Edwards. The economics of Latin American Art: creativity patterns and rate of return. NBER Working Paper Series. Working Paper 10302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, February, 2004.

  2. Leon Tolstoy. What is art? Funk & Wagnalls Co, 1904, New York, p. 50.

  3. Isabel F. Hapgood. Count Tolstoy and the public censor. Atlantic Monthly. July 1887.

  4. José Martí. _La delegación del partido y el alzamiento_. Patria (newspaper). New York, November 21st, 1893.

  5. José Martí. _Escenas Mexicanas_. Revista Universal (magazine). México, June 29th, 1875.

  6. José Martí. _Obras completas_ , 1975, Editorial Ciencias Sociales, La Habana, p.419. This book is a compendium of notes, letters, and articles written by José Martí.

  7. Martí, v. 19, p. 420.

  8. Tolstoy, p. 56.

  9. Martí, v. 19, p. 421.

  10. José Martí. El idealismo y el realismo en el arte. Discurso en el Liceo de Guanabacoa. March 29th, 1879.

  11. José Martí. _Hasta el cielo_. Revista Universal. México, January 15th, 1876.

  12. José Martí. The Metropolitan Museum. The Hour (newspaper). New York, February 21st, 1880.

  13. José Martí. _Emerson_. La Opinión Nacional (newspaper). Caracas, May 19th, 1882.

  14. José Martí. _Cartas_. La Nación (newspaper). Buenos Aires, July 13th, 1885.

  15. José Martí. _Una visita a la exposición de bellas artes_. Revista Universal. México, December 29th, 1875.

  16. Olga López Núñez. Notas sobre un estudio de la pintura y escultura en Cuba. Siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII. Grupo de Información. Esfera de las Artes Visuales. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. 1987.

  17. Olga López Núñez. _Un pintor habanero. José Nicolás de Escalera, 1734–1804_. Espacio Laical (magazine). Año II, Nº 8, Octubre- Diciembre 2006, p. 1 - 3.

  18. Actas Capitulares del Ayuntamiento de La Habana. Cabildo, March 22nd, 1599.

  19. Anónimo. _Un europeo imparcial_. Papel Periódico de la Habana (newspaper). July 29th, 1792.

  20. Advertising. _Goma arábica blanca_. Papel Periódico de la Habana. July 7th, 1794.

  21. Archivo Nacional. Arturo Galletti. 56 tomo único, 1804.

  22. José Martí. Carta a Manuel Mercado. Veracruz, January 1st, 1877.

  23. José Martí. The French aquarellists. The Hour. New York, June 12th, 1880.

  24. José Martí. Nude in the salon. The Hour. New York, July 31st, 1880.

  25. José Martí. Mario Fortuny. The Sun (newspaper). New York, March 27, 1881.

  26. David W. Galenson. The most important works of art of the twentieth century. In: Conceptual revolutions in twentieth century art, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Octuber 2009), chapter 3.

#  Silence stream

Artists usually need feeling that something sounds around them. They need critics of colleagues and friends, and silence leaves them as if they were in a "black hole" where common sense has not relevance. Maybe, one of the most singular and shameful feelings start to demolish the artist's spirit from the moment when friends and colleagues silently abandon the creation place where they use to discuss ideas and project with the artist. Certainly, the most depressant features of this interesting psychological process are sluggishness, and absence of explanation. Fortunately, it is not difficult finding the approximate starting date of this deplorable phenomenon, because, almost always, something important happened before that moment.

Fidel Micó was ready to start a middle size canvas when he decided talk to me while he was painting. Perturbing thoughts and false guiltiness had been clattering his mind. His brush danced between both hands more frequently than usual, in every compartment. His hands just were not the same as before the year 2010 when his wife felt ill, and he had to abandon the pictorial art to care and save her from breast cancer. He was making some spots with the right hand when he suddenly asked me:

– Do you think that I am a right person?

– Of course you are! My friend, – I answered in a sincere way, and very surprised, I said to him –; why do you ask me that?

– Many people have disappeared from my life, –answered Micó with certain sadness and continued talking –; they don't visit to me any more, and I don't know why.

– Well, maybe they are waiting for a suitable moment to visit you, – I told to him, trying to understand his feelings to compensate his malaise –; or, maybe, they need good news on your career, or finding a good opportunity for you. If I were you, I would not be so worried about it, but about galleries that represent you, and other factors that are doing nothing for you. Supposedly, they have benefited with the commercialization of your work, but the results of their presumed efforts aren't visible in the media. Therefore, they aren't doing any contribution to develop your market.

I continued insisting:

  * With the only exception of the gallery Jorge M Sori Fine Art, the remaining owners of your artworks are doing nothing for you, aren't they? And, that's actually alarming.

Micó stopped painting, looked through the small window of his narrow painting room, and told me:

– Yes, you could be right. Exhibitions have always been my strongest motivation for meeting little noted and young artists to talk about painting, new ideas, and projects, but collectors and dealers haven't called me from the last year. In addition, local galleries have few resources for organizing exhibitions.

I also remembered him that his wife had fallen ill, and many of his friends didn't know the favourable clinical outcome. Then, I suggested him to think on what could have happened before the stampede by asking him:

– Do you remember something relevant?

– Well, there were important events: the group exhibition at the monastery "San Francisco de Asís" that you visited, and an international auction. The "Humidor Monte Cristo" was sold in auction by that time. I believed that was a streak of luck. That is why I don't understand what happened. Maybe, I made a serious mistake. I really don't know what to think.

I started to be even more worry, because my friend and his family have always lived from painting, and I opened an independent research looking for more light on this mystery. First, I was four month trying to obtain opinions from more than fifty international galleries, and hundreds of experts, but the most abundant result was silence, and five answers that curiously, were grammatically equal: "thank you for the information". Unfortunately, by that time, I did not know on the existence of the Catalogue Raisonnée Scholars Association (CRSA), and the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR). I returned to the studio with bad news for Micó, and we had an interesting conversation.

– Micó, I think that something isn't right. Your paintings are actually incredible, but there's something imposing a silence among many people from different countries, and I really don't know what happen. Do you have any idea about it?

– I don't know, my friend, but maybe... There's something that could have to do... The manager of a foreign gallery told me that some paintings with my signature were sold for prices 100-fold lower, but he never sent me images of these pieces.

Finally, the first sunbeam had invaded the studio. His words made me feel sure that there was a light at the end of the silence's tunnel. Being sure that the remaining would be a matter of perseverance and time, I told him:

– Ah, this is a good starting point, because if something has pointed to lower prices, the interest in your art and reputation may have decreased.

I continued my research collecting images and information of all the artworks that Micó authenticated as painted by him, and documenting it in the form of a Catalogue Raisonnée. The collected information was the primary source for comparisons. A message from an Italian collector reporting other falsification was a strong motivation, because I felt that the stream of silence was gradually enervating.

A simple search on the visibility of this artist in Internet was another encouraging result, because I found more than 8 000 web pages dealing with him or containing images of his paintings. From this heterogeneous mixture of images and information, I could find two catalogues. The first one dealt with an international exhibition in Bogotá, Colombia, and the second one dealt with an auction performed in Dallas, USA.

Untitled piece sold to an Italian collector as painted by Fidel Micó. The artist has explicitly rejected this piece by saying: "I didn't paint this work".

Right: Untitled piece commissioned for bidding at Heritage Auction Inc. (Heritage Auction. Modern & Contemporary Art. Cuban/Latin American Art. Heritage Signature Auction # 5055. Dallas, Texas, Oct. 27, 2010, p. 128). The artist has explicitly rejected this piece by saying: "I did not paint this work". Left: signature in the lower right corner of the painting.

Catalogue of the exhibition ArtBo 2005 in Bogotá, Colombia. The painting "Transpiración" was shown at the exhibition (Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá. ARTBO: Feria Internacional de Arte de Bogotá, Colombia, 2005, reproduced in page 62).

A basic comparison between the signature of the painting offered by Heritage Auction Inc in 2010, and all those collected from images of artwork painted by Fidel Micó is a strong evidence to confirm that the above mentioned work was not painted by him.

Signatures collected from images of artworks painted by Fidel Micó from 2002 to 2011.

Other baffling findings were three unframed giclée offered for sale as painted by Fidel Micó at the web site Art-Exchange.com (16/04/2013 15:17:47). These evidences could be recorded by searching http://65.64.8.64/search_result_details.aspx?ArtId=87581. Then, I thought that I had collected all the available information on this unpleasant subject, but I was totally wrong, because Micó had received more bad news from an old friend. He showed me three printed images of acrylic on canvas with a signature similar to previous imitations ("FM"). Two of these pieces, absurdly entitled "Untitled Landscape I" (15 x 12 in; 37.5 x 30.0 cm) and "Untitled Landscape III" (15 x 11 in; 37.5 x 27.5 cm), had been sold, according to the web site "Aviscacaribbeanart.com" (09/10/2009 16:16). A third painting, scoffingly entitled "Untitled Landscape II" (11 x 15 in; 27.5 x 37.5 cm) had not been sold by 2009. Unfortunately, the original web page could not be found by searching its URL (http://www.aviscacaribbeanart/Artists/Cuban_Art_Gallery/Oth...).

Unknown author, Chapel on the hill, giclée, 18 x 24 in; 45 x 60 cm, catalogue #: 242183. The artist has explicitly rejected this piece by saying: "I didn't paint this work".

Unknown author, Waterfront Courtyard, giclée, 18 x 24 in; 45 x 60 cm, catalogue #: 241605. The artist has explicitly rejected this piece by saying: "I didn't paint this work".

Unknown author, Waterfront Courtyard, giclée, 18 x 24 in; 45 x 60 cm, catalogue #: 241606. The artist has explicitly rejected this piece by saying: "I didn't paint this work".

These pieces had been shown and sold as painted by Micó, leaving a completely distorted image of the artist career that placed him at a performance level lower than any middling student or frustrated painter. Looking at the evidence, with forward countenance, he told me:

– I don't know how to solve this disaster. It looks like the end of my career, because there's even more.

– What..? – I said to him, and Micó answered:

– Yes, my friend. This is worse than we imagined.

– Recently, I have been receiving phone calls asking for authenticity of other artworks that were purchased as painted by me. In most cases, I never painted the pieces, but all private collectors bought these as mine. Childlike imitations of my signature were included as a biting jest to buyers' intelligence. I told them that they were swindled, but, who will pay attention to me henceforth? There isn't warranty that more frauds won't take place anymore.

It was then when we really understood that exist a silence machine in the art world, which is much more powerful than anything. It is a monster! I arrived to a more dreadful conclusion. These findings suggested me the possibility that his artworks could have been used for falsifications by changing the signature to obtain higher prices from collectors and galleries, or in private and public auctions as if had been painted by death artists. Two issues should not be ignored: i-) Micó's paintings have only been in one public auctions and ii-) nobody has ever asked him for certificates of authenticity and ownership, which is actually unusual in the art market.

Absence of transparency seems to be the most distinctive characteristic of the art world. Major factors governing it are protected by a cluster of ancient commercial patterns of behaviour that blockade every developmental change. It means, new factors and efforts are discouraged in an unregulated environment dominated by shadowy mechanisms such as reserve prices set by auction houses, absence of information on price realized in art galleries, and artworks on hold for individual collectors. In practice, sellers always have more information on every artwork than buyers, and particular interests of collectors and dealers in acquiring specific pieces, because much information is confidentially sold amount the market makers. In other words, the silence machine is part of the market machine of the art world.

Thinking on the existence of a so unique, powerful, subtle, and invisible force may easy draw our attention to the media. Therefore, I decided sending notes to some staff writers working at influential art journals and magazines:

– Dear Mr. Shadow,

I usually read excellent articles published in your interesting source of art information. Your critical opinions and writing style on art have been an inspiration source for a painter that would appreciate to know your opinion. I have collected abundant information and images for you. I would like to know if you are interested on writing about the painter Fidel Micó.

I look forward hearing from you.

Best regards,

Mr. Buxadó.

Most staff writers have never answered my notes or did it several months later, like this one:

– Dear Mr. Buxadó,

Excuse me for delay my answer. I can not write about Fidel Micó, because I work from commissions. I can not write what I want.

Sincerely,

Mr. Shadow.

I was starting to need a break time, because this ugly labyrinth seemed to be endless. Understanding that highly qualified professionals didn't want to know anything about this artist was far beyond my intellectual background. I couldn't believe that they were not free for writing on relevant subjects. Fortunately, I knew the British artist Kate Lovell, who paid attention to the extensive career of this artist. She published 20 images of artworks painted by Micó, and the document "The Fidel Micó Catalogue Raisonnée". From now on, I understood that the silence machine is a phantom unable to fly out of ancient castles and cementers of dead artists, because its addiction to decadence, putrefaction, and shadows for surviving in the art world. I also understood that its enemy was in my hands: creative writing.

Many professions have acquired a corporative nature, but I couldn't imagine that writing on art could be one of them. Probably, the silence machine also functions among writers. It means, there could be information asymmetry among writers, which could be the Achilles' heel of the silence's structure. Therefore, free writing on art could make critical cracks on the surface of this mouldy entity.

Writing on painting is not a hard task, but it requires paying attention to details and specific issues: i-) the artist, ii-) the artistic movement, iii-) historical events, iv-) chiaroscuro, v-) colour, vi-) compartments, vii-) light and colour, viii-) drawing, ix-) composition and x-) technique. The enlightening observation written by Eugène Carrière may open us the pathway: "It is the logical development of light with oppose rhythms which expression will be as authoritative as much as extensive be its run". The painting "La Maja del Río" (2000) is a comprehensive example of this basic principle.

Fidel Micó, La Maja del Río, 95 x 130 cm, oil on canvas, 2000, private collection.

The foreground of this painting presents a shadow over the river on the left. The surface of the river and the beautiful woman are much clearer: the left margin of the river is more shadowy to reinforce the intensity of the principal element. The same can't only be observed from right to left, but also in-depth from the middle ground, over the river, to the dense vegetation, and from the sky to both margin of the river. Branches and foliage of trees, clearer if compare with margins, but darker if compare with sky and clouds, is another screen used as a reference system of the third dimension for suggesting deepness by contrast. The painting can be viewed in this way, as a logical degradation from light to dark, and by the contrary, for building the composition.

Definitively, there is too much to write on painting to be silenced by someone. There is not right to silence the soul! For example, distinctions between different genres could be an interesting theme for young and experienced writers. Landscape painting is not only difficult because of space development over a bi-dimensional support, but also because of heterogeneity of elements: plants, trees, stones, rivers, and clouds. In a portrait painting, on the contrary, similarities facilitate obtaining unity. Authentic proportion between elements is also a critical point for appraisal of landscape painting. This high level of mastery is, at the same time, a powerful action field to express the most relevant messages and making the most significant contributions to the development of the pictorial art.

#  Overexposure

Finding information on the contemporary Cuban art may be a challenging task, and a few artists have reached a notable visibility and social recognition. Originality is a distinctive feature of this artistic movement, but systematic analyses of relevant artworks are not abundant, and the generally recognized perception of contemporary Cuban paintings as "forbidden fruits" contributes to jumble any work on this issue. The painter Tomás Sánchez is sufficiently visible for studying the interesting phenomenon of "mere exposure" 1 in a significant sample of his paintings, in spite of abundant provenance gaps.

A water fall placed in the background, and a river running to the foreground, are the principal elements of the painting "De la cascada viene un río" 2. A little man, at the foreground, introduced an interesting message in Sánchez's artworks by 1993, that was the central subject of further paintings, and the source of attention from museum, galleries, and writers 3, 4, 5. By 1996, the intention of the original idea was brighter than ever in the paintings "Luz en la cascada del río azul" 6, and "La luz sobre la cascada" 7, but sharp and meaningless transitions of colour were also difficult to ignore. A few similar lines build an intimate space to allow the viewer understanding the central idea, which seems to suggest meditation, and spiritual peace. Elements included in these compositions are also very similar, with a few geometric deviations from one artwork to the next one. In these paintings, the sight remains trapped in the upper part of the water fall, far away from the little man placed on the right margin of the river in the first one and on the left in the other, in a poorly defined and extremely narrow middle ground. The high homogeneity of the vegetation, colour and geometry suggests reasonable doubts on the actual geographical location of the painted place, which origin could be in the artist's talent and imagination 8. Even though masses of light are absent, many additional compositional elements are successfully suggested by a diagonal incidence of the sun light on the walls, and the surface of the river. The light over the little man is a major element of both aesthetic and spiritual messages, although, unfortunately, the sight cannot escape from an iterative loop, under a massive pressure of the background, forcing the viewer to abandon the frame through many diagonal lines. The colour scheme of these paintings is suitable for representing the subject, highlighting that a spiritual fact is happening in the painted place. Although line arrangements are not visually interesting at all, a remarkable contrast of lines is obtained between branches in the first painting only broken by the verticality of the trees.

A sudden change appears in Sánchez's paintings, from 2004, with the artwork "Caminante y cascada" 9: a region of abundant diagonal lines and delicate curves, on the right upper side, in sharp contrast with the water fall. The attention to the subject and the emotional content are only suggested by the title of the painting, but not by any element of the composition. The scarce diversity of vegetation, more abundant in the upper right compartment, is one of the most interesting issues of this artwork, because it suggests the intention of developing more innovative compositions in further paintings with similar significance. Forms are mostly devoted to a few elements, but not to the diversity of species that probably were present in the painted place. The treatment of light builds regions of the middle ground that give the impression of being in the painted place, and the volumes are well-defined by light and shadow. There is not an extensive diversity of lines, spacing, tone and colour, and the golden mean is lost between trees, and the right border of the water fall, because this area is almost empty. Tones are proportionate; extensive light areas over less light backgrounds strengthen the remoteness of the mountain behind the water fall, and high concentration of light at the centre with a few details in the background accentuate the centre of higher interest. Warm colours are suitable for the subject, and the dominant feeling.

More equilibrium of lines, mass, tone, spacing, and colour were immediately perceptible from the visual impact in a later painting. Extensive tonalities are balanced by more reduced masses in the painting "Escuchador de aguas" 10. Although the principal element is not placed on a lighted area, the water fall and the river trapped the attention of the viewer to suggest intriguing questions on the structure of the painted place, particularly, behind the water fall. Light grey and green areas are repeated on the vegetation as "rapport". The equilibrium between vertical and horizontal lines, contrasts of tone, and the preponderance of warm colours accentuate the vitality on the surface of the river and the upper region of the painting. Tones are wide and unified, but without offering excessive resistance to detail simplifications, because the artist had not intention to show the complex richness that may be found in this environment. More emotional reactions could be obtained by taking control of the viewer's attention, thinking, and feeling through linear, tonal, and chromatic schemes.

By 2007, a parabolic shape was reaching a definitive configuration in the Sánchez's painting at the centre of the middle ground, but it was not until he painted "Contemplar y escuchar" 11, in 2011, that parabolic branches started to play a central role in his artworks. Unfortunately, any other or more subtle shapes were introduced in further compositions. In this painting, the viewer feels himself immediately lost into the background of a dazzling landscape where light and shadow works as attraction factors creating two sceneries: one in the background, and another one in the foreground, before the river's margin. The subject of this masterpiece penetrates into the subconscious almost at the same time as the viewer feels as to be into the painted place, mostly because the artist has been able to communicate a sensation of light fade-out within trees, but once again the spectator falls into an iterative loop, absent of more attractive details than the repeated little man in meditation.

The absence of a step of preparation for guiding the viewer's attention to the central elements, convincing him on the painted environment, is perceptible, and as a consequence no element of the composition take control of the subject, not to mention the poorly defined little man. The above mentioned parabola is the origin of a cluster of lines and forms that reinforces the attention centre to the background gently slipped to the upper part of the painting. This visual effect may be considered as an exceptional feature of this painting, because the viewer is not directly guided to the principal elements, but firstly, the composition forces the viewer to find the third dimension through the parabolic form, and then approach the sight to major components. Enough separation between forms and masses is clearly perceptible, but the intention to avoid solving complex elements usually present in nature demonstrates that a limited pictorial mastery was displayed in this artwork. The contours of several groups have been traced with particular care: i-) trees at both sides of the foreground, ii-) the waterfall and iii-) the river. Volumes are clearly defined with high accuracy. Lines and forms of the trees, and trees' branches are excelling in this artwork, which suggest a deep emotional compromise of the artist with the painted place. No highly sophisticated geometric arrangements seem to be present in this painting. The development in-depth of diagonal curves, delineating the margin of the river, rebounds in the middle of a succession of contrasts of light, and tone in the high-key. The balance of colour on the river's surface shows a right proportion of area and intensity that reinforce the development in-depth from the foreground to the water fall. The equilibrium of line, mass, tone, space, and colour have been more than carefully worked by this artist. Unaccountable details demonstrate the excellence on the equilibrium of each element, but the principal component is not highlighted, and the golden mean is lost between the trunks of the central trees.

Chromatic and tonal schemes transmit little emotion to the viewer, not only through the principal element, but also through the whole painted place. In most of these paintings small areas of the middle ground work as balance of extensive green tonalities, but trees do not contribute to this end, which could be strengthen with the presence of a few stones. There are not elements that enrich the authenticity of emotions transferred to the viewer by the linear, tonal, and chromatic schemes. An issue that could be easily ignored is the absence of elements that require high level of pictorial mastery in almost all these artworks: stones, entangled vegetation, sunshine, mountains, dry branches, and mirror-images of vegetation on the river. Although the time and infinity should be a major component of the subject meditation, elements suggesting a more extended time scale are absent. The lower principal element is a river where light functions amplifying the vision, as opposition to verticality, and invite to penetrate into the painted place. A relevant detail found in these paintings is the presence of vertical and horizontal acute angles that smooth abundance of vertical lines necessary for intensifying the subject. The texture of the volumes should also be mentioned with particular attention to poor diversity of the trunks' surfaces, and forms that are insufficiently defined for accentuating volume representations. Tones are of unrestricted ranges in each compartment to obtain a harmonic complementation with the subject. Equilibrium of line, mass, tone, space, and colour are not obtained by contrasts, but by smooth transitions between elements. Innovative transitions are intentionally delayed for allowing a detailed appraisal while penetrating into the painted place to understand the relevance of the process shown in the landscape.

The case shown here is a stupendous example of an artist that has been a victim of market forces, individual commercial interests, and specific preferences. In a seminal paper, Robert B Zajone wrote: "mere repeated exposure of the individual to a stimulus is a sufficient condition for the enhancement of his attitude toward it" 12. The standard commonsensical view and socio-cultural factors seem to be the origin of the human aesthetic judgments. Assuming that common sense may be affected by social processes, it's plausible to believe that an overexposure to certain types of artworks could modify individual aesthetic tastes of certain social groups. But, aesthetic value would be of little importance if we could be influenced by any type of artwork.

Aesthetic quality is an essential component of socio-cultural interactions. In addition, a distinction should be made between overexposure to aesthetic quality and to its absence. But, turning to the rational of the idea, exposure itself affects any appraisal, as may be the case of Sanchez's repeated representations of waterfalls. Better contextualization of art subjects is as essential for the future of the art world as removing a silent system of positioning a few privileged artists as holly cows and unattainable milestones for the remaining mass of invisible talent, and future generations of artists.

Endnotes

  1. Meskin, M. Phelan, M. Moore, and M. Kieran. Mere exposure to bad art. British Journal of Aesthetics. 53 (2013), pp. 139-164.

  2. Tomás Sánchez, _De la cascada viene un río_ , 1993, acrylic on canvas, 75.5 x 101.6 cm, Private collection, Key Biscayne.

  3. I.O. Rey, ed., Tomás Sánchez: Paintings, Pinturas. Palette Publications Inc., Coral Gables, 1996.

  4. G. García Márquez and E.J. Sullivan. _Tomás Sánchez_. Milan, Skira editore, 2003.

  5. Exhibition catalogue. _Tomás Sánchez_. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Monterrey 2008.

  6. Tomás Sánchez, _Luz en la cascada del río azul_ , 1996, acrylic on canvas, 91.4 x 60.9 cm, unknown location.

  7. Tomás Sánchez, _La luz sobre la cascada_ , 1996, acrylic on canvas, 70.5 x 55.8 cm, unknown location.

  8. H. Sánchez. _La naturaleza imita a Tomás Sánchez_. Revista Sol y Son (magazine). 1991, 15: 38-39.

  9. Tomás Sánchez, _Caminante y cascada_ , 2004, acrylic on paper, 38 x 28 cm, unknown location.

  10. Tomás Sánchez, _Escuchador de aguas_ , 2007, acrylic on canvas, 60.6 x 45.5 cm, unknown location.

  11. Tomás Sánchez, Contemplar y escuchar, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 61.6 x 45.7 cm, unknown location.

  12. Robert B. Zajone. Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monograph. Supplement 9, (1968), 1-27.

# Libera eos

Being sure that not all had been said in the last conversation, I decided calling Fidel Micó for making him a formal interview at the studio. The meeting was early in the morning while he was finishing another beautiful landscape painting.

JAB: You were born in 1962. Do your childhood's memories have impact in your artwork?

FM: I always wanted to paint, because I saw my mother painting when I was a child. This impressed me too much. I liked her works and paintings' smell, which awaked up my interest. The influence of my father was more careful, because he believed that painting could affect my sexual preferences in the future. That's why he asked for help to some artists that never paid attention to him. My first painting was from the image of the Fujiyama Mount. I was 8 years old. I think so. I don't know how a set of tempers fallen in my hands by that time. Far beyond that, I was limited. I had nothing to make a decision if I would be a painter or not. My devotion to painting was so high that when an old brush got in my hands, I thought immediately how to reproduce it. I looked for small pieces of wood and aluminum, and I collected my hair at the barber's shop for building my first brushes. I made the first paintings from a mixture of materials. I used bituminous resin, industrial painting, and aquarelle. I made three landscape painting for an exhibition in Santiago de Cuba.

JAB: What happened at the beginning of the studies at the Academy of Fine Art "San Alejandro"?

FM: Starting studies in this prestigious academy depended on individual results of exams applied to neophytes. These tests included painting portraits and landscapes. Students were selected according to professors' criteria. My first conflict was an incident with a professor that seemed to be educated according to the famous Makarenkov's method. I had a personal style, but he took my brush and modified my painting without any logical explanation. Fortunately, the shock of his irrational teaching method disappeared during other classes. Professors of Drawing, History of Art, and Theory of Color were excellent. The academic environment irradiated peace and sapience.

JAB: What were the first things you look at?

FM: Actually, there isn't too much to say. Maybe, because I felt that I couldn't learn all that I would like. After seven months, I had to abandon the academy to serve in the army for three years.

JAB: Do you remember professors that influenced your style and technique?

FM: I don't feel that any of them have influenced on me. To top off misfortune, major museums were closed for maintenance during my short experience at the academy. My best professors were Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898), Esteban Chartrand y Dubois (1840-1883), and Valentín Sanz Carta (1849-1898). I have studied their careers and heritage for more than 30 years. They have been my inspiration source, and I have transmitted my enthusiasm to tenths of young artists who learned from me all that I know for the sake of art.

JAB: Which of the artists of your generation do you consider among the most important?

FM: I only remember to Arturo Montoto (b. 1953) when I was a student, but I knew later on the extraordinary art of Pedro Pablo Oliva (b. 1949), and Cosme Proenza (b. 1948). Now, I can see a more compact group of young painters with a wide diversity of styles and interests. I believe that they are taking advantage of their pictorial mastery to make genre combinations that enrich subjects. I feel a deep admiration to them, and I'm happy because they can develop their art without the limitation that I faced when I was young. Basically, there were little resources and interactions between artists by that time.

JAB: You were in the army from 1980 to 1983. Weren´t you? What did you learn in the army?

FM: I learned to love peace.

JAB: Did you show your work at exhibitions in the 90s?

FM: Yes, I was accepted as member of the Cuban Association of Artists and Craftsmen (ACAA), the National Cultural Fund, and the Center for Visual Art Development. My works were included in the Catalogue of the Gallery "Victor Manuel" in 1993. Six years later, I showed my works at the exhibition of landscape painting at the Castle "La Cabaña".

JAB: Could you tell me about your first prize or recognition? What did it mean for you?

FM: That was in 1974. My father thought that I would be happy with the recognition, but I was uncomfortable, because the first prize was granted to some one that showed something like a "management's landscape". Maybe that was the rarest painting that I have seen in my life, particularly because the exhibition was in honor of the great master Leopoldo Romañach (1862-1951). I had a privileged opportunity to meet painters from many regions of the country who showed artworks with exceptional quality and beauty, in line with the letter of convocation.

JAB: Have you been in other countries?

FM: No, I haven't ever been in other countries.

JAB: What has been the impact of the Cuban landscape in your painting?

FM: It's idyllic as a model for painting. I have found a huge diversity in our landscapes, especially, in mountain regions. The great amount of rivers, waterfalls, humid soils, and woods make available abundant elements for building unique composition to represent any subject. There are 627 endemic species of trees, and during the last decade more than 3 000 species of plants and animals have been discovered, including 350 species of birds, 121 reptiles, 46 amphibians, and 42 mammalian. Extensive territories are protected by scientists in Guanahacabibes, Sierra del Rosario, Península de Zapata, Buenavista, Baconao, and _Cuchillas del Toa._ These landscapes are true sanctuaries of natural equilibrium where any painter can find the necessary peace to create art.

JAB: Do you think of yourself as forming part of a long tradition of landscape painting?

FM: Yes, I feel myself as a continuer of this genre. I always remember José Martí when he wrote: "the painter who wants to be more than just a portraitist should accustom the brush to the richness, mobility, light strokes, and contrasts of color" 1. In a letter sent to his friend Manuel Mercado, he wrote: "Those who feel nature should love it; dawns and eventides are the actual studies of an artist; a painter at the studio is a sick eagle". I believe that landscape painting is a genre as valuable as any other genre. In addition, I defend it as a genre of high aesthetic value that requires artists with true devotion to painting.

JAB: Is there any landscape painter in whose work you have particular interest?

FM: The work of Ernesto Estevez is highly relevant, and contributions of Dionel González are very interesting. I think that Dionel is one of the most important artists among the youngest landscapists. Generally speaking, the Cuban movement "Horizontes" should be followed with attention by critics and scholars.

JAB: I have observed that you paint at night, and finish in the morning. Could you tell about your daily routines?

FM: I never follow a particular regularity. I paint always I have the opportunity to dedicate time to art. I would like having the opportunity to be always painting, but this is not always possible.

JAB: Are you able to work in absence of natural light?

FM: I take advantage of the natural light if possible, but I can also work with artificial light, according to the available time. I would like to have modern lamps that imitate natural light with automatic control of intensity. It would be great!

JAB: What role does drawing play in your work?

FM: I recognize, at least, three methods to create a landscape painting. First, impressionism doesn't tight the painter to the narrow constrains of a drawing. The artist only marks the most important elements and details. Second, a more realist style imply a more define drawing to benefit details of the painting. Finally, drawing and apply color results in a colored drawing where line is the most important issue. I have worked mix techniques having, basically, two alternatives after drawing: using the second method (realist) or coloring the drawing whereas using brush, pallet-knife or both.

JAB: Does abstraction play a conscious role in your art?

FM: My opinion is... I feel respect to any person that tries to make something on a canvas, if this person respects himself. I like impressionist landscapes. Their shadows capture my attention. They have been fundamental inspiration sources, and would like painting impressionist landscapes, but it's difficult, although some argue the contrary. I've paid particular attention to Bonnard's works, and notes on the development in-depth and unity.

JAB: Have you thought on changing the current direction of your work?

FM: I have also wanted to work as goldsmith, sculptor, and potter. I like also conceptual painting, especially on ecologic subjects. I have worked on this, two times: "Otra oportunidad", and "El poder de la naturaleza". I have a dream that I would like to become into reality. I would like to create a brotherhood of painters, sculptors, and other visual artists for increasing our interactions and commitment with more ambitious visions and milestones.

JAB: Do you think that market pressures have played a role on deciding what or how you are going to paint?

FM: The pressure has been massive, particularly in the last five years. Only if an artist can show good auction records, it is possible using more time to perform authentic art. I hope receiving more recognition of my work to be free from the current requirements of the art market. At present, I can only say "Libera eos", but the sacrificed paintings have been more than twelve.

Endnote

Martí J. _Una visita a la exposición de bellas artes_. Revista Universal. México, 29th December, 1875.

#  Painting appraisal

A check list containing relevant issues may be a powerful tool for writers trying to arrange the structure of an article dealing with paintings. The following check list could open more pathways to abandon silence's labyrinths:

Visual impact

  1. What is your perception during the first 5 seconds?

  2. Does this artwork deserve a deeper study?

  3. What is the influence of the following factors?

 Arrangement of light and shadow.

 Subject.

 Lines.

 Forms.

 Colour.

Visual pathway

  4. Is the focus placed according to a relationship with lines and forms?

  5. Is the sight guided to the focus?

  6. Is there an interesting visual pathway?

  7. Are there lines and forms guiding the sight to the frame or outside of the painting?

Subject

  8. Is it interesting?

  9. What is the dominant feeling?

  10. Does the tonal scheme express the dominant feeling?

  11. Are there exaggerations, repetitions, and imitations?

  12. What correction would perform to obtain more advantageous conditions of light and environment?

  13. Is there a suitable colour scheme?

  14. Is the frame orientation pertinent for emphasizing the subject?

Structure

  15. Is there an interesting arrangement of lines?

  16. Are elements placed on the focus?

  17. Are there well-defined lines trending to generate a disturbing effect?

  18. Is there enough separation between masses and forms to prevent confusion of identity?

  19. Are there interesting contours of forms within groups?

  20. Are necessary more defined forms for emphasizing volume representation?

  21. Has unity been highlighted?

Diversity

  22. Is there diversity of lines, spacing, tone, and colour?

  23. Are space compartments placed according to satisfactory relationships?

Balance

  24. Are there balances of lines, spacing, masses, tones, and colours?

Tone

  25. What is the dominant key?

  26. Is the key pertinent?

  27. Are there interesting relationships of light, half-tonne, shadow, and colour?

Unity

  28. Is there unity of subject?

  29. Are tones wide and unified?

  30. Are details simplified?

  31. Has been harmony obtained by continuity or by repetition of lines, rhythms, and cohesion of forms, tones, and colours?

Emotion

  32. Is there an emotive reaction created by linear, tonal, and chromatic schemes?

  33. Is there a relationship between the subject, and the emotive reaction?

Virtuosity

  34. Is there vitality?

  35. Is there repose?

  36. Is there infinity?

Chiaroscuro

From left to right and from right to left:

  37. Are there warm or cold tones?

  38. What colour combinations were used?

  39. Do forms start from bright or form dark points?

  40. Do forms reach maximum intensity?

  41. Did the artist use colour variations during intensity's advance of every form?

  42. Is there a logic development of light?

  43. How much extensive are light runs?

  44. Where are brightest and darkest elements?

  45. Have brightest and darkest elements similar significance in every compartment?

  46. What elements of each bright and dark part of the painting function by modulating light intensity?

  47. What elements suggest development in-depth?

  48. How was the third dimension introduced?

  49. How much extensive are chiaroscuro runs?

  50. Where chiaroscuro stelas vanish?

Colour

  51. What colours can be differentiated?

  52. Are there chromatic contrasts?

  53. Is there any glass prim?

  54. Which are the extreme regions of colour?

  55. What is the function of these extreme regions of colour?

 Reference point.

 Architectonic support.

 Critical issue.

 Scale.

 Virtual existence.

  56. What colours were used?

 Violet.

 Blue.

 Yellow.

 Orange.

 Red.

  57. Are there chromatic vibrations: sparkles from pure colours?

  58. Are there detonating colours contributing to vitality by contrast?

  59. What colours were used for animation of those that were softened?

  60. What colours were used for highlighting forms instead of thickness imitations?

  61. Is object's thickness represented by coloured plans?

  62. Is there multiplicity of brush strokes by using the same colour?

Purpose

  63. Is there sincerity or changes such as transitions from chiaroscuro to colour from a compartment to the next one?

  64. Are there perceptible changes of pictorial resources?

Compartments

  65. Is there continuity between compartments?

  66. Are there projections of elements between compartments?

  67. Is there continuity of tonality, shadow, light, decoration, and rhythm?

Screens

  68. Are there dark bodies over clear fields or the contrary?

  69. Are these bodies pushed toward the foreground in search for the third dimension?

  70. How were built screens alternating clear and dark regions from the background?

  71. Is there monotony in the juxtaposition of screens?

  72. Does the sight find the background immediately or it finds resistance in search for the third dimension?

  73. Is the third dimension suggested or imitated?

  74. How volume balance was made?

  75. Which volumes are projected over plans containing other elements?

Transitions

  76. Is there atmospheric fluidity?

  77. Do colours vanish?

  78. Are there tones extended form objects?

  79. Are lines subordinated to transitions?

Light

  80. Have clear and dark plans been brained?

  81. Did the painter find vanishing of objects?

  82. Is there false delineation?

  83. Are there link points between foreground and background?

  84. Where objects actually drawn or only those known details of objects?

  85. Spherical and cylindrical contours are respected?

Light-Colour

  86. Is light represented by warm or by cold colours?

  87. Is there chromatic discipline?

  88. Where are transitions?

  89. Are there Rubens' proportions (2/3 half-tonne and 1/3 light and shadow)?

  90. Is present the Cézanne's postulate?

"Interpret nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone; put everything in perspective, so that each side of an object, of a plane, recedes toward a central point."

  91. What colours are hierarchical (maximum, middle, and suggested)?

  92. How does grey participate?

 As a support.

 In chromatic harmony.

 As part of the colour composition.

 As isolated pure tonnes.

 As opposition to interference.

Drawing

  93. Are contours completely delineated?

  94. Are forms subordinated to light and shadow?

  95. What elements are dominant?

 Chiaroscuro.

 Colour.

 Decoration.

  96. Is there geometric definition of objects (sharp, spherical, cylindrical, etc.)?

  97. Are objects convincing to the viewer?

  98. Are there enough specific elements in the definition of every object?

  99. Is there enough differentiation between objects?

  100. Are similar objects systematically highlighted?

#  Writing style

Finding suitable words to express our thought on art is usually a hard and time consuming task. Sentences, commonly used in art publications, may be comfortable models for building our must authentic opinions, avoiding plagiarism. As may be easily noted, there are too many things to say on every artwork. A recommended structural model of a manuscript on paintings could be the following:

Paragraph 1:

  * Identify and describe the principal element.

  * Write on the relation between the principal element and the others.

  * Suggest how the painter obtained unity.

Paragraph 2:

  * Include argument from other author dealing with colour, tone, line, etc.

  * Find a weak point in the argument of the other author or some issue that was not taken into account.

Paragraph 3:

  * Influence of the author on the contemporary critics.

  * Include argument from a second author dealing with the weak point discussed in paragraph 2.

  * Write on a wider and deeper vision than the second author's argument, base on the intention of the painter.

  * Find confirmation of your vision in other contemporary paintings,

Paragraph 4:

  * How does the painter combine his/her knowledge with his/her interests?

  * Include an example of the previous statement.

  * Include the opinion of a third author on the previous example.

  * Significance of other elements in the second painting.

  * Describe the principal element in the second painting.

  * What knowledge is combined in the second painting?

Paragraph 5:

  * When was finished the second painting and when was shown in exhibition the first one?

  * Explain similarities and differences between both artworks.

Paragraph 6:

  * Relationship between the principal element and other elements in the second painting.

  * Write on other paintings where the artist represented similar relationship.

Paragraph 7:

  * Describe the painting, including other elements (animals, plants, rivers, etc).

  * Did the artist introduced change of colour in any element?

  * Any useful information on the elements described.

Paragraph 8:

  * Relationship between elements of a third painting that suggests the intention of the artist to express a message.

  * Other paintings where this relationship cab be found.

Paragraph 9:

  * Continue arguing on the relationship suggested in paragraph 8.

  * Include reference to a fourth author for confirmation of the arguments.

Paragraph 10:

  * Find relationship between the elements of the painting describing its similarities with the previous examples and arguments.

Paragraph 11:

  * Write on artworks from other artists dealing with the same subject, and explain its respective significance.

Paragraph 12:

  * Speculate on friendship, competence, rivalry between above mention artists.

Paragraph 13:

  * Similarities and differences between artists dealing with the same subject.

Paragraph 14:

  * Other painting where the artist use similar elements to communicate a different message.

Paragraph 15:

  * Turn to the subject of the first painting deepening the analysis of the subject.

Paragraph 16 and 17:

  * Description based on colour of the elements around the principal element.

  * Turn to the relationship between secondary elements of the first painting.

Although the probability that an editor assign a descent space to young or little noted writers is too low, the principal challenge should not be forgotten: evaluate artists and artworks. Finding meaning and developing logical explanations on its relevance increase the reader's understanding of art which functions as the cultural engine of every society, because your reader may be a neophyte, but he/she may also be writer, poet, musician, movie maker or any other influential person. Transforming visual into written language not only requires solid intellectual background on History of Art, but also visionary thoughts on the future evolution of the contemporary art. Attention to every detail of an artwork is the information source for building a beautiful and rational description that will eventually make justice to the effort of the artist.

A thesis or hypothesis on the artist career is the starting point for making a relevant contribution to the field. Evidences may guide you to suppose that something has not previously been reported in the literature or that it was not sufficiently explained. In any case, this could be your opportunity to open a new research field, or at least, proposing further discussions to a broad audience. It may be advisable following a writing model to obtain a precision and clarity that convey the truth as simple as possible.

First of all, findings should be reported without comment, bias, or interpretation, saving conclusions for further paragraphs. A verbal summary of evidences is unavoidable, because the text should be understandable by someone who has not seen them. All findings should be presented, including those that do not support the initial hypothesis. Obviously, statements made in the text must be supported by evidences. The next step is evaluating the meaning of findings in terms of the original thesis or hypothesis and point out their aesthetic significance. This evaluation should include the relationship between evidences and the original hypothesis, whether they support it, or cause it to be rejected or modified. An integration of findings with those of previous studies may guide writers to explanations that give form to intelligent and pleasant manuscripts on visual art. Closing this essential part of the manuscript requires summarizing the principal points that writers want readers to remember, and proposing specific further study if that will serve some purpose.

Making comparison and contrast between artworks requires substantial comparative judgment of the works, which may give rise to a hypothesis. This could be based on the appraisal of the works in relation to each other and to human condition, culture, and history. In this case, an overlapping between evidence and interpretation may be necessary, but it must at all time relate to the hypothesis. A well thought-out combination of elements (line, colour, contrast, etc) including all artworks under analysis will led to a more understandable text. A critical issue should not be ignored: the comparison must put at test the hypothesis.

Persuading readers to understand a specific issue according to the writer's point of view should be the aim of writing on visual art. Difference in the focus of a potential debates may help to distinguish between a central idea and a thesis. Disagreement on thesis come from the thought itself, but central ideas must be adequately explained and illustrated through descriptions, criticism, and analysis. Disagreements on a thesis come from the very nature of its claim, and not from evidences.

Relationship between formal parts of an artwork, to create novel and interesting ways of seeing and understanding art, may be the central idea of a manuscript. This type of text is usually named formal analysis of artworks. Transcendence of an artist belonging to a social or artistic group, during a historical period, may be the central idea of a manuscript on visual art. In this case, a deep research on the most polemic issues of the society (justice, censorship, discrimination, etc) should be the backbone of argumentations. The influence of an artist's life on the evolution of art may be the subject of essays for discovering unexpected driving forces of artistic movements.

#  Provenance research

Writers on visual art would be innocents if they believe that silence is a young devil that can be defeated only by heart-felt writing. On the contrary, much more is needed to shake it. Silence is not just a serial killer of artists, it has commanded diabolic armies since a long time ago, and most importantly, it has a plan: victory can only be obtained by destroying the cultural heritage of countries. Serious research and meticulous documentation on the provenance of every artwork is the first line of defence against silence's attacks and its consequences. Results of investigations on the provenance gaps from 1933-1945 (Nazi era) are notable evidences of the damage that silence may cause over extensive territories in a short period of time without being noticed by the art world.

Although it seems to be difficult to believe, there is not a prescribed methodology for provenance research, because every artwork is essentially different: gaps may be found in any period of time at any place, and data on artists, artworks, transactions, exhibitions, and documentation are highly specific issues that should be studied on a case by case basis. The primary aim of this investigation is to know who has benefited from the artwork, from its creation date: the history of ownership. The most primary source of art provenance is library, but some problems could be serious obstacles. Most libraries are reluctant to catalogue ephemeral information such as pamphlets and catalogues. Although the American Association of Museums has recommended not using libraries for provenance research, their staff may perform several useful functions: research support, bibliography search, workshops, and collaborations of mutual benefit. The most abundant resources in art libraries are catalogue raisonnée, monographs, exhibition catalogues, journals, newspapers, photographic archives, inventories, and online resources. The type of available information at the beginning of the research project defines the starting point. The following resources have been recommended for art provenance research:

  1. The Getty Provenance Index Databases Online.

  2. Yeide, Nancy H., et al. The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2001.

  3. Yeide, Nancy H., et al. Vitalizing Memory. Washington D.C.: American Association of Museums, 2005.

  4. IFAR Journal. International Foundation for Art Research. New York.

  5. J. Paul Getty Trust, Getty Art History Information Program, and Institut de l'information scientifique et technique. Bibliography of the History of Art. Santa Monica, CA: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1996.

  6. Turner, Jane. The Dictionary of Art. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1996.

  7. Art Index. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1932.

  8. Art Abstracts and Art Full Text Databases.

  9. Metropolitan Museum of Art: Provenance Research Project.

  10. Nazi-Era Provenance Portal.

  11. National Gallery of Art Catalogue Online.

  12. Bénézit, E., et al. Dictionary of Artists. Paris: Grund, 2006.

  13. Klimt, Andreas, Michael Steppes, and K.G. Saur Verlag. The Artists of the World: Bio-Bibliographical Index A-Z. Munich: K.G. Saur, 1999.

  14. Graves, Algernon. Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century. London: A. Graves, 1918.

  15. Sale Catalogues Index Project (SCIPIO).

  16. Museum news.

  17. The art newspaper.

  18. Art Documentation.

  19. The Art Lost Register.

  20. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Provenance Research Project.

  21. Los Angeles County Art Museum Art Provenance Project.

  22. The Art Institute if Chicago Provenance Research.

  23. The National Archives Art Provenance and Claims Research Project.

  24. The National Gallery of Canada's Provenance Research Project.

  25. Musées nationaux Récupération.

  26. Wayne, Kenneth. New Realities for the Art Museum. Vol. 22, 2003.

  27. Art Libraries Journal.

  28. The Gallery's Witt Microfiche Photography Library.

  29. The Cultural Property Advice. Museums, Libraries, and Archives Association.

Misidentification, misattribution and lost documentation are frequent events during the lifetime of an artwork. Therefore, critical examination and analysis of every artwork, and its documentation must not be performed as a formal step of art provenance research. Building collaboration networks with libraries and other researchers expand every search, and increase the probability of finding relevant evidences.

Once the starting point has been defined from the known information, coincidence between the physical object and the available information must be verified; every period of time must be providently documented, and every previous provenance research must be critically analyzed to avoid carrying mistakes from one record to the next. It is not only imperative reporting discoveries and corrections to precedent information, but also gaps in provenance, conflicting records should be mentioned. There is a natural human trend to silence contradictory results, incomplete information or illogical conclusions, because we also need recognition to our efforts, but this is unacceptable in provenance research. An apparently trivial detail may be the only available connection with an unknown relevant fact. In every case, all available information should be recorded, because nobody knows what later will become an ignored detail.

At this point, the research may take two alternative pathways, depending on the problem under investigation and its practical constrains. If researchers know the current location of an artwork, and need finding out previous owners, they must work backward. On the contrary, if they know previous location of the artwork, and wants to know where it is currently located, working forward would be the best research method. Working backward requires collecting information from the physical object: medium, signature, size, style, noticeable repairs, markings, formal description of the artwork, notes on the back, and any other detail that could seem to be irrelevant at first sight.

Every detail is a track to be followed by using the above mention information sources in libraries. Invaluable information can be found by answering: where did the artist live and work? What collectors did specialized in the artist or his genre? Knowing the current owner of the piece, the following step could be to know: how did he/she acquire the artwork? Who was the previous owner? In this way, every answer may raise more useful questions for building the history of an artwork, which will surely be connected to others. These results, derived from the principal investigation, may be the starting point for a collaborative interaction with other researchers and libraries. Arranging a dynamic network with colleagues and institutions may supply an extra synergic power to every connected research project.

Working forward follows similar logics, if the researcher begins by documenting available data. First, a confirmed location must be established in a defined period of time. Assuming that the title and artist's name are known, the following questions could be: where did the artist live? What collectors have been interested the artist? Henceforth, photography of the artwork would be a great help for documenting details that guide the research to additional information sources. Although archives of images are not available in every country, finding the catalogue raisonnée of the artist put the research in the right road.

Although expensive, and scarce, a catalogue raisonnée is a primary source in any research on Art History. This is usually a book written by a scholar whose opinions must be based on a "comprehensive firsthand knowledge of the entire body of the artist's work from the beginning to the end of the artist's career, in all media", according to the CRSA. The content of this document includes: biography of the artist, chronology of historic events, collections, exhibitions, publications, project profile, and catalogue raisonnée. Certainly, finding a catalogue raisonnée of the artist under investigation introduces a radical inflexion point on the provenance research. Collaboration with the researcher in charge of the project could also contribute additional information on:

  1. Overall pattern of ownership.

  2. Anomalies.

  3. Working at the artist's studio.

  4. Interactions with other artists.

  5. Techniques used at the artist's studio.

  6. Signature and marking practices.

  7. Evolution of the artist's market.

  8. Owners and other unpublished information.

A second strong evidence source is provenance research performed by a museum. The most important institutions have published findings on their collections and the corresponding research procedures. Notable examples of this practice are Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and J Paul Getty Museum. In this case, careful attention should be paid to the following issues: previous owners of the artwork, reattribution, versions of the artwork, series of works, and collector's homes. These are subtle details may guide researchers to the pathway of other researchers which may be the beginning of fruitful collaborations for accelerating several investigations at the same time, because coincidences lead to additional clues. A librarian is a critical factor in any provenance research, because their extensive knowledge on the infinity of interconnections between different information sources, and search strategies.

#  Project profile

A Catalogue Raisonnée is a research project that can be opened by independent scholars for understanding art. The researcher in charge of the project usually entitle it with the artist's name, publish all results and reports it to libraries, because this is the primary information source for other researchers, museums, and other factors of the art world. Here, a sample project is presented for improving practical understanding on art provenance research working backward, but also forward, as a prophylaxis against silence.

"The Fidel Micó Catalogue Raisonnée" (FMCR) was opened in 2009, published in 2014, and has been submitted for review by members of the Catalogue Raisonnée Scholars Association, and the International Foundation for Art Research. Fidel Micó's style has been always evolving. If several paintings from the same year are compared, we can find a continue experimentation on composition issues. The apparently simple landscapes "Al cantío de un gallo", "Amanecer en la sierra", and "Camino a la laguna", painted in 2 000, show his ability to change the position of a single tree and a few palms with different intentions. However, at present, he is more interested on using his pictorial mastery for representing universal, civilizing, and educative messages as his contribution for humankind improvement. He has been collecting opinions on his paintings "El poder de la naturaleza", and "Otra oportunidad" before starting his next conceptual paintings. The paintings "La Maja del Río", "La roca del Diablo", and "Festín de gaviotas" demonstrate that a human, a rock, and a few birds can be principal elements of landscapes under different chromatic schemes, at least, in middle ground and foreground.

Black and white photo of Fidel Micó painting his mother by using rudimentary materials and industrial paintings in 1972.

Concerning to techniques, we must confess that nothing compares with a day observing him at the studio. Certainly, Micó was born for painting, and we have not been able to decode his method, maybe because he never makes sketches, notes, calculations or action plans. He just starts working "a la prima", like an impressionist, but painting with realism and authenticity. He painted an undetermined amount of murals when he was serving in the army (1980 – 1983), working at the oil refinery of Havana (1983-1985), and during the 90s, that could deserve further study.

This project has been opened to explore the artist's work in the last 40 years. The project began 5 years ago from interviews at the artist's studio. Although best known (but, little noted) as a landscape painter, Micó has also worked on genres combinations, and figurative. The FMCR will comprise his entire body of works created from 1972 to 2014, including an undetermined amount of oil on canvases that could be higher than 2 000. New information will be added every year until research is complete (expected 2020).

The first edition has been published available for free download at the website The Art Room Telford including results from 2000 to 2014, leaving three decades undocumented. This preliminary publication may encourage owners of Micó's artworks to supply information and images to the project for further research that could be mostly focused on collectors and galleries from Cuba, USA, Mexico, and Spain. We are lucky to have the artist's record and his better memory to add depth and context to our daily research. Our current tangible assets are a few printed publications in Art Nexus, and Art Circuit Newsletters, more than 8 600 web pages, advertising of exhibitions, and the Micó's family involvement, but the project has not even received support.

This project has been intended to improve the public understanding of the Micó's work. We start to understand the importance of a permanent and comfortable studio when we know on his frequent changes of home address, and dimensions of his current painting room (2.0 x 2.0 x 2.4 m). His spontaneous development from 10 years old, without any advice and formal training and his devotion for teaching many young artists without asking anything in exchange afford relevant insights into how Micó's living and work continue to resonate within the contemporary art. We hope that the FMCR shows a good sense of how Micó's method and practice has been throughout his lifetime working in different formats, and genre's combinations, ranging from landscape to figurative.

The FMCR has been written in a way that shows what he was working on each year alongside what he was showing in exhibitions. The work has been divided in three simple parts (biography, chronology, and Catalogue Raisonné) to facilitate a comprehensive approach to the artist's career.

The example corresponds to a lifetime catalogue raisonnée that will be invaluable for further research and posthumous recognition of the artist. This section should start from a contextualization of the research project to facilitate understanding the commitment of the researcher. An analysis of the most general characteristics of the artist's career gives insights on his/her relevance and contribution to the Art History. Visual evidences could be essential for arguing relevant facts explained in the text. The artist's technique and provenance gaps should be explained as clearly as possible, because this is critical for further verifications and comparisons. The remaining parts of this section should be devoted to the scope of the project, information source, sponsorship, and major findings during the investigation. This section should be written with the intention of preparing the reader for understanding the most relevant facts of the artist's biography.

# Biography

A biography should contain brief statements, according to a chronological order, without extensive explanations of every detail. This section usually starts positioning the artist within an artistic movement, but in the following example a more important fact has been highlighted because it may affect the artist career and create serious confusion on the identity of the artist.

Fidel Micó (b. 1962) was not born in 1945 as reported by the Davenport's Art Reference & Price Guide (USA) from 2010. He is an ambitextrous painter and is regarded as one of the prominent figures of an artistic movement that includes more than 50 landscape painters (see Annex) whose excellent representation of the Cuban nature has formed the basis for the revival of landscape painting after the 1980s. Born in Havana, Cuba, in January 24th, 1962. He has always lived in Cuba where he received the "Leopoldo Romañach" Award in 1974 five years before starting formal training at the Academy of Fine Art "San Alejandro". After finishing military service in the Army, where he continues painting murals, Micó had to work in the oil industry, but he did never abandon the pictorial art. His paintings decorate many house of Havana since that time.

Micó built a personal style in the 90s, by studying the Russian painter Ivan Shishkins and impressionists, and his artworks were accepted at Víctor Manuel Gallery (Havana, Cuba) by 1998, and in many artistic spaces from 1999. His paintings have been in national and international exhibitions. The Cuban galleries "HER-CAR", "Casa Museo Hurón Azul", "La Acacia", "Víctor Manuel", and "Génesis" have included his paintings in several exhibitions devoted to the Cuban landscape. Micó's paintings can be found at the USA galleries "Jorge M Sori Fine Art" and "Cuba! Gallery of Fine Art", and in private collections from Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada, China, USA, Russia, Mexico, and El Salvador. Seven of these paintings have been sold at private silent auctions, as well as the "Humidor Montecristo" created by him. From 2006, the magazines Art Nexus and Art Circuits Newsletters have paid particular attention to his artworks which have been reproduced as a notable example of the excellence that is showing the contemporary Cuban art. Fidel Micó remains active artistically, intellectually, and professionally by painting, studying, and testing innovative pictorial pathways.

The beginning of the artist's career including his/her motivation, formal training, influences, first exhibition, award, and initial recognition as a professional artist may be the second part of this section. The following text may deal with the artist's life, and its influence on his artworks and style development. As a final paragraph, intellectual and teaching activity of the artist, if there was any, helps to understand his/her interactions with the art world in the period under investigation.

# Chronology

Maybe this is the most important section of the document, because chronology is the reference system for finding unexpected relationships between events that influenced on the artist's career. Chronology includes exhibitions of the artist's work, and major historic and cultural events during his/her lifetime. Fragments of peer-review articles dealing with the artist, press releases, reproductions in books and magazines, artist's critical writings and opinions, relevant changes of style and genre, controversial events, museum purchases, and donations should be included in this section, because any detail may be the starting point for future research. Documenting interactions between the artist and academic environments may contribute critical evidence on the intention of the artist while working at the studio. The following chronology is an example of the abundance of provenance gaps in the career of the painter Fidel Micó, but it is also a source details that have given rise to more questions, not only on the artist and his work, but also on the revival of a little noted artistic movement that include more than 50 landscape painters.

Fidel Micó (b. 1962, January 24th, 1962, Havana, Cuba).

1972 July. Cuba was accepted as permanent member of the Council of Mutual Economic Support (CAME).

Fidel Micó develops a spontaneous interest on painting portraits by using rudimentary materials and industrial paintings, without receiving professional advice and formal training. Micó accepts the challenge of painting a Spanish actress from a small photo. He also painted his mother, and every object that was interesting for him.

Micó and his father visit the house of a famous Cuban painter, but they did not receive attention at all. He has never forgotten this awful moment of his life, which has always encouraged him to pay attention to every young artist that visits him.

1974-Panamá (August 22nd), Bahamas (November 30th), and Venezuela (Dicembre 30th) restart diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Fidel Micó receives the "Leopoldo Romañach" Award.

1975-The Cuban editorial industry published 700 titles (50 million books), and the Cuban visual art reached its "gold age" of creation.

1976 October 6 Two terrorist bombs exploded aboard a Cuban civilian airliner, "Cubana de Aviación" Flight 455, which had just taken off from Barbados. All 78 on board were killed, including the crew, the entire Cuban junior fencing team, and various citizens of Cuba, North Korea and Guyana.

Wifredo Lam's artworks are published in books written by Gabriel García Márquez: "Contra una casa seca", "De la Sagrada Familia al derecho a la pereza de René Char", and "El Último Viaje del buque fantasma".

August. The Cuban government sends troops to Angola for defending independence of the country from a South African invasion.

December 2 Foundation of the Cuban Parliament and approval of a new Constitution of the Republic.

1979 September 1. Fidel Micó begins formal training at the Academy of Fine Art "San Alejandro".

1980-Peru Embassy in Havana is assaulted and the Cuban government approves migration through the Port of Mariel.

Fidel Micó leaves the Academy for three years to comply with military service, but continues painting oil on canvases and murals in the army.

1982 December 8. Official funerals are organized in Havana, after Wifredo Lam dead. His ashes were deposited in the cemetery "Cristobal Colón".

1983-Micó gets married with Teresa Jaret.

September 13 His son, the painter Michel Micó Jaret, is born.

1984-First Biennale of Havana is devoted to Latin America. More than 800 artists with a total of 2000 artworks were present at this international event.

1985-November 22. The Cuban newspaper "Granma" highlights murals painted by Fidel Micó at the Oil Refinery of Havana, Cuba.

Octavio Borges Pérez (Reporter, AIN). "Un estado permanente de agitación". Granma, November 22nd, 1985.

"Desde que se entra a los locales del Buró Sindical de la Empresa Productora de Derivados del Petróleo Ñico López, la clásica antorcha de la rada habanera, se percibe un grato ambiente hospitalario. La paredes están cubiertas de una pintura mural de gran atractivo, obra de un joven, Fidel Micó, alérgico a que le tomen fotografías personales, pero con una destreza y amor por su afición plástica que incitan la admiración de sus compañeros de trabajo y de los visitantes".

1986-Second Biennale of Havana is extended to artists from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. More than 700 artists from 56 countries were present at this second edition.

1993-Micó is accepted as member of Cuban Association of Artists and Craftsmen (ACAA). National Cultural Fund, and Center for Visual Art Development.

Micó is included in the Catalogue of the Gallery "Víctor Manuel", Havana, Cuba.

1994-Micó gets divorced, and married with Lidia Urrutia.

1996-Fidel Castro Ruz has a historic meeting with the Pope Juan Pablo II in Rome, and they agree on a next visit to Havana in 1997.

1997-A team of Cuban and Argentine forensic scientists finds the body of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna and six comrades, near from "Valle Grande", Bolivia.

January 4 Micó's daughter, Daniela Micó Urrutia, is born.

1998-The Pope Juan Pablo II visits Cuba.

1999-IX Ibero-American Conference of 23 countries.

Fidel Micó participates in the exhibition of landscape painting at the castle "La Cabaña", Havana, Cuba.

2000-VII Bienal de la Habana, Galería Victor Manuel, Havana, Cuba.

2001-Group Exhibition "Landscape Painting", Casa de la cultura de Arroyo Naranjo, Havana, Cuba.

"VI Competence on Painting and Drawing", Casa Museo Hurón Azul, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition "Homenaje al 40 aniversario de la UNEAC", Casa Cultura Arroyo Naranjo, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition "Primer Salón de Pintura", Galería HER-CAR, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition "Colectivo plástico Carlos Enríquez", Casa Museo Hurón Azul, Havana, Cuba.

2003-Group Exhibition "Concurso de Pintura y Dibujo: Combate", Casa Museo Hurón Azul, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition "Entornos", Hotel Parque Central, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition "Primer Salón de Paisajes Víctor Manuel", Convento San Francisco de Asís, Havana, Cuba.

2004-Group Exhibition "Primavera en Arroyo", Galería HER-CAR, Havana, Cuba.

2005-Group Exhibition "Segundo Salón Nacional de Paisaje Víctor Manuel", Convento San Francisco de Asís, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition "Paisajes Primavera", Galería La Acacia, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition "Efectos secundarios", Registro Nacional de Bienes Culturales, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition, "Artbo 2005", Feria Internacional de Arte de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia.

2006-Group Exhibition "Latin American Artists", Jorge M Sori Fine Art Gallery, Miami, U.S.A.

2007-Group Exhibition "Latin American Artists", Jorge M Sori Fine Arts Gallery, Miami, U.S.A.

2008-Group Exhibition "Cada quien con su paisaje", Galería La Acacia, Havana, Cuba.

July. The Cuban newspaper "Tribuna de la Habana" publishes a critical comment on the Micó's painting "La Despedida en la Moca".

Angela Capote. Enfoques del Paisaje. Tribuna de la Habana, July 13th, 2008.

"Puede observarse desde la poética de un bucolismo que imbrica la apropiación de recursos académicos con un vuelo imaginativo que se regodea en un juego de planos, capaz de detener el paso del visitante, como ocurre en La Despedida, de Fidel Micó, provista de un engamado armónico por las sutilezas de las tonalidades."

Black September. Jenny Anderson, Eric Dash and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Lehman Files for Bankruptcy; Merrill Is Sold. The New York Times. September 14th, 2008.

"In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street's history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself on Sunday to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer."

December 31 - Group Exhibition "Renowned Latin American Artists", Jorge M. Sori Fine Arts Gallery, Miami, U.S.A.

2009 February \- Auction of the "Humidor Montecristo" designed by the artist José Ernesto Aguilera Reina, and created by Fidel Micó. Sold for € 120 000 to a Canadian collector at the "XI Festival del Habano", La Habana, Cuba.

Publications of February 28th, 2009.

Cuban News Agency. Cigar Auction rises close to 1 million Euros for Cuban health service.

Mitchell Orchant. XI Festival Gala dinner and auction. C.Cigars Ltd Cigar Blog.

Roberto F. Campos. Cigar Auction to Fund Cuban Health. Cigars Weekly News.

Anne-Marie Garcia. Subasta puros cubanos recauda 1.2 millones de dólares. El Nacional (R. Dominicana).

Group Exhibition "Cuban Visions", Cuban Embassy, Doha, Qatar.

Group Exhibition "13th Moscow Fair of Art", Central House of the Artist, Moscow, Russia.

September 24th. Cubaminrex-Embacuba Rusia-PL. Cuba explora mercado de artes ruso. Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs.

"Cuba explora posibilidades para sus obras de arte en esta primera incursión en el mercado ruso, con una muestra representativa de los pintores de la isla en la exposición Arte-Moscú, inaugurada hoy en esta capital... Además de los cuadros de Montoto y los jóvenes valores Racial Gómez Golpe y Kelvin López, la exposición contó con las muestras de Luis Antonio Espinosa, con los acrílicos Atardecer, Árboles sobre el brillo del lago y Atardecer sobre dos líneas del paisaje. También exponen Fidel Micó, con La Despedida, en óleo/tela, Alan Manuel González, con Hay bajo el sol un momento para todos, Lester Campa, con Transición, y Roberto Fabelo, con Retratos locos. Además, se presenta una obra intitulada de Jorge Rigol, de 1957, dos de Luis Martínez Pedro, de 1969 y 1971, una de 1963 y otra de 1980, de Raúl Milián, así como composiciones de Zaida del Río, Eduardo Roca, Gilberto Frometa y Julio Valdés, entre otros."

2010-Group Exhibition Salón de Paisaje "170 Aniversario del Natalicio del Insigne Pintor Esteban Chartrand", Salón Blanco del Convento de San Francisco de Asís, Havana, Cuba.

Micó's wife is diagnosed with breast cancer. He stops painting, and break every compromise to care his wife. Fortunately, she survives, and Micó's restarted his career, but dealers and collectors had abandoned him. A few friends remains loyal (Dionel Delgado González, José Ernesto Aguilera y Tony Piñera) encouraging him to continue painting and developing his personal style.

May-The Magazine Art Circuits Newsletters publishes critical opinions on the Micó's artwork.

Sori J. M. Fidel Mico and Ivan Loboguerrero. Recent Works. Art Circuits Newsletters. Vol. 5, Nº 29, May 2010, p. 10.

"One of the main themes of his artwork is landscapes in which he combines a wide array of colors which gives his paintings movement in each stroke. A good example is Paisaje VII (Los senderos del bosque de la Habana Nº 1). The beauty of this work frames itself in a realism which delights and involves the viewer with each step of his strokes. This creates an impressive colorfulness that transports the mind to unknown latitudes inside this tropical landscape."

2011\- Group Exhibition Salón de Paisaje "Sin irnos por las ramas", Galería La Acacia, Havana, Cuba.

Group Exhibition, Artists, Jorge M. Sori Fine Art (June – August, 2011).

Jorge M. Sori. Artists. Art Nexus. June 1st, 2011.

2013-Group Exhibition "Life", Hotel Occidental Miramar, Havana, Cuba.

2014 May \- Collaboration with Davenport's Art Reference & Price Guide and Heritage Auction Inc to delete a wrong record on the artist's career that was a source of confusion for art researchers.

Chronology is a major section of the document that should be the base for building the next one: catalogue raisonnée. Taking chronology as a reference, record of artworks is documented in the section catalogue raisonnée including title, year, size, medium, signature, provenance, exhibitions, references, image of the artwork, and supplementary images of signatures, exhibitions, and any relevant document.

#  Catalogue Raisonnée

Making a clear definition of the scope and conceptual meaning of the French expression "Catalogue Raisonnée" seems to be convenient before introducing more complex issues. The translation of this term into English suggests a "book dealing with reasoning" or maybe the "reasoning of a catalogue", but even if the interpretation were "Reasoned Catalogue", the actual meaning of this combination of words would not be diaphanously represented, because a "Catalogue Raisonnée" isn't limited to reasoning. Finding an exact translation of this term from French to any other language remains as a formidable academic task.

A similar situation can be found if we try to translate the English word "management" to other languages. There isn't an exact translation because the actual meaning is lost in the foreign languages. "Catalogue Raisonnée" may also be accepted as a function that designates a group of persons that perform it. This is a research project to study the career of an artist including the entire body of work created during his/her life. Therefore, thinking on words that could be exact translations of "Catalogue Raisonnée" to other languages may be a useful academic exercise to facilitate understanding its meaning, because this combination of words seems not to be born from an unmet need to express a fundamental concept of art research. Evidently, it has been compulsively taken from other language, which is a much extended solution, to communicate a polyhedral concept with a long history of multiple meanings. Accepting this definition imply that a "Catalogue Raisonnée" is a function based on the responsibility of obtaining novel results, and that scholars are the persons the develop it.

The starting point of a "Catalogue Raisonnée" is a provenance research. A search for provenance information was started along with the digitalization of old photographs that Fidel Micó preserved in films. The artist's notebooks were consulted, looking for additional information, and interviews were performed to family and visitors of the artist's studio (friends, neighbours, and artists). Virtual galleries opened by Micó at two non for profit websites (ArtsCad, and The Art Room Telford) have also been critical supports for finding more than 50 images and information. The Fidel Micó Catalogue Raisonné project is open-ended and on-going accommodating new research. The catalogue is founded on the artist's inventories, journals, Internet, and his extensive personal archive. These textural references and notes, which were maintained throughout the artist's life, and will be continued by the author of this book, are at the core of the catalogue. The catalogue also benefits from the active participation of his family. The following is a sample record without data:

title |

Photo of the artwork

---|---

year

medium

size

signature

Provenance

Exhibition History

Published References

Supplementary Images

A few records have been reproduced from the Catalogue Raisonnée to help the reader to understand the research process, and important details that should not being ignored during initial steps of provenance research. Several decisions were critical before filling every record. The artwork "Bailarina Española" had been damaged by accident, and Micó was not sure on authorizing its publication. Finally, he authorized including this artwork in the document by January 2014. A second problem has not been solved: the artist will make a restoration of the artwork, and it should be documented in this research project.

Bailarina Española |

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1980

Oil on canvas

70 x 53 cm

Signed lower right: FidelM 80.

Provenance

The Collection of the Artist.

This painting is in restoration after an accidental damage at the artist's studio.

Exhibition History

No known exhibitions.

Published References

No known literature.

In 1980, Micó leaved the Academy of Fine Art "San Alejandro" to service in the army where he continued painting murals and oil on canvas, but material evidence of this information has not been found. The same is valid for two versions of "Santa Bárbara", a mural painted at the Oil Refinery of Havana, and an undetermined amount of paintings given as gifts to friends working with him during from 1986-1985. There is a family photo taken 1997 where other three artworks can be seen: "Leones" (oil on canvas), "Mujer Africana" (repoussage), and "El Quijote" (repoussage). The following sample record on the painting "La Maja del Río" is an evidence of the times when the artist was recognized by the prestigious Cuban gallery Victor Manuel, and other artists. This painting confirms the ability of Fidel Micó for genre combination in a single artwork.

La Maja del Río |

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2000

Oil on canvas

95 x 130 cm

Signed lower left: FMicó 2000.

Provenance

From the artist's studio through Gallery Victor Manuel to a private collector by 2000.

Exhibition History

2000-VII Bienal de la Habana, Gallery Victor Manuel, La Habana, Cuba.

Published References

No known literature.

The current location of almost all Micó's paintings is unknown, because the artist has only revealed names of a few collectors. There are images of other four paintings included in the catalogue raisonnée where signatures were not included, but the artist referred that were painted in 2000. In the image of the painting "Camino a la laguna", only a small fragment of the signature is present which was recorded as supplementary image.

Camino a la laguna |

---|---

2000

Oil on canvas

95 x 130 cm

Signature was not included in the image, but the artist referred that was painted in 2000. A small fragment of the signature is present in the lower left of the image.

Provenance

From the artist's studio to a private collector by 2000.

Exhibition History

No known exhibitions.

Published References

No known literature.

Supplementary Images

Several important evidences on the first painting of the series "Camino al bohío" were reported: i-) a change in the signature calligraphy, ii-) direct sale to an USA collector, and iii-) complementary images of an exhibition catalogue.

Camino al bohío Nº 1 |

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2001

Oil on canvas

95 x 130 cm

Signed lower left: FMicó 2001.

The signature is slightly different from other specimens, which represents the only known example of a mistake writing "M" in Fidel's signatures.

Provenance

From the artist's studio to an USA collector.

Exhibition History

2003-Group Exhibition "Entornos", Hotel Parque Central in Havana, April 29 - June 29, 2003.

Published References

Entornos. La Habana: Hotel Parque Central, April 29 - June 29, 2003. Exhibition catalogue. Preface by José A. González and Cary Jiménez.

Supplementary Images

A new change in the artist's signature, and the absence of the year in the painting were reported in the records of the paintings "Caprichoso arroyuelo" and the first painting of the series "Arroyuelo escondido", but supplementary image of the exhibitions have not been found.

Caprichoso arroyuelo |

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2001

Oil on canvas

70 x 53 cm

Signed lower right: FMicó.

The year is not complete in the image, but the artist referred that was painted in 2001. The signature is identical to those present in most Micó's paintings.

Provenance

From the artist's studio to a Cuban collector by 2001.

Exhibition History

2001\- Group Exhibition "Homenaje al 40 aniversario de la UNEAC", Casa de la Cultura Arroyo Naranjo, La Habana, Cuba.

Published References

No known literature.

Supplementary Images |

  |

Arroyuelo escondido Nº 1 |

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2001

Oil on canvas

70 x 53 cm

Signed lower right: FMicó.

The year is not complete in the image, but the artist referred that it was painted in 2001. The signature is identical to those present in most Micó's paintings.

Provenance

From the artist's studio to a Cuban collector by 2001.

Exhibition History

2001\- Group Exhibition "Primer Salón de Pintura", Gallery HER-CAR, La Habana, Cuba.

Published References

No known literature.

Supplementary Images

The first two auction results were included in the records of the paintings "Transpiración" and "El salto de la paloma", along with the first published references, and a supplementary image of an exhibition catalogue. This is one of the more informative records on the artist's career.

Transpiración |

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2005

Oil on canvas

150 x 100 cm

Signed lower right: FMicó 2005.

Provenance

From the artist's studio through a dealer to private silent auction at Jorge M. Sori Fine Art Gallery by 2011.

Estimate: 8 000 – 10 000 USD

Price Realized: None disclosed.

Exhibition History

2005\- Group Exhibition, "Artbo 2005", Feria Internacional de Arte de Bogotá, Colombia.

Published References

Sori J. M. Transpiración. Art Nexus. Vol. 5, Nº 61, 2006, reproduced in page 99.

Artbo 2005. Bogotá: Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá. Exhibition catalogue, p. 62.

Supplementary Images

El salto de la paloma |

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2006

Oil on canvas

200 x 130 cm

Signed lower right: FMicó 2006.

Provenance

From the artist's studio through a dealer to private silent auction at Jorge M. Sori Fine Art Gallery by 2009.

Estimate: 8 000 – 10 000 USD

Price Realized: None disclosed.

Exhibition History

No known exhibition.

Published References

Sori J. M. El salto. Art Nexus. Vol. 5, Nº 63, 2007, p. 43.

Davenport's Art Reference & Price Guide reported an auction, performed at Heritage Auction Inc in 2010, of a piece as painted by Fidel Micó, but the artist has confirmed that he never painted that oil on canvas. In addition, the artist was informed on several imitations of his work, and decided to perform changes on the signature of the paintings "Camino al bohío Nº 6" and "En mis sueños" to facilitate identifications of illegal copies. Previous changes on the signature could be investigated as intuitive perceptions of the artist that something was wrong.

Camino al bohío Nº 6 |

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2012

Oil on canvas

75 x 100 cm

Signed lower right: FMM 2012.

A new change on the signature was introduced by the artist to facilitate identification of illegal copies of his paintings.

Provenance

From the artist's studio to a Cuban dealer by 2012.

Exhibition History

No known exhibition.

Published References

No known literature.

Supplementary Images

En mis sueños |

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2013

Oil on canvas

80 x 60 cm

Signed lower right: FMicó 2013.

The signature is different to those present in most Micó's paintings. The artist decided changing his calligraphy after finding that his name had been used by other painters to take advantage of his artistic reputation.

Provenance

From the artist's studio to a Cuban dealer by 2013.

Exhibition History

No known exhibition.

Published References

No known literature.

Supplementary Images

#  Information asymmetry

The exclusive originality of an artwork places its creator at the core of an incredible commercial mechanism that is governed by highly complex mathematical principia, because the artist becomes a monopolist, after finishing the work. It means that he/she owns a unique object, and there is a competition among an undetermined number of persons that want to own it. Consequently, the artist has generated an information asymmetry that not only affects decision making processes in the market, but also affects his/her income. Both branching of information asymmetry should be taken seriously into account by artists. The exclusivity of an artwork gives rise to information asymmetry among collectors, dealers, galleries, and auction houses, but also between the artist and these market factors.

After solving the artistic problem of originality to obtain the monopoly of an exclusive object, the artist should pay attention to the number of persons that want to own the object. Fortunately, the artist can modify this variable if he/she manages the market by a single tool: communication. It is not difficult to build a small database with information on potential buyers, but they should be informed on the existence of the exclusive object and its availability to many factors in the art market. Here is where the first interference should be avoided. Many representing galleries demand different models of exclusivity, which restricts the artist's access to other alternatives and transfers his/her monopolist privileges to the manager of the gallery.

Galleries' requirements of exclusivity come from times when communication technologies were weaker, and less accessible, but things have changed. Selling directly to collectors, becoming famous among them, building networks, writing on art, and performing moderate marketing activity may be a comfortable starting point. Certainly, most galleries reject competition with artists, but consumers buying habits have changed from the fast development of communication technologies. As a consequence, the most competitive galleries are building strategic alliances with artists as stronger marketing partners, because this coordinated action stimulates gallery sales. An artist may become famous by writing, promoting cultural and educative events, public speaking, charity, and doing something noteworthy taking into account collectors' interests and preferences. Social media, e-commerce, blogs, print-on-demand, and digital marketing systems are essential tools for every contemporary artist. This marketing activity develops a segment of the market that is out of the radar for galleries, because they work on a restricted set of clients. The interest of art lovers without budget for original artwork is kept alive by regular updates on the artist's career and life. Marketing activity should be focussed on exhibitions and publications following a well-designed plan of press release, advertising, customized message, and blog spot. Ignoring the media may be a serious mistake, especially in case of a solo exhibition or a book dealing with the artist's career, but paying attention to their silence may be even worse.

At studio level, things seem to be relatively simple, because variables and their interactions are easy to understand and manage, but everything becomes more complex at the secondary market (galleries, collectors, dealers, and museums). At this level, asymmetric interactions increase. Once a gallery owns an original artwork, time and resources should be invested to develop its market through exhibitions and advertisings. From this point, uncertainty increases, because the seller doesn't know buyers' valuations of the artwork, buyers don't know others' valuations. That's why some galleries prefer receiving artworks on consignment for sales through private auctions where selected clients are invited. This practice almost always requires the intermediary action of dealers, reducing even more the initial price at the artist's studio, and giving rise to a virtual connection between the artist and the art world, because the artist loss any capacity to develop his/her market, and the gallery is exempted from any responsibility on the artist's career.

Obviously, artists, buyers, and sellers have not the same taste and business plan. Dealers try to increase income margin between artist and gallery by putting pressure in both directions. As can be suppose, the artist is in a bad way. On the other side, the gallery tries to increase income margin between dealer and collector, which move away artists from collectors even more. Things become even worse at museums, because most of them wait until the artist die. This set of barriers between the artist's studio and people who actually acknowledge visual art is highly irregular, heterogeneous, and unpredictable. Galleries usually keep a small set of clients that trust on the authenticity and discretion that offers a manager that holds certain artworks for them. Dealers, on the other hand, may be virtually any person with financial resources and interest in a profitable business. None of both factors perform research or take care of the artist's reputation, which opens a new source of information asymmetry that is amplified when an artwork is sold to a confident collector. All this underlying infection is carefully studied at auction houses for obtaining the highest possible benefit.

In absence of a lifetime Catalogue Raisonnée, which is the most abundant situation, each bidder participating in a public auction has different information on every artwork and artist, but the auctioneer only accept an artwork after being sure that a significant number of collectors want to own it. Therefore, auctioneers need to have more information than all bidders together to be sure that his/her company will get profit during bidding. Two additional conclusions can be derived from the first one: i-) auction houses keep record of every collector and their individual preferences, and ii-) auctioneers perform provenance research, probably, taking advantage of previous studies, because these companies avoid direct interactions with artists.

Difference in selling abilities among auctioneers may add other source of uncertainty to the usual complexity of bidders' asymmetry, but an auction catalogue may standardize it. This document, designed, printed, and distributed by auction houses, contains images, and basic data of artworks that were accepted for sale in auction. Every record includes title, artist's name, image, size, medium, and the estimate price, but the reserve price should be statistically estimated from historical data, and calculated as a percent of the minimum estimate price. The reserve price is the value below which the piece will not be sold at auction. It means that if the hammer price (the best offer) is not higher than the reserve price (usually 80% of the minimum estimate price), the auction house rejects the last offer and returns the artwork to the owner. This set of rules look like simple and smart, but may also produce collateral victims.

After opening the research project "The Fidel Micó Catalogue Raisonnée", I observed certain anomalies in the artist's market, which required to be documented. By those times, I asked to the artist, but he didn't know the cause of the unusual rejection of his artworks among dealers and collectors. The answer came from a record reported in an international database. An ugly painting with an even more frightful signature was in auction in 2010, as painted by Fidel Micó, but it could not be sold over the reserve price, from an estimate price between 400 and 600 UDS. The public availability of this international record was more than enough for freezing the artist's market during 2 years. Although this side effect of the auction system was reported in The Fidel Micó Catalogue Raisonnée, and informed to all persons in charge, the root cause will remain as a serious threat to any artist. In other words, if any person put in auction a piece, in absence of Catalogue Raisonnée or Provenance Research, the result of this auction will define future valuations of his/her artworks. Even worse, if someone wants to accumulate a significant number of pieces, obtained at low prices, this person should only offer an artwork at a very low price in a public auction where he/she knows that nobody will buy the piece. Henceforth, this diabolically designed fail will define prices at the artist's studio, submerging the artist in a miserable condition of servitude with an undeniable impact in his/her future artistic contributions.

The information that a bidder needs for making the best valuation of an artwork is not accessible to him/her, and auctioneers know it. In addition, the reserve price is not the unique tool available for them. Acceptance or rejection of an artwork is other fundamental tool. Auctioneers can make decisions on the previous owner of the piece, which should be as far as possible from the artist's studio, in the case of a living artist, because this is the most trustworthy information source for bidders. This decision should not be easy, because galleries, dealers, and collectors may also participate in any bidding, and any of them may have access to the artist's studio. It means that Provenance Research, and Catalogue Raisonnée are critical documents to know what persons or galleries were components of the primary market by the time when the artwork was created.

Risk attitude, valuation method, and operation costs are different among bidders. These are additional tools available for auctioneers, because they keep a constant feedback on their database. Risk attitude of bidders not only depends on the available information, but also on the auction type. The most common auction types are English, Dutch, sealed-bid first-price, and sealed-bid second-price. The English auction is public, all bidders know one each other, the price is successively raised until one bidder remains with the best offer, and every bidder knows the current best offer. The reverse process takes place in the Dutch auction, where the price is reduced until a bidder accept it, but this type of auction is not usual in the art market, but in agriculture and mining. In the sealed-bid first-price auction, every bidder submits a sealed bid, and the winner is the bidder that offers the highest price. The sealed-bid second-price auction is similar, but the winner pays the second highest price for the artwork in auction.

In public auctions, risk aversion of bidders is lower than in sealed-biddings, because they can monitor the interest of other bidders, and making estimations on the future price of the artwork. In addition, collusion among bidders may increase their earnings if they have a coordinated action plan. A common practice is coordinating repeated biddings among members of a cartel (illicit association) until the price reach a convenient value, and then it is sold in a last auction when other bidders (out of the cartel) are sure that there is a market for future operations. Finally, the cartel shares earnings among its members. Double auctions seem to be an antidote to these associative strategies, because they increase information asymmetry in favour of simultaneous sellers of the same piece. Keeping the original monopoly of the artist requires that costumers believe that he/she will never depart from a pricing strategy. The artist should understand that fixing a price will maximize his/her expected earnings. As a third line of defence, a convenient reserve price should be set up as 50% of the maximum possible valuation of an artwork.

#  Key findings

  1. Fidel Micó is an ambidextrous painter with exceptional abilities from the synergic performance of both hands in every artwork.

  2. Micó has never made identical copies of original paintings, although some of them look like similar.

  3. Micó has sold paintings, at least, from 2000, without signing Certificate of Authenticity and Certificate of Ownership.

  4. The primary market of the painter Fidel Micó was immobilized during 2 years after a wrong commercial operation in 2010, and before publication of the Catalogue Raisonnée.

  5. Transcendence of the painting "Otra oportunidad" invites to a deep meditation on the evolution of the pictorial art during the last century.

  6. Micó invites to contemporary artists to represent their deepest feelings without abandon pictorial mastery, because it contains the access code to people from different cultures, religions, and levels of social inclusion.

  7. Contemporary artists need more than art to survive in the art world, because they don't receive training in academies for conquering social recognition and reputation.

  8. There are gradients of information, advantages and opportunities in the art world generating speculative environments.

  9. Contemporary artists have to pay to obtain social recognition. No matter how relevant has been his/her career; reputation will be directly proportional to investment.

  10. Notoriousness because of any non-artistic reason, will add social recognition as artist; independently from his/her contribution to art.

  11. There has been an explosive expansion of the landscape painting in Cuba pointing to a multiplicity of evolution pathways, because realism has not lost timeliness while other styles take root into this traditional genre.

  12. A highly complex and growing pictorial movement may be what follows to the group of Cuban painters named "Horizontes".

  13. There is evidence of a massive amount of visual artists working in Cuba according to the highest quality standards, concerning to technique and subject representation.

  14. Cuban artists remain showing heart-felt recognition and acknowledgement to the great master Esteban Chartrand.

  15. Artworks' valuations come from random interactions between many factors.

  16. An artist may remains at the primary market for decades, selling artworks at the studio according to clients' taste.

  17. There is a coexistence of apparently empty artworks and classic genres, based on the old canon, at similar levels of social and academic recognition.

  18. Latin American Art may generate a favourable synergic effect on the evolution of art.

  19. A subtle mistake has positioned art in a paradox that could only be solved by reviewing interpretations of the previous knowledge.

  20. Price and reputation seem to be synonyms in the contemporary art world.

  21. Financial decisions are positioning artists in the art world, and the merit of individual artworks has not significance if an artist has obtained the artistic authority granted by investors.

  22. There was an extraordinary coincidence between José Martí and Leon Tolstoy on the answer to a fundamental question: what is art?

  23. Cuban painting could have been born in the 16th century, although material evidence has not been found.

  24. Reaction of Cuban painters to Spanish censorship during the 19th century remains as an extensive (but, little noted) research field on their creative freedom.

  25. Breaking with the old canon didn't change any society, nor solved the most urgent contradictions of the world. Contemporary art is not changing the world, but the contrary.

  26. Contemporary art is closing the cycle of viewers, and isolating itself from people that actually need culture.

  27. Most factors of the art market are silent, and some times acknowledge information.

  28. Price reduction of artworks can be easily caused by any person, in absence of Catalogue Raisonnée and Provenance Research, affecting reputation and earnings of any artist.

  29. If the career of an artist is not documented, imitations proliferate creating confusing environments among art researchers.

  30. The threat of falsifications and swindles of undocumented artworks should not be ignored.

  31. Most staff writers from art journals and magazines are silent, without freedom for writing on relevant subjects, and write from commissions, according to an editorial policy.

  32. There could be information asymmetry among writers, which could be the Achilles' heel of the silence's structure, and free writing on art could make critical cracks on the surface of this mouldy entity.

  33. There is too much to write on every painting, and listing relevant issues may be a powerful tool for writing from comfortable grammatical models to build the most authentic opinions.

  34. Virtual galleries opened by artists at non for profit websites are critical supports for finding images and information on their careers.

  35. Artists may delay exhibition and publication of images of deteriorated artwork for decades.

  36. There are significant provenance gaps in the career of the artist Fidel Micó.

  37. The painter Fidel Micó worked on repoussage and art craft during the second half of the 90s.

  38. The current location of almost all Micó's paintings is unknown, because the artist has only revealed names of a few collectors.

  39. Changes on the signature calligraphy of Micó's paintings are frequents.

  40. Several Micó's paintings have been sold at private silent auction in USA, but prices realized have not been disclosed.

  41. Micó has confirmed that he didn't paint a piece offered to auction in 2010 by Heritage Auction Inc (Dallas, Texas), and reported by Davenport's Art Reference & Price Guide.

  42. Micó has been informed on several imitations of his work, and decided to perform changes on the signature by 2012 to facilitate identifications of illegal copies.

  43. The exclusivity of an artwork gives rise to information asymmetry among collectors, dealers, galleries, and auction houses, but also between the artist and these market factors.

  44. Demanding exclusivity to artists reduces their market alternatives, and implies loss of the monopoly on original artworks.

  45. The marketing activism of artists develops segments that are out of the gallery's range.

  46. In absence of Catalogue Raisonnée and Provenance Research, each bidder has different information on every artwork.

  47. Auctioneers need more information than bidders to get earnings during bidding.

  48. Auction rules may produce collateral victims in absence of a well-documented career.

  49. Investigations of anomalies in the artist's market may be the source of critical information on the artist's career.

  50. A designed commercial fail may define low prices at the artist's studio, submerging him/her in a miserable condition of servitude with an undeniable impact in his/her future artistic contributions.

  51. Auctioneers can make decisions on the previous owner of a piece, which should be as far as possible from the artist's studio, because this is the most trustworthy information source for bidders.

# Monopoly

Every artist may feel as a potential monopolist of original artworks. The initial ownership of unique pieces created by exceptional hands should always be recognized by artists before thinking on commercialization. The possibility exists that the value of these exclusive objects increase as time goes on. Art business start from a few simple questions: why should I sell this artwork? When should I sell it? Who wants it? Where it will be? Who will appreciate my art? Of course, many artists forget this and more under market pressure, but, even in the worse case, preserving material evidence of the most refine aesthetics precepts may save artists' careers from an iterative degradation.

Most of the time, market demand doesn't come from aesthetic motivations, but from individual tastes, global trends, and financial speculation. Satisfying this demand may be critical for surviving while making art, but it may also be a subtle labyrinth guiding the artist to adverse commercial results without finding reasonable explanations. Originality, innovation, aesthetics, authenticity, and every other attribute that distinguishes an artist from others are at risk when market forces govern artistic creation. This becomes worse as increases the number and diversity of customers.

A basic exercise of selfishness may be a good starting point for understanding this paradox and facing the problem. If an artist doesn't sell an original artwork, nobody will ever get it, no matter the price. On the other hand, many persons can obtain the same amount of money by performing different economic activity. Obviously, artists don't receive anything recognized as unique in exchange for their artworks. But, let's be realists. Sustaining this powerful true may require a huge effort for most artists, but keeping a persistent resistance to disturbing interactions with the art market may reward the artistic creation with earning, reputation and freedom.

Artists develop their markets during group and solo exhibitions. Showing 20 to 40 artworks in a solo exhibition is enough to capture the attention of critics and factors of the art market, even in absence of previous customers. Fortunately, the average response time of collectors, dealers, and galleries to little noted artists (1 – 2 years) is similar to that required for building the collection of the artist. In the meantime, a small database of customers and prospect can be built from direct sales, and public information sources. Henceforth, the database will always be at the core of any direct approach to create and cultivate a consistent market of loyal customers.

There is too much work to do between exhibitions for holding most of the monopolist power. Keeping in mind, as major premise, that new devices can't replace old methods of demonstrated efficacy, artists should maintain a one-on-one communication with customers and prospects. Data on time between purchases, total spend per year, and total spend over the life of a relationship can be added to information collected from customers' responses to personalized letters to know how much can be invested in every customer, identifying segments of the market that offer the greatest profit potential, and refining the initial intuitive database.

Individual letters to selected prospects provide the necessary personal communication to create a solid market. Every reader is almost always waiting for a promise of your most important benefit in your first paragraph. The reader attention will be lost if you don't enlarge immediately on your most important benefit. Perhaps, you could forget telling the reader, specifically, what he/she is going to get, because you are so close to your artworks that you assume them to be well-known. After detailing basic features (genre, medium, size, subject, etc) and intangible values, start to think on the sceptical behaviour of prospects, and back up your promise with proof and endorsements (publications, exhibitions, testimonials, and satisfied customers). The next step should be looking for action by telling the reader what he/she might lose. A skilful treatment of this point will overcome human inertia, because most people don't like to be left out.

Now the reader is ready to read on your benefits, once again, as a prelude to ask for action. An affirmative action will depend on the strength of your benefits, and your persuasive abilities. Finally, to win the battle with inertia, call for action with a logical reasoning for acting now, avoiding arguments with lack of credibility. The following sample letter may be used as a model for individual proposals.

ARTIST'S NAME

ADRESS OF THE STUDIO

Dear ___________ (customer's name),

If you accept this proposal, it will cost you €_______. Not a low price. If you accept this proposal, you will have the opportunity to visit my studio to know much more on my current and prospective work. If you accept this proposal, you will be one of ______ (number of customers) prestigious collectors that own ______________________________ (specific details of artworks). You will also receive certificates of authenticity and ownership, a DVD containing the Catalogue Raisonnée, and photos at the studio. A private room would be reserved for you to take the final decision on this purchase.

The significance of being collector of an original artwork probably won't increase your earning at first, but you will be an exclusive owner of a piece that is unique, and will be wanted by many collectors. To put this purchase into perspective, it's comparable to any financial operation, at low risk, with a moderate to high rate of return. Each acquisition tells the world the owner must be taken into account in market strategies. But you might rightly point out, "I've been collecting good art. And I'm an experienced and successful collector without your artworks". That's precisely why I'm writing you.

Take your experience and refine taste. Compare your collection with my proposal and follow your intuition. There may be some of your pieces documented in a Catalogue Raisonnée. And what do you know on there provenance? Maybe, nothing.

I've been maintaining a lively correspondence with collectors and galleries (______________, ___________, _____________, and ______________). Their acquisitions have paid off.

What about your future earning?

Maybe your previous acquisitions were excellent, but the lasting impact of this proposal might be compare to a life-long infusion of growing profit. I feel euphoric that for the first time the best of my art is available to a collector like you who will certainly increase my social recognition and reputation in the art world. I want you to be one of those persons that own __________________ (paintings, sculptures, installations, etc) created in my studio. I've enclosed images of my artworks, and a stamped envelop addressed to me. I'd appreciate having your decision as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,

"Signature"

Artist's name

P.S. Let me give you my unlisted phone number. It is: _______________. You can call me, if you wish.

This type of direct mail is the only known method for overcoming the huge challenge of selling artworks to new customers, but this may not be enough. A short time frame of promotion may be more successful than a large one, especially in case of significant competence, because prospects tend to make comparisons between prices before purchase. In addition, running sales when competitors aren't working brings in more customers if promotion is always identifiable as yours.

Although you may feel uncomfortable using your name as a trade mark or logotype of your promotional activities, a short version of your name will achieve its own recognition and reputation through the years. Other critical issue is the abundance of options in your offer. Customer shouldn't feel that they must decide between something and nothing. At least, six most-wanted items should be mentioned in any proposal. The words "first one", "winner", "lucky", and any other that encourage customers to fell better guarantees the best results.

Sales of signed limited edition prints contribute to happiness of prospects, because maybe they can't pay for an original artwork, but they love your art, and they want to show it to family and friends. In line with this known aspect of customers behaviour is the need for receiving something special. Telling customers on the opportunity to get your artworks before it's advertised by using the phrase "private sales for my customers only" may fill this emotional need. This powerful tool may be reinforced by a simple phone call for asking: Did you receive my letter? I wanted you to know before anyone else.

Once your customer wants to buy your artworks, you should make sure that your promise is not better than your sales place. Your artworks should be in exhibition, identifying which are NOT FOR SALE. A separate empty room should be available for every customer to enjoy the selected pieces before making a final decision. Free information and photos should be added to the sale for keeping this day in the customer's memories.

A difference between the impact of direct communication and general promotion should be understood. Publishing a web page with biography, publications, exhibitions, collections, images, and information on your artworks is an efficient approach to generate awareness, knowledge, and interest. The strength of direct communication, on the other hand, lies in encouraging assessment, taste, conviction, and decision making. Another important distinction should be clear at your database. Customers that have responded to your offers should be separated from prospects obtained from external information sources, because both groups should receive different promotional treatment. A database becomes a very useful tool if the following information is included:

  1. Unique identifier or match code for customers and prospects (c1; c2; c3;...; p1; p2;...).

  2. Name and title.

  3. Telephone number.

  4. E-mail.

  5. Website.

  6. Age.

  7. Gender.

  8. Marital status.

  9. Education.

  10. Income.

  11. Occupation.

  12. Affinity group, association or club.

  13. Lifestyle.

  14. Mailing address.

  15. House size at mailing address.

  16. Data of the first purchase.

  17. Time between purchases.

  18. Total spend per year.

  19. Total spend over the relationship.

  20. Other valuable data.

Seasonal information should be seriously taken into account, because art commercialization will be more profitable at specific times of the year. First, Christmas gift is the most important motivation of purchases from late September to November. Second, these customers are almost always looking for novelty items to impress their friends and relatives. Third, the best results of the winter season are usually obtained from January to February. Fourth, Tuesday ranks as the day with the highest percentage of people opening an average advertising page. Finally, in this sense, commercial strategies of large auction houses should be carefully studied.

Newspapers are unique for promotion of artists, because they are read by millions of persons every day, and advertising formats foreign to their news pages offer exiting opportunities. Another advantage is that they are read the same day they are delivered or purchase. Preprints, supplements, and run-of-papers provide abundant space for detailed listing of items, and explaining the proposal. Local news should be taken into account, because newspaper readers are more likely to be influenced by this type of information. Selecting the most suitable newspaper for a specific advertising require evaluating information on circulation, household penetration, male/female readers, and advertising linage. Some of the most popular information sources on newspaper reach and coverage are SRDS's Newspaper Rates and Data, SRDS Circulation Analysis, Simmons National Consumer Study, and E&P Yearbook.

Individual artworks shouldn't be offered directly by advertising in newspapers and magazines. Instead, signed limited edition prints function as indirect promotion of original pieces that should remain in the collection of the artist for exhibition to obtain the best offer. Response advertising, for publication in newspapers, may be written as follow:

The exceptional painter of tropical

landscapes has published a new

collection of prints...

El salto by Fidel Micó

Inaugurating the artist's first

collection of prints.

Printed in limited edition.

Art of enchanting beauty at the attractive price of € _____.

One of the names standing out of the rest in the contemporary Cuban art is Fidel Micó. An artist who, for almost forty years, has been capturing the hearts of art lovers with oil on canvas that are evocative, realists, happy, and enigmatic for viewers that have enjoyed this privilege at international, and local exhibitions. |

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With careful use of colours, and abundant detail, his paintings create an idyllic world of wild scenarios as lovable as unforgettable. Now, to celebrate his 40th anniversary of artistic life, Fidel Micó has created a collection of signed limited edition prints that will be of exceptional interest for collectors. "El salto", representing a beautiful tropical landscape, inaugurates the collection. It is a thoroughly delightful work of art, and will be issued at the very modest price of just €_____.

The painted place is a provocative invitation to visit unknown scenarios, and to think on the beauty of our planet. Created by the Fidel Micó from his vision of the place El salto del rocio, located in Sierra Topes de Coyantes, Santa Clara, Cuba, this piece is an authentic representation of his love to nature.

To ensure that every small detail of the original painting is faithfully captured, high resolution photos have been made, and high quality resources have been used. Each print is under strict quality control. In the tradition of fine art, "El salto" will be issued in a single limited edition, reserved exclusively for those who order from the collection by _____________ (date) – 40th anniversary of artistic life. When all valid orders from these individuals have been filled, the edition will be closed.

"El salto" will bring freshness and positive energy to your home and any room in which you choose to display it. And in time to come, this admirable artwork is likely to become a treasured family heirloom.

To acquire your signed print of "El salto", it is important to act promptly. Please, be sure to mail the accompanying ADVANCE RESERVATION APPLICATION by ____________ (date).

 |

  ADVANCE RESERVATION APPLICATION

El salto by Fidel Micó

Valid if postmarked by _________ (date) - Limit: One print per person.

Fidel Micó | Signature:__________________

ALL APPLICATIONS ARE SUBJECT TO ACCEPTANCE

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_________________________

_________________________ (artist's address)

Please, accept my reservation for "El salto" by Fidel Micó, to be printed and signed for me.

I understand that I need send no money now. I will pay €_____, in advance of shipment, plus state tax.

 |

Mr.

Mrs.

Miss_______________________

FULL NAME

Address:___________________

___________________

___________________

Efforts to become artworks into wanted assets also require a careful analysis of the image that customers and prospects have of the artist. The most successful examples of companies have been those recognized as responsible, reputable, with unsurpassed skills, innovative, and sensitive to customers' needs. They have stood the tests of time, because they have been successful answering the following simple questions to prospects:

  * How did you find me?

  * Do I know you?

  * Where do you come from?

  * What do you offer?

  * Who are your clients?

  * What is your record?

  * What is your reputation?

  * What do you want to sell me?

  * What is the price?

Your first contact with a prospect should be 100% natural, because confidentiality may be critical for many collectors and dealers. Supplying abundant reference of your work may raise prospects' interest, even if you are little noted, and increase confidence in favour of your offerings. Detailed descriptions of these and testimonials add more interesting data that place prospects into the governing dynamics of your market. Exhibitions, publications, and a list of collections and galleries that own your artworks will settle your reputation among potential customers.

There isn't too much to say on price in addition to individual isolated experiences. For example, I have found that prices of paintings created by young artists with few local exhibitions and publications range between 1 500 and 2 500 €/m2. If these paintings are shown in prestigious institutions, and referred in newspapers, peer-review journals and magazines, the price may raise more than 10-fold in 2 years. Independent valuations of your artworks and public auction records may be suitable starting points to back up your pricing policy, but also the following magic phrases have demonstrated high efficacy among prospects:

  * Do really auctioneers know more than you?

  * Standard frame.

  * High quality materials.

  * At the lowest possible cost.

  * Savings are passed on to you.

  * You can get it at a fraction of the usual price.

  * This isn't available elsewhere.

  * This is regularly sold at a much higher price.

  * A purchase at big saving.

  * Making a difference.

  * Why pay more now that it's affordable?

  * Exceptional value.

  * Exclusive opportunity.

  * Get more for less than expected.

  * Make an impact.

  * Make your best decision.

  * Compare prices.

  * You may lead the way in the market.

  * Get the best in class.

  * Get FREE online access to documentation.

#  Recommended readings

  1. Crow K. Catalogue Raisonnée: Why it matters? The Wall Street Journal. July 18, 2013.

  2. Crow K. The Cuban Art Revolution. The Wall Street Journal. March 22nd, 2008.

  3. Banjo S. Foundation to spread love of Cuban art. The Wall Street Journal. June 7th, 2010.

  4. The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR). Catalogues Raisonnée and the Authentication Process: where the ivory tower meets the marketplace. IFAR Journal, 2006, Volume 8, Nº 3 & 4, Special Double Issue.

  5. Jack Flam, Katy Rogers, and Tim Clifford. Robert Motherwell Paintings and Collages. A Catalogue Raisonné, 1941-1991. Dedalus Foundation. Yale University Press, 2012.

  6. Mira Schor, ed. Extreme of the Middle: The Writings of Jack Tworkov. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009.

  7. Jason Andrew. The Tworkov Catalogue Raisonné Project. The Estate of Jack Tworkov, Website launched by September 4th, 2012 (http://jacktworkov.com).

  8. Tonneau-Ryckelynck, Dominique, Dron, Pascaline. Wifredo Lam, oeuvre gravé et lithographié, Catalogue Raisonné. Gravelines: Éditions du Musée de Gravelines, 1994.

  9. José A. Buxadó. The Fidel Micó Catalogue Raisonnée. Website The Art Room Telford, http://www.theartroomtelford.co.uk.

  10. Kirk Varnedoe. Pictures of nothing (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006).

  11. Arthur Danto. Unnatural wonders (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005).

  12. Arthur Danto. The Madona of the future (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

  13. David Galenson. Who are the greatest living artists? The view from the auction market. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 11644 (September 2005).

  14. David Galenson. One-hit wonders: Why some of the most important works of modern art are not by important artists? Historical Methods. Vol. 38, Nº 3 (Summer 2005), p. 108 – 110.

  15. Pierre Cabanne. Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp (New York: Da Capo Press, 1987).

  16. Robert Hughes. The shock of the new (New York: Afred A. Knopf, 1991).

  17. Gregory G. Sholette. Dark Matter. Art and politics in the age of enterprise culture. Pluto Press, London, 2011.

  18. Gregory G. Sholette. Counting on your collective silence: notes on activist art as collaborative practice. Afterimage. XXVI, 3 (Nov/Dec, 1999): 18-20.

  19. Carol Duncan. Who Rules the Art World? In: The Aesthetics of Power: Essays in Critical Art History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983): 172–180.

  20. Martha Rosler. Money, Power, and the History of Art: A Range of Critical Perspectives. Art Bulletin. LXXIX, 1 (March 1997): 6–10.

  21. Aaron Meskin, Mark Phelan, Margaret Moore, and Matthew Kieran. Mere exposure to bad art. British Journal of Aesthetics. February, 2013, Volume LIII, Nº 2: 139-164.

  22. Cennino Cennini. Il libro dell'arte. 1437, Firenze, Felice Le Monnier Editore, 1859.

  23. Leonardo Da Vinci. Trattato della pittura. 1494. Imprenta Real de Madrid, 1784.

  24. Giorgio Vasari. Le vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani. Firenze, Lorenzo Torrentino Edizione, 1550.

  25. Juan de Arfe. _De Varia Commensuración para la Esculptura y Architectura._ Sevilla, 1586.

  26. Francisco Pacheco del Río. _Arte de la pintura, su antigüedad y grandeza_. Sevilla. 1599, 1649.

  27. Gaspar Gutiérrez de los Ríos. _Noticia general para la estimación de las Artes_. Madrid, 1600.

# Annexes

Annex 1: Landscape painters

This is a list of landscape painters living and working in Cuba whose names could be found in catalogues of collective exhibitions.

  1. Jesús Lara Sotelo

  2. Frank Mujica Chávez.

  3. Jorge López Pardo.

  4. Daniel Rodríguez Collazo.

  5. Carlos Fernández Vega.

  6. Rodolfo Martínez García.

  7. Lázaro Navarrete.

  8. Alejandro González.

  9. Alberto Arcos.

  10. Ibrahim Miranda.

  11. Enrique G. Miralles Tartabull.

  12. Marcel Molina Martínez.

  13. Alberto Lago.

  14. Dausell Valdes

  15. Wilber Ortega Aldaya.

  16. Carlos A. Llanes Rodríguez.

  17. Maykel Linares.

  18. Alex M. Hernández Dueñas.

  19. Alejandro Campins.

  20. Neils Reyes.

  21. Aguedo Alonso.

  22. Alfredo Rodríguez.

  23. Carlos Mata.

  24. Dayron Paz.

  25. Diego Torres.

  26. Luis Alberto Saldaña.

  27. Esteban Machado.

  28. Alfredo Cecilio Rodríguez.

  29. Luis A. Espinosa Fruto.

  30. Humberto Hernández.

  31. Javier L. García Mederos.

  32. Joel Ferrer.

  33. Yeiler Ramos.

  34. René López Silvero.

  35. Michel Micó Jarret.

  36. Luis Torres.

  37. Rensol González.

  38. Eduardo Estrada.

  39. Dionel Delgado González.

  40. Roberto Alfonso.

  41. Pedro Pablo Domínguez.

  42. Ania Toledo.

  43. Yussuan Remolina.

  44. Juan Alberto Díaz Rodríguez.

  45. Mario García Portela.

  46. Alán Manuel González.

  47. Jorge Inastrillas.

  48. Yaciel Martínez Sánchez.

  49. Antonio Espinosa.

  50. Agustín Bejarano.

  51. Albaro Serrano.

  52. Vladimir Iglesias.

  53. Lester Campa.

  54. Lorenzo Linares.

  55. Omar Felipe Torres.

  56. Ramón Vázquez.

  57. Victor Reyes.

  58. Ernesto Estevez.

  59. Fidel Victor Micó Mesa.

  60. Raimundo López-Silvero Martínez.

Annex 2: Authentication

Every research project requires the continuous supply of reliable information on the history of artworks. Owners of pieces are the more important information source, not only because their ownership of the material evidence, but because their social interactions involve the social recognition of the artist. That is why every Catalogue Raisonnée should include a submission form intended for owners of artwork interested in supplying information to the research project. The following submission form has only been included in the book for demonstrative purpose:

Submission Form

Please submit one artwork per form and provide as much information as possible. All the information is strictly confidential. Please send completed form to: ________________ (scholar's name), ____________________________ (address).

Field marked with a (*) are mandatory

1. Work of Art

Title *: |

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Date *: |

Medium *: |

Signature/Inscription |

Location of signature on work: |

Dimensions (cm)*: |

Labels or markings on reverse: |

Description of the work *:

 |

2. Provenance *

Please, include reference of any relevant documentation (invoices, receipts, letters, etc) as well as any dealer inventory numbers or auction sale and lot numbers:

---

3. Your Details *

Name(s): |

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Daytime telephone: |

Address:

(include postcode and country) |

E-mail address (used only for correspondence regarding your works):

 |

Do you wish to have your e-mail address added to a mailing list?  
Addresses remain strictly confidential

□ Yes □ No

Purchase year: |

Do you still own the work? |

If sold, when? |

Sold to/by: (name of buyer, dealer, broker, consultant, or other agent) |

Your collection credit:  
(e.g. "your name(s)" or "Private Collection") |

4. Previous Owner(s) (from whom you acquired the work):

Name(s): |

---|---

Telephone: |

Address:

(include postcode and country) |

Date of sale and any additional information: |

5. Other known prior owners:

Name: |

---|---

Date of acquisition: |

Names(s): |

Date of acquisition: |

Name: |

Date of acquisition: |

6. Exhibition history *

---

7. Publication history *

---

8. Photography *

Please, indicate the format (jpg, gif, etc.) of any photographic materials you may have of your work(s).

---

If the project requires high-quality photography of your work(s), we will make every attempt to obtain new photos through a visit to your site by arrangement. Below please indicate the contact person for scheduling a photo visit.

Name: |

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E-mail address: |

Telephone: |

J osé A. Buxadó is an independent scholar and writer. A graduate of Havana University and holding a Master in Science, Buxadó is currently collecting and analysing information to complete "The Fidel Micó Catalogue Raisonnée". His research interests include ambidextrous painters, blind painters, landscape painting, appraisal and valuation of artworks, art market interactions, and the matrix of the art world. His professional career spans more than twenty five years in the fields of science, technology, and business, but he has started research on visual art after a visit to the studio of the ambidextrous painter Fidel Micó, and informal meetings with artists of the movement known as "Horizontes". In this book, Buxadó and Charlotte are trying to make more accessible a set of critical issues to those new in the art world, while adding advanced information, and subtle details that even experts will find invaluable.

Celia Charlotte is an independent scholar, writer, and graduated at the Nobel Academy College, in Havana City, where she studied from 1953 to 1958. She is currently working in a novel. Her research interests include British writers, ancient pencraft, and language evolution in the United Kingdom. Her professional career spans more than fifty years in the field of the English language.
