On Oct. 9, 2015, issue 23 of the American publication ARTPULSE was presented at the theater of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) in Havana. It features the piece “42” (2006) by artist Roberto Fabelo on its cover and, inside, an essay by well-known New York-based art critic and historian Donald Kuspit about the work of this prolific and multifaceted Cuban artist.
The magazine was introduced to about 100 member of the intelligentsia and general public, including artists, art critics and personalities of Cuban culture. The panel consisted of Ruben del Valle Lantaron, director of the National Council of Plastic Arts; Ana Cristina Perera, director of the National Museum of Fine Arts; Hortensia Montero, MNBA curator and expert in Fabelo’s oeuvre; Jose Lopez-Niggemann, director of ARTPULSE; and Raisa Clavijo, ARTPULSE founder and editor.
From left to right : Ana Cristina Perera, Rubén del Valle Lantarón, José López-Niggemann, Hortensia Montero y Raisa Clavijo.
Founded in Miami in 2009, ARTPULSE was born with the purpose of encouraging art criticism, studies and research focusing on contemporary art. From its beginning, the editorial staff has consisted of renowned academics, art critics and curators. Currently, ARTPULSE has contributors and editors in several cities in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States. The magazine is widely distributed at bookstores throughout the U.S. and is a presence in the libraries of leading American universities.
Over the past six years, ARTPULSE has published interviews with such artists as Vito Acconci, Martha Roesler, Ai Weiwei, Rashid Johnson, Jannis Kounellis, Bill Viola, Sam Taylor Wood, Julio Le Parc, The Yes Men, Marc Bijl, Erwin Olaf, Eva and Franco Mates, Eve Sussman, Alfredo Jaar, Xaviera Simons, Jill Magid, Fabian Marcaccio, Eija Liisa Ahtila, Paul McCarthy, Rosa Barba and Alexander Arrechea, among others. Prominent theorists and experts in contemporary art such as Gianni Vattimo, Sylvere Lotringer, Franklin Sirmans, Barbara London, Mieke Bal, Donald Kuspit, Barry Schwabsky, Michele Robecchi and Peter Plagens, among others has published with ARTPULSE.
Donald Kuspit’s essay about Fabelo provides a sharp analysis through which he finds parallels between the artist’s work and Goya’s “black paintings,” as well as the legacy of Bosch, Brueghel and English caricaturist James Gilray, among other artists, whose influences range from obvious to subtle in Fabelo’s imagery. Kuspit sees Fabelo as a sensitive analyst of his time who captured the psychology of the contemporary man, with enough wit to grasp human attitudes and obsessions and see the great self-destruction prevalent in society today.
From left to right:Hortensia Montero, curadora del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana; Ana Cristina Perera, Directora del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana y Fabelo
The presentation of this issue of ARTPULSE was a pretext to honor the work and trajectory of Fabelo, an artist whose universal creative language is based on solid conceptual and technical foundations.
The magazine’s presentation in Havana also marked the beginning of professional relations between the publication and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.