The CINTAS Foundation: An Archival Perspective
By Elizabeth Cerejido, Ph.D., Curator for Cuban Collections
One of the most exciting aspects of “The CINTAS Foundation: An Archival Perspective” has been the opportunity to highlight new discoveries and different materials from the Cuban Heritage Collection and display them to the public for the first time. The exhibition catalog and accompanying poster of the late Cuban American artist, Félix González-Torres’ first solo exhibition in New York City, are among these treasured items.
González-Torres relied on the tenets of postmodernism to develop a highly conceptual body of work, which secured his place in the American canon for contemporary art. These aesthetic characteristics and conceptual preoccupations are already present in the early work reproduced in the brochure on view titled “I always wonder if men in uniform sleep better after performing their duties,” as well as in the work reproduced on the poster from the same project in 1988. Both items are part of the Cuban Heritage Collection’s papers and related ephemera from INTAR Theatre & Gallery, one of the first venues in New York to focus solely on promoting the work of Latine artists and playwrights — “Latine” being the gender-neutral term preferred by the organization. Largely because of this fact, the exhibition, and its importance for understanding González-Torres from the perspective of a Latine artist has received little attention in the vast and growing literature on the artist. As such, the exhibition catalog and poster represent foundational material for researchers interested in other framings of González-Torres’ work and practice, especially from the late 1980s. More broadly, the INTAR Theatre Records are invaluable for understanding the exhibition history of Latine and Latin American art in the U.S. during the 1980s and through the 2000s.
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