By Liz Cerejido, Ph.D., Curator for Cuban Collections
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Baruj Salinas — beloved friend and extraordinary artist and person. Those of us who were fortunate enough to know him will remember him for his warmth, his engaging eyes and smile, and his infinite intellectual curiosity. He is considered one of the most important abstract painters in Cuban art.
Like the generation of vanguard painters that came before him, Salinas traveled to Europe and became active in the art scene in Barcelona, where he lived from 1974 through 1992. It was there that Salinas developed his own abstract visual language, characterized by an explosive energy and movement, which he continued to develop in Miami where he permanently settled. The CHC is privileged to count among its holdings materials by the artist that include original drawings, serigraphs, publications, and artists’ books.
Among our most treasured artists’ books is Salinas’ The Torah Project, a commissioned work from 2014 for which the artist created a series of drawings interpreting the Torah’s Five Books of Moses. The book includes twenty-seven lithographs printed from Salinas’ original drawings, as well as contributions by religious and cultural studies scholars in English, Spanish, Italian, and German. Printed in Urbino, Italy, the book is entirely handmade, from its paper to the binding to its impressive cover; made from mother-of-pearl and precious wood, it is inspired by a painting by Regina Algazi de Salinas, the artist’s mother.
In addition to the book’s remarkable characteristics as an artistic object, The Torah Project is representative of the rich tapestry of aesthetic, cultural, and religious narratives that make up Cuban national identity. We feel privileged to have this and other works by Baruj Salinas in our Collection and are honored to preserve his legacy in perpetuity through these works.
Cuban Heritage Collection Blog 