By Dr. Sara E. Gil-RamosNew Jersey City University, New Jersey, USA

Monday, June 7th, 2010

This paper focuses on the reaction of three US Latino artists from the NYC metropolitan area to the 9/11/01 attacks on the World Trade Center, creating three distinct and powerful images concerning this catastrophic and horrifying event. The three selected artists are Hugo Bastidas (Ecuadorian-American), Duda Penteado (Brazilian-American), and Jose Rodeiro (Cuban-American).

All three artists have a different approach to the way they have expressed their immense pain and suffering of a contemporary massacre. The question is: Is there a pre-9/11 and a post-9/11 art by metropolitan area Latino artists? If so, to which extent is the event still interiorized after nearly a decade? And how might this interiorization be artistically expressed in years to come?

Soon after the beginning of the new millennium in 2003, a new movement, Neo-latinoism, had just emerged as a consequential NYC metropolitan area Hispanic art movement, evolving from several crucial formative exhibitions which gradually gathered the original fifteen members of the Neo-Latino art movement together. Consequently, future Neo-Latino artists were involved in these initial shows, including Hugo Xavier Bastidas, Josephine Barreiro, Hugo W. Morales, José Rodeiro, Miriam Santiago, and Olga Cruz. By 2005, all of the Neo-Latinos would belong to the Council on Hispanic Affairs.

Several Neo-latino theoretical world-views were implemented at a January 29, 2005 meeting. Hugo Bastidas declared that “Neo-Latina(o) art should not be stylistically homogeneous. It should not be a regimented creative endeavor, echoing a conspicuous style, like Impressionism, Cubism, or other formulaic styles. Rather, Neo-Latino artists should foster artistic independence, individuality, and originality, basing their creativity on Postmodernism, Deconstruction, Post-historicism, and other Post-structural ideas. Along this line, the prefix ‘Neo’ in the term ‘Neo-Latino’ should actually mean ‘Neo’, implying something ‘new’.”

Describe your first awareness of the 9/11 attack, and how your artistic inspiration first manifested and evolved from that moment toward the eventual painting of your (NAME OF YOUR 9/11 PAINTING) image?

What are SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE BOMBING of GUERNICA and (NAME OF YOUR 9/11 PAINTING)?

How did you observe and comprehend the events of (NAME OF YOUR 9/11 PAINTING) and how did Picasso comprehend and artistically assimilate the bombing of Guernica?

Describe the symbolic meaning (iconology) of each element?

Why and how did you create the image? Who were you hoping would see your (NAME OF

YOUR 9/11 PAINTING) work? How has your understanding of yourself as an

American changed as a result of (NAME OF YOUR 9/11 PAINTING)?

How is an artist’s perspective on an event like this unique? How can art offer different understanding and insight into (NAME OF YOUR 9/11 PAINTING)?

Hugo Bastidas was born in Quito, Ecuador. He came to the US when he only was 4 years old. Bastidas currently lives in New York City.

Bastidas obtained his BFA from Rutgers University (NJ) and a MFA from Hunter College (the City University of New York).

He was a recipient of a 1990 full Fulbright Fellowship, a 1992 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a 1995 Award in Visual Arts form the Colombian-Ecuadorian Association, a CAMAC Art Residency (France), and other prestigious awards.

He is a very prolific artist, having produced over 166 paintings and some 270 oil sketches in the past 15 years in the present black and white genre.

His work has been shown in a number of prestigious collections in the United States, Ecuador, France, UAE and Japan.

In 2009, Bastidas was elected Academician, member of the National Academy, one of the highest honors in American Arts and Letters.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

“The approach behind the artwork is firstly visual and secondly conceptual. I apply paint to the surface with quick even short strokes that build and amount to the image. The result is

that of a blurry monochrome photograph encouraging closer inspection. Purposely

generating a journalistic photographic appearance...to capture the attention for the

narrative.” Available at Hugo Xavier Bastidas´ personal website. http://www.hugobastidas.com

Dr. José Rodeiro was born in Ybor City, Tampa (Florida). Rodeiro’s maternal ancestry is Cuban-American.

He has a M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, NY (1973), and a Ph.D. from Ohio University’s College of Fine Arts (1976).

He received a Cintas Fellowship in painting (1982); Visual Artist Fellowship in painting, National Endowment for the Arts (1986-1987) completed in Barcelona, Spain; a Maryland State Arts Council AiE Grant (1992), and a Fulbright Fellowship Grant (1995) completed at Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), Nicaragua.

Rodeiro is an internationally published author of artistic critiques and art historical studies. Rodeiro has received major public art (mural) commissions from Tampa Arts Councils, Tampa, FL, and Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore, MD.

Rodeiro is also a renowned creator of cover art.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT “Active both as an artist and art historian, Rodeiro is keenly aware of stylistic transitions within his art. While an undergraduate at the University of Tampa, he met

Bolivian poet Nicomedes Suárez-Araúz, whose aesthetic theory of Amnesis had a profound impact on Rodeiro’s

aesthetic development. Amnesis is an artistic exploration of amnesia (the “forgotten” or “lost objects” in our memory). Rodeiro utilizes an Amnesis approach to painting, by carefully weaving his style into spectacular

images that convey complex visual iconography.” Yoshimoto, Midori (2004). “José Rodeiro”. In: Neo-Latino Art from Northern New Jersey´s Latino Diaspora, Perth Amboy

Gallery Center for the Arts, New Jersey: Perth Amboy Gallery Publication.

In 1996, shortly after arriving to New York City, Duda began working with the late Sheila Marbain, an experienced and respected master printer. He currently resides in Jersey City, NJ.

In 1999, he received the Urban Artist Fellowship Award from the Institute for Civil Society to complete an artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT (USA) and “The Jewel of JK” Juscelino Kubitschek Award at United Nations, New York.

Duda has been exhibiting and presenting the Beauty for Ashes Project, which is based on the events of 9/11.

In 2007, Duda was named Middlebury College’s Visiting Twilight Scholar, and in 2008, the Beauty for Ashes Memorial, a mixed-media assemblage Duda created, was donated to NJCU by the Brazilian-American Cultural Institute of Washington, D.C. Duda’s most recent project, another joint venture with students, Global HeART Warming, is located in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It is a 100 x 72 foot mural he was commissioned to create by the CITYarts Foundation to raise awareness about climate change among youth worldwide.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

“Great art comes from within; it is the true language of the soul. To create art is an

act of faith in itself. In my case my faith in Christ Jesus is an endless source of

inspiration and empowerment in the areas of creativity, love and hope.”

Available at Duda Penteado´s personal website. http://www.dudapenteado.com

Arguably the most observable chief characteristic of the three artists and their works is that they all rely on simple and very traditional painting methods to lay down and memorialize their impressions on the twenty-first century´s most notable human tragic event to date.

The notion of ʽsecurity’ is especially powerful in Hugo Bastidas’ pre 9-11 work, The Package, 1998. This is noticeably, yet subtly, absent in two later works, Flower Bridge, 2007, and See No Evil, Talk No Evil, Hear No Evil, 2007.

The work of Rodeiro is comparatively more overtly expressive, as evidenced in works such as Firefighters and Burn Unit.

In addition to producing works of art through largely internalized images of experiences of events, inspired by the tragedy of 9-11 Duda Penteado has directly engaged the public -especially the youth- in the composition of art projects that are not only collective in thought, but actually collective in the process of their materialization. This creates the opportunity for a greater input of impressions into the work and output of resulting expressions from the finished piece, as evidenced in Beauty for Ashes Project.

Arcanjo Nogueira, Gabriel (2009). “Duda Penteado, Arte pela vida, A mostra Beauty for Ashes - Das cinzas à Beleza é um chamado à paz mundial.” Neomondo. Año 3. N°27. Outubro. Available online http://www.neomondo.org.br

Gottlieb, Carla (Winter, 1964-1965). The Meaning of Bull and Horse in Guernica. Art Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 106-112 Published by: College Art Association. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/774777

Penteado, Duda (2003/2004) Beauty for Ashes. León, Spain: Ediciones Naps. Valladolid, Spain: Ediciones Menchaca. Available online http://www.dudapenteado.com/Books/BFA-Book.pdf

Penteado, Duda (2009). Deconstructing Beauty for Ashes. This publication is in conjunction with the exhibition Duda Penteado: Beauty for Ashes Project (September 20, 2007 - March 2, 2008). Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ.

Proweller, William (Spring, 1971). Picasso's "Guernica": A Study in Visual Metaphor. Art Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 240-248. Published by: College Art Association. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/775486

Rodéiro, J. & Villareal, R. (2004). “The Origins of Neo-latinoism (2000-2005)”. Available at http://www.njcu.edu/assoc/neolatino/neolatino/origins.htm

Yoshimoto, Midori (2004). Neo-Latino. This publication is in conjunction with the exhibition Art from Northern New Jersey´s Latino Diaspora, Perth Amboy Gallery Center for the Arts, New Jersey: Perth Amboy Gallery Publication.

Email Interview with José Rodeiro, 3/3/2010 Email Interview with Hugo X. Bastidas, 3/29/2010 Email Interview with Duda Penteado, 2/29/2010 Interview with José Rodeiro, 3/17/2010 Interview with Hugo X. Bastidas, 3/21/2010 Interview with Duda Penteado, 3/12/2010

WEBSITESHugo Bastidas

http://www.hugobastidas.com Artist´s personal website.http://www.njcu.edu/assoc/neolatino/neolatino/hugo.htm Biography.http://www.njcu.edu/dept/art/faculty/h_bastidas.asp Biography.http://www.theartstudentsleague.org/bio_hugo.html Biography.

José Rodeiro

http://www.njcu.edu/assoc/neolatino/neolatino/Rodeiro.htm Biography. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile//23701.html

Works. http://legacy++.ny1.com/content/in_your_neighborhood/calendar/?

re=1&action=view&TableID=10031&StartRange=10/15/2009&EndRange=10/15/2009&mon&yr Somos Americanos: Responses to 9/11 from the Latino Artistic Community.

http://www.smith.edu/calc/amnesia/history.html A basic chronology of amnesis: the arts of amnesia and the lost  object.

  Duda Penteado

http://article.wn.com/view/2010/01/01/Resolutions_for_2010 Beauty for Ashes Project in detail, day by day.

http://www.dudapenteado.com Artist´s personal website. http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2007/10/

museum_displays_works_rising_f.html Duda Penteado: Beauty for Ashes Project, Jersey City Museum.

Dr. Sara E. Gil-RamosNew Jersey City University,

New Jersey, USA http://www.iberex.org

iberex@iberex.orgsgilramos@njcu.edu