Lesbia Vent Dumois, who is one of the most restless and active artists in the entire panorama of Cuban culture (those who know her know that it is not an exaggerated phrase), celebrates her birthday this Saturday. And he celebrates it with an excellent exhibition of his at the National Museum of Fine Arts. Memory, it is titled. And it is a journey through the creative itinerary of a woman who has never stopped drawing, painting or engraving, even though some only see in her the civil servant who has also been … already very honored.
The main temporary exhibition hall of the Cuban Art building houses the exhibition, which can be seen during this month.
Lesbia has lived long, intensely. He has a lot to tell and in his expo he tells it. Lesbia is a true artist. And the memories of an artist can be, and Lesbia’s certainly are, a wonderful field of confluences.
“Everyone thought I was going to do a retrospective, starting with the title of the show,” says the artist. I thought of it better as an anthology. Because the anthology gives me the opportunity to evoke the moments in which I produced some change in my work. I have saved the works that best represent this evolution from each era and I present them here. They are the pieces that make a stronger proposal. Almost all of them are here ”.
Engraving, painting, sculpture, installation … And a very wide thematic spectrum and it could be said that even stylistic. But Lesbia identifies some constants:
“The first I think is the woman. I do not think I have proposed it, but in the end it turns out that it is evident. I have discovered it myself when I have seen these works together. The female figure has been very attractive to me, not only formally, but also as a creative impulse, as an intention, as a discourse.
“The other constant is José Martí. Martí for me is vital, he is an irreplaceable reference. Martí is a thought, an idea, an example. My father always instilled in my sister and me a love for Martí. I remember perfectly what he told us, what he told us about this extraordinary man. That stayed with me. And I have put it in my work, in all my work, although sometimes it is not evident.
“And the other thing, although some may not immediately notice it, is the irony. I have never been an Orthodox woman, I always see everything with a lot of humor. Fine, incisive humor, which is what I like ”.
Three aspects of Lesbia’s creative work converge in the exhibition: the artist, the curator and the museologist. He shared the museographic conception with the specialist Teresa Toranzo. And she even went so far as to write herself on the wall, with her beautiful calligraphy, the feet of the work.
Is that memory, for Lesbia, has a lot of craftsmanship. And it is evocation and homage.
“In my memory is the memory of my grandmother, who was very patriotic and very educated. I think that part of the education we have in the family we owe to her. From my parents I always keep in mind their teachings on the value of the trade. They also made me see that friendship was as important as the job. I have always cultivated that. In this exhibition there are also my friends, who are many. There is my sister Odenia, who died so young. She always inhabits my memory, we were very close, even in our common profession: we both studied teaching, we both studied visual arts … and we began to make engravings together, that is why one of her works is exhibited. There is my life and work partner, who was also my teacher: Carmelo González. They are, in short, my lifelong friends. I believe a lot in friendship ”.
