Cuban Artist Displays at Larchmont Public Library

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Cuban artist Humberto Chavez was recognized on Sunday, May 4, at a reception in his honor at the Larchmont Public Library’s Oresman Gallery by New York State Senator George Latimer. Chavez’ exhibit, “Revisiting Dreams and Memories” opened in the Library’s gallery on Thursday, May 2. Senator Latimer praised Chavez for his exhibit, thanked the artist for sharing his works with the community and presented the artist with New York State’s Certificate of Merit.

Chavez’ artwork is inspired by memories of his childhood and adolescence in Havana, Cuba, and its environs. The exhibit is on display now through May 30. The exhibit is free and open to everyone during normal library hours.

Chávez left his native Cuba in the 1960s to study art in New York City at Parsons School of Design. A Bauhaus-based curriculum, with experimental courses in architecture, construction, color and design, together with the influence of relevant American and European artists from the 1970s and '80s, became a solid art foundation for him. His work has been seen in more than 70 North American exhibitions, including many university galleries as well as the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York, the Center for Fine Arts in Florida and several galleries and art museums in Europe. Chávez also lived and worked in Portugal, where his sculpture is represented in the permanent collection of the Gulbenkian Museum.  Presently, he is a member of the Mamaroneck Artists Guild in Larchmont, NY.

In his artwork, Chávez tends to depict the natural beauty of Cuba. His landscapes capture the alluring sunlight and verdant geography of the largest Caribbean island; his seascapes are swept by the salty air made famous by Hemingway. Often juxtaposing Caribbean and European elements—Spanish fans, stained glass windows, ornamental iron work and architectural details—his work suggests that foreign elements imposed by outsiders can never alter the intrinsic cultural nature of an island.

Neither politics nor nostalgia has characterized the art of Chávez, yet his work from the 90s contain romantic elements such as stained glass, dramatic sunsets and rusting colonial ironwork. After he returned to Havana in 2001, he created paintings inspired by the poetry of Nicolás Guillén and Dulce María Loynaz, some of which are concurrently included in this exhibition with some of his most recent work. Chavez’ painting “Graced by White Foam” is based on Nicolás Guillén’s (1902-1989) poem, “A Long Green Crocodile." Guillén, an Afro-Cuban poet, journalist, political activist and writer, was greatly inspired by the living conditions of Afro-Cubans in the early days of the Cuban republic and thereafter. His painting, “I Am the House” is based on the Dulce María Loynaz (1902-1997) poem “I Am the House–Memories Through Time”.

Chavez believes that art is a way of sorting through one’s history. When he migrated to New York and began to create paintings during the 1970s and 1980s, forms and colors emerged from his memories of Havana.

“Though I’ve lived in New York for nearly five decades now, the aim of my landscapes and seascapes has been to capture the alluring sunlight and verdant geography of the island home of my childhood," said Chavez. 

"Since then, much of my painting has been about my early years—dreams and remembrances of a lush island.  Everything remained sharp in my mind, so much so that upon returning to Cuba in 2001, my first visit in 40 years, it seemed I had never left."