TROPICAL LIGHT
Gilberto Frómeta
Gilberto Frómeta, born in 1946 in Havana, Cuba, is the third artist presented by the ArteMorfosis Gallery in 2015, is also part of the first generation of post-revolutionary Cuban artists. He was initially known in the Caribbean island state, and later internationally, for his images of horses painted in black on a white background. However, the focus of the artist’s first Swiss exhibition Tropical Light is the abstract painting that has appeared in his work since 2001. A selection of powerful color paintings from the years 2005 to 2015 are presented.
The artist offers the following explanation of why and how he evolved from the initially monochromatic realistic themes to the strongly colored abstraction: “I reached abstraction because I wanted to include color in my works. My previous work had been monochromatic for many years. Until then I had feared that colors would make my paintings frivolous. That is how I arrived at abstract expressionism without having a specific artist as ideal. At the same time, I observed children scribbling when they learn to hold a pencil as well as the airbrush painting technique. Overall, the road to abstraction was a culinary act that lasted several years.“1 The liberation from realistic painting to abstraction is an evident step and said development may be retraced in his work.
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