- \n
- SSDA Archive<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom<\/a><\/h3>\n
This exhibition brings together twenty contemporary artists working across a range of media to interpret an extraordinary\u2014and now lost\u2014historical artifact: a so-called \u201cBook of Paintings\u201d created by Jos\u00e9 Antonio Aponte, a nineteenth-century Afro-Cuban revolutionary and artist. Authorities found the \u201cBook of Paintings\u201d in 1812 during the investigation into a major antislavery conspiracy in Havana. During the trial, Aponte was forced to describe his book in detail. Its pages portrayed lush landscapes and Biblical stories; Roman goddesses and Spanish kings; black men as warriors, emperors, and librarians; Rome and Ethiopia; Havana and the heavens. Shortly after testifying, Aponte was publicly executed, his head severed from his body, and placed on a pike inside a cage in a well-travelled crossroads in the city. Then, his \u201cBook of Paintings\u201d disappeared.<\/p>\n
Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Curated by \u00c9douard Duval Carri\u00e9 and Ada Ferrer<\/a><\/h3>\n
January 9\u2013March 8, 2020<\/p>\n
The exhibition also incorporates\u2014and the art engages\u2014scholarly research on Aponte and his world by\u00a0NYU\u00a0Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean History\u00a0\u00a0Ada Ferrer, author of the prize-winning book\u00a0Freedom\u2019s Mirror: Cuba<\/em>\u00a0and Haiti in the Age of Revolution<\/em>, and art historian\u00a0Linda Rodr\u00edguez, curator of the digital humanities website\u00a0Digital Aponte<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-cas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2021\/08\/22135424\/AreasofFocus_Cuba_Escalera-189x300.jpg\")
Jos\u00e9 Nicolas de Escalera, Uniform of the Battall\u00f3n de Morenos de la Habana, 1763, drawing. Courtesy of the Archivo General de Indias (Fondo Mapas y Planos, 25)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Found in Cuba: The Ingenuity and Creativity of Ediciones Vig\u00eda<\/a><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-cas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2021\/08\/22135425\/AreasofFocus_Cuba_EdicionesVigia_ClACX-300x155.jpg\")
An online exhibit has been created based on an exhibit in Special Collections and the exhibit-opening lecture given by Paula Covington, subject librarian for Latin American and Iberian Studies. Ediciones Vig\u00eda began making handmade books in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1985, limited to 100-200 copies, to make national literature known to Cubans and to create beautiful books. Despite the economic hardships of the 1990s, known as Cuba\u2019s \u201cspecial period,\u201d they continued in the same house, relying entirely on volunteers and repurposed materials, creatively using brown paper, burlap, string, tobacco leaves and whatever is available. While many government-supported publishers in Cuba have had to close over time, Vig\u00eda still thrives today as an independent publishing house on Watchtower Square. Over the years Vanderbilt has built a collection of almost 150 of these artists\u2019 books, primarily acquiring them through trips to Cuba and Mexico. Enjoy the online\u00a0exhibit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cuba is bound by a communist system that disconnects and divides the island from Cubans living in the United States. Of course, the United States\u2019 embargo plays a central role in creating an antagonistic relationship that informs Cuban and Cuban American identities. Despite the recent restoration of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the United States,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":602,"parent":110,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-headline-img.php","meta":{"spay_email":""},"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/395\/revisions\/749"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/as.vanderbilt.edu\/clacx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}