Art and the polysemy of the artistic work

The multicultural magazine of Latin America and the Caribbean, Arte por Excelencias, circulates its 49th edition corresponding to the first two months of 2020. Focused on the cultural events of thirteen countries such as the United States, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia, Mexico among others. Now a number dedicated to the conflicting polysemy of contemporary art is presented.

With that premise, the cover illustrates a work of the Associations Series (2007) by the artist Juan Carlos Borjas, one of the three winners of the first prize of the “Food Round Trip” Photo Contest, at the International Gourmet Excellencies Seminar.

Associations when saying of the artist “more than a search for conceptual structures, metaphors, philosophical reflections and formalistic intentions, it is the refuge to annul the persecution of life in the immobility of contemplation, where reality has lost its pragmatic content and lives forever as pure form".

On the back cover, this first edition of the year could not ignore the 35th International Jazz Festival of Havana that happens these days in the city, so our beloved Nelson Dominguez, National Plastic Arts Prize, stands out with El otro Munch (oil on canvas, 2013); work that identifies the Jazz Festival.

Contemporary art as a main course allows us to taste interesting materials such as the interview during Design Miami to Reynold Kerr, a student of African art and one of its main collectors. For his part Toni Piñeira, our special envoy, did not lose a single detail of the thousand faces of Art Bassel Miami, epicenter of the controversy about the piece Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan.

Also accompanying this block are the interview with Alberto Cornejo, director of Art Madrid and the reviews of some Latin American pavilions of the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. You can also find comments, posters and reviews about the presence of the publication in the main fairs and events in Europe and Latin America such as Zona Maco and Art Madrid.

We continue in the exciting world of art, this time with the so-called seventh art, highlighting the criticism of the multi-award-winning movie Joker by Todd Phillips and the evaluations of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana. Art 49 in its 80 pages also included the review of the days of the St. Petersburg Ballet in Havana on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the seventh Cuban village.

Since its circulation, Arte por Excelencias is distributed at the International Jazz Festival, as it will at the coming International Book Fair in Havana. Other spaces such as Zona Maco are planned. Dear readers, remember that you can access the online version available on their website www.arteporexcelencias.com and in the Press Reader application.

To say goodbye to this first invitation to read about contemporary art in our pages I leave this reflection of Mr. José Carlos de Santiago in the Editorial and that continues to put the conflicting polysemy of art into context:

“Today we are at the doorstep of the fiftieth edition. I can attest, from our first issue and my meetings with editors, painters and critics, set in the heat of the Havana Biennial, that this is a theme of the art-market relationship, which haunts us almost from the first artists who worked in a court, or that, like Vincent Van Gogh's brother, had to sell his works to survive the era”.

Postscript: the next edition is number 50 and there will be surprises. Do not lose sight of us.