“The Footprint of the Caribbean” Project Gets Underway

The Footprint of the Caribbean is a project that seeks to underscore the presence of the Catalonians in the American adventure between the 18th and 20th centuries. It also looks at the interchange of influences that were generated in both countries and that went in both directions between Catalonia and the Caribbean.

The Footprint of the Caribbean is a project that seeks to underscore the presence of the Catalonians in the American adventure between the 18th and 20th centuries.

The project looks at a very significant period and includes the work of important personalities such as Pau Casals in Puerto Rico; Joseph Gausachs, born in Barcelona and considered one of the great masters of Dominican art; Juan Bosch, President of the Dominican Republic in 1963, a celebrated literary and political figure (the centennial of his birth will be celebrated in 2009); Wifredo García, from Barcelona, a promoter of Dominican photographer, and Emilio Bacardí, patriot, intellectual and patron of Cuban culture.

The biennale cultural program was inaugurated on February 19 at the opening of the Wifredo García: Peculiar Obsessions (February 19 to Mayo 24 in the Leon Center). José Fernández Pequeño, Manager of Cultural Services at the Leon Center, emphasized that the exhibition on Wilfredo García is an ideal event to inaugurate the program, the first in the Caribbean which will later move to Barcelona. Mr. Fernández Pequeño added that “this is the most complete exhibition of Garcia’s artwork that has been mounted ever and it is a result of research of the artist’s archives which were found deposited in the Leon Center.” In 2010, The Footprint of the Caribbean along with Wifredo García: Peculiar Obsessions will be in Barcelona, a place where, paradoxically, García has never had a show while he was an active artist.

Wifredo García and The Footprint of the Caribbean

For more than a year, the Leon Center developed a series of joint activities to pay homage to Wifredo García, who died in 1988. The first activity was the processing, cataloging and evaluating his body of work which the García family had temporarily loaned to the Leon Center with the agreement to renew the loan. From this contact came many important conversations about the life and work of Wifredo García.

All of this effort has culminated in the inauguration of the exhibition Wifredo García: Peculiar Obsessions which, with 191 photographs, offers the widest sampling of his work ever seen up to this point. The principle themes, stylistic features, ideological concerns, aesthetics, obsessions and quests that made Wifredo García one of the best Dominican photographers of all time are represented in this exhibition. García’s work as an artist and a manager changed the course of photography in the Dominican Republic.

But, there is more: the opening of the exhibition marks the beginning of The Footprint of the Caribbean program, coordinated by the Leon Center, the Casa America of Catalonia and the Ramon Llull Institute. The program seeks to examine the various types of interchange that has taken place between Catalonia and the Caribbean region. As part of this program, the Wifredo García: Peculiar Obsessions exhibition will be shown starting in January 2010 in Barcelona.

Wilfredo García (1935-1988)
Colonial Details No Date

Color Photograph
72 x 93 cm
Loan from the Photography House of Wifredo García in Santo Domingo at the Centro León

Wifredo García (1935-1988)
The Girls with the Dark Background. 1975

Gelatin silver process on paper
49.5 x 39 cm
Loan from the Photography House of Wifredo García in Santo Domingo at the Centro León

Wifredo García (1935-1988)
Return to Palm Sunday Mass. 1976

Gelatin silver process on paper painted with colored ink.
59.8 x 50.8 cm
Loan from the Photography House of Wifredo García in Santo Domingo at the Centro León

Return to Palm Sunday Mass.

Wifredo García .

The Girls with the Dark Background.

Colonial Details .