Ada Balcácer Recipient of This Year´s National Arts Painting Prize

Ada Balcácer Recipient of This Year´s National Arts Painting Prize
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 12/20/2011

Well-known artist Ada Balcácer was awarded the National Arts Painting Prize for this year.

The jury determined that Ada Balcácer “kept alive the oral memory and other Dominican traditions, creating visual images that have become part of the national collective consciousness.”

The jury took into consideration Ada Balcácer´s 60-year artistic career as they estimated that she is “a recognized illustrator, designer, carver, painter, muralist, cultural participant, art theoretician and professor who has disseminated her knowledge and experience in various places around the Dominican Republic, Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and the United States where she has resided for many years.”

“She is an artistic figure of Caribbean dimension whose aesthetic and theoretical approach and the quality of her work has made her an essential figure in the history of art in the Caribbean and Latin America,” expressed the jury in its statement.

“Balcácer is a master in a variety of expressive aspects,” continued the statement as it talked about her trajectory as an outstanding student of the maestros Celeste Woss y Gil, Manolo Pascual, Joseph Gausachs and Gilberto Hernández Ortega as well as her presence in the Cultural Front alongside Ramón Oviedo and Silvano Lora during the revolution of 1965.  She was the only woman and the main promoter of the Proyecta Group in 1968. The Group was comprised of Domingo Liz, Fernando Peña Defilló, Leopoldo Pérez, Thimo Pimentel, Gaspar Mario Cruz, and others.

The jury determined that Ada Balcácer “kept alive the oral memory and other Dominican traditions, creating visual images that have become part of the national collective consciousness.”

The Jury´s statement continues: “She has examined forms and tropical colors in the vegetation, environmental devastation, luminosity in the Caribbean, tropical landscapes, diversity of the ecosystems in the Dominican Republic and appreciation of native flora and fauna.”

“Ada Balcácer has managed to express herself through the relationship between color and light, the presence of symbols that allude to the religious syncretism of the Antilles while expressing with extraordinary efficiency the double nature of the Caribbean touching on the perceptual, ambiguous and the conscience while her lines and broad and confident brush strokes give way to massive forms that, in any format, possess a massiveness that imposes a psychological impact on a piece of art that is rich in nuances and seductions as well as impressive quality in terms of technical, formal and expressive techniques.”

Ada Balcácer received the award from Culture Minister, José Rafael Lantigua, who, in addition, gave a posthumous award to the family members of the masters, Cándido Bidó, Paul Giudicelli and Gilberto Hernández Ortega.

Others present at the awards ceremony included Bernarda Jorge, Deputy Minister of Popular Participation; María Elena Ditrén, Director of the Museum of Modern Art; Cesar Iván Feris Iglesias, President of the Dominican Art Critics Association; Antonio Guadalupe, President of the Dominican College of Painters (CODAP in Spanish); Rafael Emilio Yunén, Director of the Eduardo León Jimenes Cultural Center; Marianne de Tolentino, Director of the National Gallery of Fine Arts and Mirna Guerrero Villalona, representative of the Selection Committee.

This award, the most prestigious in the visual arts in the Dominican Republic, was given by the Section Committee designated through Decree number 597-10 of President Leonel Fernández which establishes the annual awarding of the National Arts Painting Prize. The objective of this prize is “recognition of the dedication and contribution of the recipient artist, in the areas of culture and the Dominican society and to pay tribute to paradigmatic personalities from among artists, whose example serves as models for current and future generations, reaffirming the commitment of the Dominican state to national creative artwork.”

The Selection Committee was comprised of María Elena Ditrén, director of the Museum of Modern Art; Marianne de Tolentino, Director of the National Gallery of Fine Arts; Mirna Guerrero Villalona, art curator; César Iván Feris Iglesias, representing the Dominican Art Critics Association; Rafael Emilio Yunén, Director of the Eduardo León Jiménez Cultural Center and Antonio Guadalupe, painter and President of the Dominican College of Painters.

Ada Balcácer, receives the National Arts Painting Prize from Culture Minister, José Rafael Lantigua.


Audience at the awards ceremony.