Image: Doyle, New York
The Latin American Art auction is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30, with an exhibition running September 26–28. The September 30 auction will include a special Latin American Art section featuring artists from Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.
Works offered in the auction include ‘Elegua’ (1975), ‘Elemento Per Formatico’, ‘La Fe’ (2003), ‘Pequenas Fugas (Four Elements)’ (2012) and ‘El Pato Que Mira el Agua’ (1999).
Born in Havana in 1944, Mendive is described as a seminal figure in contemporary Afro-Cuban art. Raised in a family practicing Regla de Ocha, or Santería, his understanding of Yoruba cosmology and Afro-Cuban spiritual traditions has remained central to his work.
Mendive developed a distinctive visual vocabulary in which human, animal and spiritual forms converge, drawing upon the world of the orishas, ancestral memory and the natural environment. He frequently incorporated wood, metal and cowrie shells into his work.
A journey to West Africa in 1982, during which Mendive traveled throughout the region for approximately a year, deepened his engagement with his Yoruba heritage and informed the increasingly sculptural character of his practice. Mendive represented Cuba at the 1988 Venice Biennale and received Cuba’s National Visual Arts Award in 2001.
