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• 09 / 26 / 2006

Dedicated to the master of Cuban plastic arts Víctor Manuel García and with the goals of reaching sales for over half million Euros, SubastaHabana will celebrate its fifth edition between next October and November.

The Organizing Committee reported this Monday that works of outstanding contemporary masters and artist will be at auction legitimated in the art circuit; while the public will have access to new proposals and exhibitions that enrich the already known and ample variety of plastic arts in the Island.

SubastaHabana will be carried out using its two methods: open-cry scheduled for November 16th in the National Hotel of Cuba and holds in store 40 lots of painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography; and cyber auction that will be scheduled between the October 2nd and 28th about 56 lots for sale, mainly painting, drawing, and engraving.

Silvia Llanes, head of the team of curators of the event, pointed out among the characteristics of this edition the inclusion of "different and extraordinary pieces" and a balance regarding the presentations of the cyber and open-cry auction.

She asserted that this year will be presented works of 79 artists, in what constitutes a wide collection of samples from different times, styles, and means of expression of the Cuban art.

We are referring to a "rich and different vision of the Cuban plastic arts", asserted LLanes who highlighted among the pieces, a Changó of master Manuel Mendive; an engraving of the Cuban artist Belkis Ayón who passed away early in life and a work of Umberto Peña an example of pop art, a tendency which little by little wins representation in the Auction.

"At the auction the public will have the chance to appreciate the evolution and different creative periods of a single artist. That is the case of Amelia Peláez, René Portocarrero, and Servando Cabrera, among others", specified Llanes.

On the path art market

In an assessment of these five years of SubastaHabana, the chairman of the Organizing Committee, Alejandro Rojas, expressed that it already has a space recognized by its seriousness and care in terms of authenticity and property of the works.

"More than 120 years of history of plastic arts in Cuba are collected in these editions, where sales have always reached over the 50% of the lots, thanks to the trust and warranty it offers", highlighted Rojas.

For Luis Miret, organizing vice-president, Cuban art its being unpredictably visited and today Cuba is among the first three Latin American countries in the art market.

"Nowadays we are going through a shift from local collecting or from Cuban to Cuban, to one that surpasses national boundaries, mainly European", he said.

Besides the financial profits, Silvia Llanes asserted that the Auction has left an "intellectual" satisfaction in the specialists: putting up in the international market masters as important as Raúl Martínez, National Prize for Plastic Arts, or Fidelio Ponce, Servando Cabrera, and Antonia Eiriz, unknown by collecting.

In the Auctions fourth edition, in year 2005, sales reached a worth of 535 600 CUC (Cuban Currency), a figure which organizers expect to attain this year.

Starting September 30th, all works could be seen at the website www.subastahabana.com and at Havana and 23 y 12 Galleries of Vedado neighborhood in the capital.

Source: CubaSi