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拍品专文
We are grateful to Ariel Larraz for his assistance cataloguing this work.
One of the leading Cuban American artists of his generation, Julio Larraz has lived in the United States since 1961. Best known for his still lifes, landscapes, and figurative works, his seemingly realistic style belies his mystical, expressive, and quasi-surrealistic approach to painting. Likewise his enigmatic works attests to his bi-cultural experience and despite the distance from his homeland references to aspects of Caribbean life are often present in his work although not without conveying a sense of nostalgia or poetic longing.
In the present work Larraz evokes the popular Caribbean love ballad Yellow Bird--a serenade of a lonesome lover to an equally lonesome bird. Based on the classic Haitian poem by Oswald Durand, titled Choucoune, the ode recounts the story of his brief love affair with Marie Noel Belizaire, nicknamed Choucoune. A strikingly, beautiful woman with long tresses and dark skin, Choucoune was considerably younger than Durand, and soon abandoned the poet for a younger lover only to be jilted herself. Eternally broken-hearted Durand immortalized Choucoune in his poem composed in 1883 while he was imprisoned. His unforgettable words were first set to music in creole in the late 1800s by the musician Michel Mauleart Monton. In the 1950s the lyrics evolved into Yellow Bird and recorded by countless singers from the Mills Brothers and Roger Williams to Lawrence Welk and most famously by the Queen of Salsa herself--Celia Cruz. Today, the song is performed by cover bands and a favorite of tourists on cruises or vacationing in the Caribbean islands, unaware that it all started in 1883, in a lonely Haitian prison.
In La Choucoune, Larraz brings the popular legend of the beautiful Haitian woman who captivated the poet's heart to life. Here he depicts Choucoune in all her glory and youth, lost amid the lush greenery of the plantation field one with the tropical landscape--much like her enduring presence lives on in the collective psyche of the Caribbean.
One of the leading Cuban American artists of his generation, Julio Larraz has lived in the United States since 1961. Best known for his still lifes, landscapes, and figurative works, his seemingly realistic style belies his mystical, expressive, and quasi-surrealistic approach to painting. Likewise his enigmatic works attests to his bi-cultural experience and despite the distance from his homeland references to aspects of Caribbean life are often present in his work although not without conveying a sense of nostalgia or poetic longing.
In the present work Larraz evokes the popular Caribbean love ballad Yellow Bird--a serenade of a lonesome lover to an equally lonesome bird. Based on the classic Haitian poem by Oswald Durand, titled Choucoune, the ode recounts the story of his brief love affair with Marie Noel Belizaire, nicknamed Choucoune. A strikingly, beautiful woman with long tresses and dark skin, Choucoune was considerably younger than Durand, and soon abandoned the poet for a younger lover only to be jilted herself. Eternally broken-hearted Durand immortalized Choucoune in his poem composed in 1883 while he was imprisoned. His unforgettable words were first set to music in creole in the late 1800s by the musician Michel Mauleart Monton. In the 1950s the lyrics evolved into Yellow Bird and recorded by countless singers from the Mills Brothers and Roger Williams to Lawrence Welk and most famously by the Queen of Salsa herself--Celia Cruz. Today, the song is performed by cover bands and a favorite of tourists on cruises or vacationing in the Caribbean islands, unaware that it all started in 1883, in a lonely Haitian prison.
In La Choucoune, Larraz brings the popular legend of the beautiful Haitian woman who captivated the poet's heart to life. Here he depicts Choucoune in all her glory and youth, lost amid the lush greenery of the plantation field one with the tropical landscape--much like her enduring presence lives on in the collective psyche of the Caribbean.