Revisiting the past - The paintings of Gustavo Acosta

Gustavo Acosta. "38°C".
Acrylic on canvas,  98” x 247”. 1991.
Photo Rogelio Lopez Marin (Gory). Courtesy of the artist and Pan American Art Projects

By Irina Leyva-Pérez

If we look back at Gustavo’s oeuvre over a span of twenty years, we can easily recognize that he has been interested in social expressions of power. In the 1980s, when his work started receiving attention, he was using metaphors of Roman architecture as a reference to the Cuban social system. The dark, gray and muted colors were intentionally placed to reinforce the atmosphere of oppression that he wanted to convey. By representing some of the most recognizable buildings in Roman architecture, he drew a subtle parallel between the Imperial Roman and Cuban dictatorships. This was a period when he consciously avoided portraying Havana as a recognizable city, and mostly reverted to these urban similitudes to express his ideas. By appearing to cite the past, he was bringing to our attention a deeply-troubled reality, masked by the created perception of admiring a certain historical period. A classic of this tendency in his paintings is the daunting 38°C, from 1991, one of the last pieces that he created in Cuba. The massive and gloomy building is an imposing image, the kind of view that could provoke depressing thoughts; it deliberately tries to create a sensation of lost expectations.