Jose Angel Toirac
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Obsesión (Obsession)
Co-Created with Meira Marrero. 2010. Gold bread mounted on the Wall. Dimensions Variable. (This work recounts, using gold bread and sketches on the wall, the 638 assassination attempts against Fidel Castro. The total was revealed in 2006 by the former Cuban state security agent Fabián Escalante in a documentary film by Dollan Cannel called 638 Ways to Kill Castro) -
Autorretrato. Homenaje a Durero (Self-Portrait, Homage to Durero)
1995. Oil on Canvas. 180 x 120 cm. Collection: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. (This parodies a photo by Korda taken of Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountains, and really draws upon the self-portrait Cristo-Morfo that Alberto Durero did when 28 years old, the same age as Toirac in 1995 when he created this work.) -
Perfil (Profile)
2007. Pencil on paper. 22 Drawings of 19 x 14 cm each. Collection: Keith Brackpool, USA. (A portrait more psychological tan physical of an unknown individual parodying the profiles police create when they relate small bits of information and try to portray a suspect. It references the book Cien Horas con Fidel by Ignacio Ramonet)
Jose Angel Toirac's Statement
The first point of reference in my work, logically, is Cuba, but this doesn’t mean that the issues I take on are endemic to the island.
Day after day I go about archiving images from historical newspapers, magazines, and books that I later use as reference and work material. My creative process is to recycle all this material in relation to the idea that embodies each artwork.
My work is realist to the extent that I take as an object of study not reality but it’s image, the combination of visual habits that condition our comprehension and conception of the world. In this sense I accept Sartre’s maxim that what is important is not what we do, but that which we do with what has been done to us.
About Jose Angel Toirac
José Angel Toirac was born in 1966. He has received awards from Rhode Island School of Design, RI, USA in 2001; Art in General, New York, NY, USA in 2002; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA, USA in 2010 and 2014 and Rockefeller Bellagio Center, Bellagio, Italy in 2012. His works are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba; Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany; Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, USA; Centre G. Pompidou, Paris, France; Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA; Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA; Museé des Beux-Arts de Montreal; Montreal, Canada; The Bronx Museum, New York, NY, USA; The Daros Latinamerica Collection – Daros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland; The Farber Collection, USA; and Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH, USA.
