Aguilera: “Maria” (detail)
Alejandro Aguilera (b. 1964), Cuban-American
A Brief History Of Usage, 2007
Center figure, Attraction
Left figure, Ana
Right figure, María
Supporting element to the front left, Mixed Media
Gift of The Private Collection of the Shelley and Donald Rubin
Collection of Oglethorpe University Museum of Art
In 2013, Shelley and Donald Rubin donated three life-size sculptures by Cuban-American artist Alejandro Aguilera to OUMA’s permanent collection. The installation represents artists’ sacrifices and suffering to practice and express their own ideas.
“These works blend history and art history, nature and culture. In this space, ideas from the world of ideology co-exist with images and artistic styles arising from aesthetics. Ana and María is a portrait of Ana Albertina Delgado, a Cuban artist who created some of the most personal and artistic works of our time and María Izquierdo, a Mexican artist who utilized naïve elements in her paintings, and believed strongly in Mexico as a rich and diverse source of inspiration. The figures in this portrait, made of vanilla, cinnamon, yellow root, anise and marjoram—with their crude poses, and stoic gazes—are reminiscent of The Two Fridas; a double self-portrait painted in 1939 by Frida Kahlo, a contemporary of Delgado and Izquierdo.” – Society for Contemporary Craft
