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The Cuban artist Choco |
From Cuban tablecloths to the walls of Hollywood stars
A shortage of materials in his native Cuba forced Choco to innovate and improvise – the results have gained him recognition across the world,
writes Simon Wroe
THE phrase “children of the revolution” is now bandied about to sell everything from the latest rock band to transit vans, but Cuban artist Choco is the real deal.
When Batista’s regime collapsed in 1959, a 10-year-old with an uncanny resemblance to the boxer Chocolatico Perez listened quietly to his parents’ excited conversations, doodling on the tablecloth.
Two years later, under a new government initiative to study arts in Havana, Choco, whose real name is Eduardo Roca Salazar, went to the Cuban capital and enrolled at the National School for Art Instructors under the tutelage of some of the biggest artists working in Cuba at the time, including Alfredo Sosabravo, Antonia Eiriz and Armando Posse.
It would put him on the path to international acclaim as one of Cuba’s leading figurative artists, winning awards as far away from home as Spain and Japan and recognition across Europe and the United States.
Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover and Robert Redford all own pieces of his work.
Choco’s art veers between painting and engraving, often incorporating both at the same time. His varied mediums were born, he says, out of necessity.
“In those days it was difficult to come by all the material needed, so Cuban artists had to develop alternative forms of creating, such as engraving,” says Choco.
“I have never adopted engraving simply as engraving per se.
“I think of it as painting and that’s how it’s reflected throughout my work.”
The shortage of materials continued throughout the 1980s leading Choco to turn to collography, a print-making technique in which materials are assembled into a collage and then inked and printed.
But, whichever medium he uses, the over-arching, human themes of the Cuban landscape and the campesinos (peasants) have proved to be constants in his work.
“This subject attracted most of my generation in the 1970s, each artist giving it his or her own personal, individual style,” he explains.
“Most of us were of provincial or rural origins and, as a result of the radical change after 1959, we became involved in the social process.
“This generation is still around, doing a lot of deeply important things in and out of the country.
“When a generation is aware of what it does, and continues to create and participate in the cultural process of its time, it is difficult for it to lose its way or go backwards.”
• Choco: Colour and Rhythm from Cuba is at The Chambers Gallery, 23 Long Lane, from October 12- November 9.
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