I am writing in response to Makenna Davis’s letter to the editor (“Poster exemplifies need for respect for women,” ODE, Jan. 26) about the JSMA’s exhibition signage that features a detail from Agustin Bejarano’s print “La Coqueta VII (Mujer Embarazada).”
In developing the marketing identity for Lasting Legacies: The First 75 Years, we selected two objects from our collections that would span the history of the museum and reflect diverse cultures. From each of those two art works, we selected a detail: a dragon on a Chinese robe, part of the initial gift to the University from Gertrude Bass Warner, the museum’s founder, and one of the first works that entered the museum’s collection. The other is one of the most recent gifts I’ve acquired for the museum, the tour-de-force etching by one of Cuba’s most esteemed contemporary artists, Agustin Bejarano.
Many of you may have seen the print since it was acquired and placed on view nearly five months ago. While the woman, the artist’s wife, is unquestionably pregnant, the meaning, or meanings, of the work, cannot overlook the numerous nails affixed to her belly. A great deal of portraiture in contemporary Cuban art uses the body as a metaphor for Cuba, and so interpretations regarding fertility and giving birth operate here on both a personal and national level; the image resonates with the difficulty of living and creating in Cuba and the impossibility of not doing so.
This is, of course, one of the great gifts of the art on view at the JSMA – that it causes us to reflect, respond and learn. I hope everyone on campus will take a moment to come and see the Bejarano in its full form and enjoy our 75th anniversary celebration.
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