Zilia S Nchez

A beautifully produced, comprehensive look at Cuban artist Zilia Sánchez that traces her alluring and evocative paintings and sculpture from the 1950s to today Cuban artist Zilia Sánchez (b. 1926) often says, “Soy isla” (“I am an island”), expressing her desire for solitary, uncompromising practice. It also serves as a metaphor for her experience as an islander—connected to and disconnected from both the mainland and mainstream art currents, such as concretism, gestural abstraction, and minimalism. Characterized by reductive forms, clean lines, and sensuous curves suggestive of the female body, Sánchez’s work frequently references protagonists from ancient mythology and lunar motifs while embracing ambiguity. This groundbreaking volume examines her paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and graphic illustrations together with archival ephemera. It traces Sánchez’s artistic journey from her early years in Cuba through her travels in Europe and residence in New York in the 1960s to her move to Puerto Rico, where she still lives and works. With spectacular illustrations of more than 75 artworks, insightful essays situating Sánchez within the context of global modernism, and a conversation with the artist, this is the most comprehensive publication on Sánchez’s art to date.

"The book is a contribution to the historical study of gay and lesbian art, yet calls for altering its parameters in ways that fully recognize social and cultural difference. It provides a chronological and conceptual framework for studying the tropes of 'homotextual' expression in a Latin American context. More than one hundred illustrations, gathered from various sources across Latin America, North America and Europe, allow the reader to personally witness this fascinating and, until now, concealed story."--BOOK JACKET.

"Matters of Inscription: Reading Figures of Latinidad argues that Latinx inscriptions require us to read at the edge of materiality and semiosis, charting a nimble method for "reading" various forms of Latinx marks and even the word Latinx across art, performance, poetry, plays, and fiction"--

This book focuses on the life and artistic activities of Emilio Sanchez (1921–1999) in New York, and Latin America in the 1940s and 1950s. More specifically, the book will consider Sanchez in the wider context of mid-century Cuban artists, and cross-cultural exchange between New York, Cuba, and the Caribbean. The book reflects on why Sanchez chose to be a mobile observer of the American and Caribbean vernacular at a time when such an approach seemed at odds with the mainstream avant-garde. The book includes a foreword by Dr. Ann Koll, former Executive Director/Curator of the Emilio Sanchez Foundation, and an introduction by Dr. Nathan J. Timpano, University of Miami Department of Art and Art History. This book will be of interest to scholars in modern art, Caribbean studies, architectural history, and Latin American and Hispanic studies.

Analyzes the theme of self-sacrifice in Puerto Rican literature through psychoanalytic theory. Malady and Genius examines the recurring theme of self-sacrifice in Puerto Rican literature during the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. Interpreting these scenes through the works of Frantz Fanon, Kelly Oliver, and Julia Kristeva, Benigno Trigo focuses on the context of colonialism and explains the meaning of this recurring theme as a mode of survival under a colonial condition that has lasted more than five hundred years in the oldest colony in the world. Trigo engages a number of works in Latino and Puerto Rican studies that have of late reconsidered the value of a psychoanalytic approach to texts and cultural material, and also different methodologies including post-colonial theory, cultural studies, and queer studies. Benigno Trigo is Professor of Spanish at Vanderbilt University. He is the author and editor of several books, including Kristeva’s Fiction, also published by SUNY Press.

Following the trajectories of two pioneering artist groups, this groundbreaking book explores the development of abstract art, and its political stakes, in 1950s Cuba.

Memoir is Rosario Ferré’s account of her life both as a writer and as a member of a family at the center of the economic and political history of Puerto Rico during the American Century, one hundred years of territorial “non-incorporation” into the United States. The autobiography tells the story of Ferré’s transformation from the daughter of a privileged family into a celebrated novelist, poet, and essayist concerned with the welfare of Puerto Ricans, and with the difficulties of being a woman in Puerto Rican society. It is a snapshot of twentieth-century Puerto Rico through the lens of a writer profoundly aware of her social position. It is a picture taken from the perspective of a keen observer of the local history of the island, and of the history of the United States. Included are many photographs that connect Ferré’s life with the story of her writing career.

Severo Sarduy never enjoyed the same level of notoriety as did other Latin American writers. On the other hand, he never lacked for excellent critical interpretations of his work from critics like Roberto Gonz lez Echevarr -a, Ren (c) Prieto, Gustavo Guerrero, and other reputable scholars. Missing, however, from what is otherwise an impressive body of critical commentary, is a study of the importance of painting and architecture, first, to his theory, and second, to his creative work. In order to fill this lacuna in Sarduy studies, Rolando P (c)rez's book undertakes a critical approach to Sarduy's essays"Barroco, Escrito sobre un cuerpo, Barroco y neobarroco, and La simulaci 3n "from the stand point of art history. In short, no book on Sarduy until now has traced the multifaceted art historical background that informed the work of this challenging and exciting writer. It will be a book that many a critic of Sarduy and the Latin American baroque will consult in years to come.