¡Merengue!

Ritmos Visuales / Visual Rhythms

February 9,2007 - May 27, 2007

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
This exhibition, organized by Centro Cultural Eduardo León Jimenes in Santiago, Dominican Republic and curated by Sara Hermann, explores the pictorial representation of merengue, the genre of music and dance that, interwoven throughout the nation’s history, has come to define Dominican culture and identity.

Spanning the 20th century, the exhibition features 47 works from private and public Dominican collections -- primarily paintings, and also select works on paper, sculpture, photography and video -- by 36 Dominican artists inspired by this prevalent form of musical and rhythmic expression. ¡Merengue! explores the evolving formal styles embraced by artists on the island conversant with global artistic currents, from Realism to Cubism and Expressionism to Post-Modernism, while consistently drawing from a distinctly Dominican iconographic vocabulary. Tracing this great tradition and its intersections with the visual arts, the exhibition translates the energy and festivity of the beloved national music through depictions of both customary rural celebrations and more contemporary profiles of conjuntos, groups of musicians, performing for dancing crowds.