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Niña Vijigante by Juan Sánchez

Niña Vijigante

Juan Sánchez

Artwork details

Title
Niña Vijigante
Description

 

Collagraph/Duotone Lithograph/Handcoloring/Cowie Shells

Arches Black 250gsm and Mulberry

64”h x 44”w

Edition Various of 16 2000

 

The Vejigante (bay-he-GAHN-tay) is a fantastic, colorful

character introduced into carnival celebrations in Puerto Rico

hundreds of years ago. He is a classic example of the blending

of African, Spanish, paints it to resemble a balloon. The Vejigante's costume is

made from scraps of fabric and looks like a clown suit with a cape

and batwings under the arms. During the carnival celebrations in

Loíza Aldea and Ponce, the Vejigantes roam the streets in groups

 and chase children with their vejigas. The Vejigante is such an old

character that he is even mentioned in the classic novel Don Quixote

 written in 1605.

From Exitstudio.com

 

Celebrating the Spanish defeat of the Moors, Juan Sanchez takes this

traditionally male figure and assigns it to the feminine (in his photograph)

in the form of his daughter, Liora.

and Caribbean influences in Puerto Rican

culture. The name Vejigante comes from the Spanish word for

bladder, vejiga. The Vejigante inflates a dried cow's bladder

Date
2000
Edition
Edition Various of 16
Signature
Signed
Image
64h x 44w inches
Sheet
64h x 44w inches
Status
Available
Price
Price on request
The Artist

Juan Sánchez

Born in 1954 to immigrant working-class Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn, New York, Juan Sánchez is one of the most significant Nuyorican visual artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Sánchez emerged as a central figure within a generation of artists using diverse media to explore ethnic, racial, and national identity as well as social justice in the 1980s and 90s. While Sánchez first gained recognition for his large multi-layered mixed-media collage paintings addressing issues of Puerto Rican identity and colonisation, his innovative oeuvre has expanded in terms of both medium and thematics; Sánchez now alludes to international subjects – including U.S. interventions abroad, apartheid, and nuclear disarmament – in addition to local and personal interests, through painting, photography, printmaking, and video.

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