Leonardo Luis Roque
About Artist
Flowers from the garden or wild. Beautiful flowers, of many colors and shapes, painted in the manner of the impressionists. This selection is (seems) beautiful, calm, harmless … Pure esthetician gloat. But the title of the series makes us search second interpretations.
"Political painting." How can a flower be political? With these works, Leonardo Luis Roque (Cienfuegos, 1986) decides on the social responsibility of art, the role that society (at least a part of that society) gives artists.
Is it legitimate to escape, turn your back on everyday problems, inhabit an "uncontaminated" environment and create from there? That is a trick question. The ability to represent and recreate art seems infinite. That ability is enough to "excuse it" from specific obligations to the context.
But the same decision to be "apolitical" implies a political position. That could be one of the keys to the series. Leonardo Luis Roque seems to shake off certain pressures on artistic creation. The innocence of flowers becomes a shield.
Paint flowers so you don't have to deal with more arduous issues …
But the titles of the works can encourage some suspicion. What happened on each of those dates? Why do you title a piece, for example, "April 19, 1715"? Wikipedia does not refer to any event of particular relevance that day. But obviously, many things must have happened. Many people suffered, many people enjoyed, many people fought …
Something is clear: on April 19, 1715 the flowers looked equally beautiful. A tiny flower can then be a metaphor for quiet resistance. Being, simply being, is sometimes the strongest way to reaffirm. In life and in politics.
