Baruj Salinas

Baruj Salinas (born July 6, 1935) is a

Salinas was born in Havana, Cuba on July 6, 1935. He began painting early in life and was influenced and supported in the arts by his mother. Regina was a painter whose work consisted of still life scenes of flowers as her main subject in oil paint. This was Salinas’ first exposure to art and by the age of six he began to assist with his mother's painting. Salinas would also draw and sketch, such as tracing newspaper comics. His early sketches included Tarzan, Dick Tracy, and Superman.^[4]

By age eleven, Salinas had begun painting landscapes based on his observations of scenery in Cuba. This was followed by scenes of life and people in Havana such as fish salesmen, ice cream salesmen, and children on buses. These evolved into busier market scenes that he would sketch in person and apply paint to afterwards. His early works were made in his childhood bedroom as he did not have a studio at the time and he first exhibited his works at his school. At fourteen, he attended the Círculo de Bellas Artes behind the

His mother encouraged his progression as a self-taught artist and he continued developing in this way (“unrestrained”) until he received a scholarship to study painting in Kent State University. Upon attending, he felt socio-economically excluded from the fine art world due to his background, though he remained strongly dedicated to design. Therefore, he followed in his father's footsteps and switched his major to architecture, continuing to paint as a personal hobby and minor income source.^[3]

While in America, he had begun painting portraits to supplement his income. His subjects were largely his friends and their family and they continued in his early realist vein. Salinas later admitted that in these commissions he would idealize his subject's likeness for a more flattering representation and overall did not enjoy painting portraits.

Salinas was also increasingly active in the Cuban and Latin American art market in Miami. A significant development came in the mid-1960s when Salinas co-founded (with Enrique Riveron) and subsequently led the Grupo GALA (an acronym for Grupo de Artistas Latino Americanos), the first formal professional organization of Latin American artists established is South Florida.[6]^[9] GALA members (Salinas, Enrique Riveron, Rafael Soriano, José María Mijares, Roxanna McAllister, and Osvaldo Gutiérrez) would gather bi-monthly to discuss their individual art projects, sponsorships, and organize bi-annual group exhibitions.^[6]

Through most of the 1960s, while he continued to deepen his commitment to art, Salinas still worked in architecture as his main profession.

During this period Salinas was neighbors with fellow prominent Cuban artist Juan Gonzalez and taught him the airbrush painting technique González used to achieve the large-scale hyperrealism style that would soon gain him recognition by leading art institutions in following decade.^[12] Salinas also introduced González to Jesus and Marta Permuy, in 1969.^[12] This facilitated the launch of Permuy Gallery in 1972 as Gonzalez relocated permanently to New York City and the Permuys assumed the lease to González's Coral Gables art studio and converted it into one of the first Cuban art galleries in the United States.^[12] Salinas and the individual Grupo GALA members would be active participants in the gallery's activities as well as in other early Latin American art events and activities, which contributed to the gradual growth of that market in the region during the late 1960s and 1970s.^[12][13]

Spanish period

In 1974, Salinas relocated from Miami to Barcelona, Spain where he would remain for the following two decades. The move signaled the end of the GALA group and a new phase of Salinas’ career.^[6] In Spain, Salinas became associated with leading art dealer Juana Mordó, who was an essential contact for Salinas and opened her vast network to him within Madrid and Barcelona. This critical exposure helped him become established in Spain and develop a regular stream of collectors there. Salinas also became associated with prominent Spanish painters, including Joan Miró, Antoní Tàpies, as well as American Alexander Calder. He also became immersed in Spain's literary community and developed close friendships with several writers including María Zambrano, José Angel Valente, Vahe Godel, Ramon Dachs, Pere Gimferrer, and Michel Butor.^{[14][4][15][16][7]}

This period saw Salinas venture further into total abstraction and free form styles.^[17] It also saw his color palette shift toward more subtle and neutral tones with a strong emphasis on whites and grays, often inspired by and symbolizing clouds.^[18] Salinas would call this concept “The Language of the Clouds,” which became a series of works exploring this color palette and approach to abstraction.^[18][19] During his Spain period, Salinas would also explore the

He also did two books with María Zambrano, one of which, Antes de la ocultación: los mares (1983), was noteworthy for its four lithographs by Salinas that involved a complex double process: the first being the lithographic process while the second was the incorporation of texture into the book.^[4] The pair had a long-running collaboration that would grow to include a second book, Arbol (Tree), in 1985 as well as a number of other projects through editor and gallerist Orlando Blanco.^[20][21][15] In 1988 Salinas worked with Michel Butor on the book Trois enfants dans la fournaise. The book featured etchings by Salinas and accompanying poetry by Butor and was shown in the Museum of Bayeux in France.^[4]

Salinas also established long-running creative relationships with Barcelona printmakers and artists. One was Rufino Tamayo, who specialized in lithographs and engravings.^[15] He also worked with Japanese artist and printmaker Masafumi Yamamoto for 15 years, during which time Salinas refined his own printmaking processes. The collaboration would also impact the development of his paintings as he would factor in more closely the etching and printmaking process that would follow in replicating his artworks. A poet associate of Salinas at the time described this influence as his being “yamamotisized,” and Salinas would in turn influence Yamamoto's work while in Barcelona.^[4]

Second Miami period and later career

Salinas returned to Miami in 1992 and would reside in Coral Gables, Florida.^[15] Since returning to the United States, he has exhibited in New York City, Chicago, Spain, France, Switzerland, Japan, Egypt, Panama, Venezuela, and elsewhere.^[17]

His style since his second Miami period has seen Salinas gradually re-embrace color. He attributed the widening of his color palette and increased use of contrast and saturation to the difference in light between Spain and Miami, as well as the cultural differences between how each city uses color.^[3] Upon his return to the United States in 1992, Salinas also met his second wife Marilyn C. Fonts, who was then employed in a South Florida fine art gallery; the couple would wed in 2004.^[22][23]

From 1993 to 1998, and again in 2000 and 2002–03, Salinas served as the Arts Coordinator for the International Committee for Human Rights in Miami. He is currently a fine art professor at Miami Dade College and began teaching in the MDC Interamerican campus in 2001.^[7] In that role, he has been active in curating and facilitating student exhibitions of art there.^[24]

From 2015 to 2017 Salinas was recruited to be part of

In regards to his interpretation of the cross-cultural themes of globalism in Contemporary art, Salinas has stated "Art has become a universal language and the modern artist attempts to embrace the idea of a language that has no barriers."^[20]

In describing Salinas' style, art critic Carlos M. Luis stated: "Baruj uses color and all its intense chromatism as a channel or filter (in the manner of

Speaking on his own approach to art, Salinas has said “I strive to find a language that people can recognize in me by the work and not by my signature.“ He elaborated: “To me, painting is not work. It is something that transcends labor [...] like a meditation. I enjoy seeing a wide blank space being developed into something that has life.”^[28][27]

Gallery

• 
  GENESIS: CREATION (2014) by Baruj Salinas
• 
  EXODUS: RED SEA (2014) by Baruj Salinas
• 
  LEVITICUS: THE LAW (2014) by Baruj Salinas

Exhibitions and publications

Salinas has had over 100 solo exhibitions of his artwork and has exhibited in over 20 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.^[27][30] These include multiple exhibitions in Cuba, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Argentina, and elsewhere.^[5][17]

Salinas has been covered by several media outlets, including Art Now,

He was the subject of the book BARUJ SALINAS, first published in Spanish in 1979 and republished in 1988, when it was translated into English and French.[47]^[48]

In 2000, his career was the subject of the film Baruj Salinas, 21st Century Master.^[49] In 2019 he participated in the second “Art + Architecture” exhibition in Coral Gables, Florida, where he was the main featured artist alongside his late fellow Grupo GALA member José Mijares.^[50]

In 2022, The American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora hosted a 50-year retrospective of Salinas' career from May to August. The exhibition, titled Baruj Salinas: 1972-2022, included works from several of Salinas' most high-profile series, including The Language of the Clouds and The Torah Project.^[51] The retrospective was produced by the Cuban Legacy Gallery, MDC Special Collections at Miami Dade College, and the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora.^[51] Originally intended to be held at the Miami Freedom Tower, Salinas stated that the retrospective was "the best and most comprehensive exhibition of my career” noting that, in comparing the venues, the Museum allowed for considerably more work to be featured.^[52]

Awards and reputation

Throughout his career, Salinas has received numerous international fine art awards for his paintings. They include: Best Transparent Watercolor award from the Texas Watercolor Society (San Antonio, 1964), First Prize for Watercolor in the Hortt Memorial Exhibition at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art (1968), the

Salinas' artwork has been sold on fine art brokerage institutions including Sotheby's, Artnet, and others.^[54][55][56]

Contemporary art collector Dr. Arturo F. Mosquera, stated to the

In 2021, Salinas was awarded the 2021 Premio Amelia Pelaez by the Cuban Cultural Center of New York. The award presentation event was co-sponsored by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.^[57]

Collections

Salinas' work is featured in several international fine art collections including:

• The Americas Collection Coral Gables, Florida^[58]
• The Art Institute of Chicago^[59]
• The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel^[1]
• The
  Vatican Secret Archives, Vatican City^[1]
• The
  Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona, Spain^[17][26]
• The Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C.^[60]
• The Villa du Parc Center for Contemporary Art, Annemasse, France^[27]
• The National Museum of Catalonia - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain^[17]
• Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art, Alicante, Spain^[27]
• Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Spain^[27]
• The
  National Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico City, Mexico^[17]
• The Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City^[27]
• Institute of International Education, New York^[27]
• Museo del Barrio, New York^[27]
• Villa de Montecatini Collection, Italy[27]
• Cabinet des Estampes, Geneva, Switzerland^[27]
• The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland^[61]
• The Beit Uri and Rami Nehoshtan Museum, Israel^[17]
• The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas^[62]
• The Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona^[17][26]
• Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano (MACLA), La Plata, Argentina^[27]
• The Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, Hungary^[17][26]
• John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida^[63]
• The NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida^[64]
• The Bacardi Collection, Coral Gables, Florida^[65]
• The Permuy Collection, Coral Gables, Florida^[66]
• The Pinedo Collection, Miami, Florida^[67]
• The Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Florida^[68]

References