Goya and Cuban painter Roberto Fabelo in a unique exhibition in Madrid

February 23, 2023

Fabelo, who uses elements of expressionism and surrealism in his work, basing his images on the question of the division between fantasy and reality, has received close to 30 awards, highlighting the Triennial Prize for Contemporary Art in New Delhi in 1978 and the Armando Reverón International Drawing Prize at the I Havana Biennial in 1984. Photos: Génesis Art Galleries (Havana).

Worlds. Goya and Fabelo at Centro Conde Duque, Conde Duque, 11, Madrid from February 16 to July 30, 2023.

Since February 16, the art exhibition Worlds. Goya and Fabelo has been open at Centro Conde Duque, Madrid, sponsored by the Fundación Ibercaja.

The exhibition, which can be seen until July 30, aims to foster a dialogue between the engravings from the series "Los caprichos" and "Los desastres de la guerra" by the Aragonese master, and pictorial works and two installations by the Cuban: "Leadership" and "Survivors".

The first, made up of twenty-one life-sized rhinoceros sculptures; and the second, composed of several sculptures of giant cockroaches with human faces, perhaps a nod to Franz Kafka. Some of the colossal insects have jumped onto the facade of Casa de América, to the surprise and delight of passersby.

Fundación Ibercaja houses an exhibition of Francisco de Goya (160 engravings) and Roberto Fabelo (13 works) in "Worlds. Goya and Fabelo". Photo: Enrique Cidoncha.

Roberto Fabelo (Guáimaro, Camagüey, 1950) is a more than consecrated artist, with presence in some of the most important museums in the world. This year Christie's auctioned his work Perrerío (2018; oil on canvas, 204 x 474 cm) at Rockefeller Center in New York for the sum of $579,600, which constitutes a new sales record for the artist.

Known initially as an exceptional draftsman and engraver, Fabelo has ventured throughout his extensive career and with notable success, furthermore, into painting, ceramics, installation, and sculpture.

His very personal world, which is nourished by references from universal art, such as the works of Rembrandt and Hieronymus Bosch, exudes a great dose of grotesque and dramatism, two ingredients that, according to his keen eye, we find daily in the most immediate reality, and to which he gives a treatment not devoid of beauty. The terrible beauty.

Troubled by so many professional and social commitments stemming from the recent inauguration of his Madrid exhibition, under the weather, but happy with the resonance the event is having, we approached him at an odd hour for this brief exchange.

The curators of the exhibition Worlds. Goya and Fabelo believe they see many points of coincidence between your work and that of the Spanish master.