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Studio-Workshop "Martha Jimenez", where art catches forever

In the heart of the Historical Center of the city of Camaguey, declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, the Studio-Workshop "Martha Jimenez" has become an important space for diffusing Cuban art, in view of more than twelve thousand visitors received since its opening, in February of last year.

Located in the Plaza del Carmen, where the sculptural group exhibits the original sculptures -in melted marble- of the ceramist from Camaguey, Martha Jimenez; in the studio, there is a gallery where her work is exhibited permanently, at the same time serving from headquarters to a community project, between the creative and the Office of the Historian of the City of Camaguey. 

Martha continues to reflect the subtle contrasts between races and ethnic groups that time has left to the current world and, with singular grace, reflects the essence of the Cuban. The wide range of her creative work allows her to go from small format sculptures to a work that captures the challenges of artistic creation. 

The gallery, with its well-identified sections, invites us to enjoy a collection of paintings and sculptures that the author has developed during her fruitful artistic life; works that frame different stages of work, as well as the achievements obtained in events and exhibitions, and that can be acquired by those who wish to treasure them.

Site of obligatory visit for residents and foreigners, in its rooms paintings are exhibited and, above all, the unique ceramics stand out, among which the human figure stands out, mainly the woman, highlighted with a certain erotic referent, and another endless number of allegories of the cuban traditions.

The Studio-Workshop "Martha Jimenez" is located in one of the oldest areas of Camaguey. Built in the 18th century, it is representative of colonial architecture; is in perfect harmony with the sculptural work that Martha proposes and is a permanent invitation to an encounter with art and tradition.

The Plaza del Carmen, space of the Studio-Workshop, emerged in the first decades of the nineteenth century and is one of the most picturesque of the Camagueyan Historical Center, both for its peculiar stepped shape and the heterogeneous population that inhabits it -characterized by the strong predominance of Afro-Cuban traditions due to the presence of town councils in the area.

Currently, in the cobbled streets of the Plaza del Carmen -the best preserved in the city- stand out the figures sculpted by Martha Jimenez, who recreated traditional characters such as the former water vendor, the newspaper reader, the gossiping (talkative) women and the couple in love ... eloquent witnesses, from their exit from the popular expression of yesterday and forever.

Martha Jimenez, considered among the most prolific and talented artists of recent decades in Cuba and already enrolled in the payroll of the great, successfully validates her cultural project in a city where, precisely, the greatest attraction is the historical-cultural heritage.

 


Source: HostelTur Magazine. No. 193. April, 2010. Page 66.