Cundo Bermudez
Lunes, 21 de Diciembre - Monday,
December 21st
Cundo Bermudez, was born in La Habana, 1914. "When I was young I
wanted to be a writer; although I studied at San Alejandro, I
never intended to take art seriously. The thirties was a decade
of labor strikes and university closings; the economic situation
was terrible by the time I went to Mexico in 1938. I was never
awarded a scholarship in Cuba; I have never had material
ambitions, and have been very independent. When the news come of
Batista's coup d'etat in 1952, I was vacationing in Europe. I
returned home, and dedicated myself full time to painting. It
has been like that ever since. I have fun at what I do; the
pleasure I get from painting is vital for me. I enjoy art like
Mozart enjoyed his music. Some people are concerned over
philosophic postulates, over universal chaos, over the atomic
bomb; for me, painting is a celebration of form and color, and
nothing more. I left Cuba absolutely disillusioned, perhaps
because I had believed totally in the revolution. Between 1962
and 1967, the government obliterated me; I was neither harassed
nor persecuted, simply ignored. Exile has affected the
individual, not the artist; when I arrived in Puerto Rico, I
felt as if I had reached a region of Cuba I had not known
previously. In a way, I still feel uprooted, for I do not feel
at home anywhere."