Three projects have marked the institutionalization of the presence of the painter, poet, philosopher and art critic Elizam Escobar (1949-2021), beginning with the incorporation of his effigy among the Cabezudos of the recent San Sebastián Street Festivities, according to the inspiration scored by Pedro Adorno. There is also the documentary Miradas al Arte, by the San Juan Student League, by Demetrio González and Amalia García Padilla, under the title Artes de Liberación, recently presented by WIPR-TV.
Also, there is the in memoriam made by the actress Soledad Romero in New York, on the 11th anniversary of her exhibition with the artist in 2010, at the Kenkeleba gallery in this city, entitled Antillanos. In this they participated with Escobar, Daniel Lind, Carmelo Sobrino, Rubén Ríos, Miguel Bulerín and Pablo Marcano.
Some 30 years earlier, the date of his arrest in Chicago had been fulfilled, when he was accused of sedition and sentenced to 64 years in prison. After a long campaign for his release, his sentence was commuted by President Bill Clinton, after serving 19 years and five months in state jails and federal prisons in the United States.
Romero —the first Puerto Rican actress to make her debut in the Carnegie Hall in New York, starring in the oratory of María Sabina, the original winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature, Camilo José Cela— remembers that she visited the artist at his residence in Hato Rey’s workshop to select the pieces that he was going to exhibit, while telling him about his experience behind bars, where he was allowed to paint. Romero highlighted how he stood out, that after those circumstances, he dedicated himself to polishing his intellect by writing poetry and essays. Escobar chose three pieces for Antillano within his dreamlike and symbolic style.
“One of these exhibited works was Hanged Man, a self-portrait that projects a destiny of dying in that way. The central figure appears hanging from a ceiling beam with his hands tied and inserted in a sack, reflecting that he has fallen into a fishing net, which at the same time is a mortuary shroud. It is a painting that could be interpreted literally as an alert for the string of Puerto Rican prisoners who have been discovered hanging in the cell, “the university professor also commented to THE SPOKESMAN.
“With almost 20 years locked up and when we live this pandemic of semi-incarceration out of necessity, one is angered by anxiety, and thinking about how in all these years he was able to intelligently handle that confinement,” he reflected.
– .
