Many years back, I had the privilege of interviewing Jorge Severino for an article in the Playa Dorada Magazine that I edited at the time. He explained his art giving it new meaning. I share with DR1 readers the English translation.
SEVERINO'S WOMEN
By Dolores Vicioso
To be captivated by the gazes of the proud black women deified in the paintings of Jorge Severino is natural. The keener observer of the works of art, however, will intuitively recognize that their enigmatic stares belie a hidden world. Meeting Jorge Severino and coming to know his life work is to understand that his paintings symbolize an underlying protest in favor of women and of diversity in Dominican society. Jorge Severino has long been their defender and his brushstrokes his munitions. While some may think of him as a feminist in hiding, throughout the years he has let the women of his oeuvres relay his message, timidly optimistic that some day they may be understood and freed. For this review, Severino himself explained the thoughts behind four moments of his successful career, all from the point of view of the Caribbean woman as center, essence and life.
The Prayer
This painting took the Second Award in the 1968 IV Annual E. León Jimenes Contest, with the oft-honored Mexican artist José Luis Cuevas among the panel of judges. By winning this award, Severino entered into an elite circle of artists on the national forefront.
Severino recalls how he drew on his memories of growing up in Puerto Plata. At the start of the 20th century, Puerto Plata was a city of migrants holding about 20,000 inhabitants. Among these were the humble new arrivals from the West Indies whohad come to work as craftsmen in the construction of the houses and buildings during the economic boom of what was then the country's busiest port city. The immigrants ranged from fishermen, woodworkers, ironworkers and mechanics, and although poor, were dignified and well-educated, and had high respect for family and decency. In this acclaimed painting, Severino conveyed for posterity the aristocracy of the grandmotehrs and mothers, "beautiful blacks, dressed in white, who would attend church in their gala dresses."
The Family Album
"Things are not as simple as they appear to be," the artist explains. His unexpected win in the E. León Jimenez Contest in 1968 would inspire him to free his imagination.
"When I would visit the homes of the well-to do in Puerto Plata, I would notice that all of them had photo albums of their trips and social events, with people posing," he says. In his boyhood home, however, and in those of his schoolmates and neighbors in the barrios of what would later be known as the Malecón, no one had these albums. "If anyone had a photography, it was hanging on a wall or in a frame."
"One does not work on a painting without a goal," he explained. "I decided to paint my family album and create my ancestors." And thus he created hi aunt, the countess and many other noble-birth ancestors, all sheer fantasy and all black. Severino noted, however, that his friends were only painting white people, and speculated that perhaps it was because their professors were all Spaniards. "If I was black, there was no reason for my subjects to be white," he commented. Severino was a grandchild of one of those anynymous emigrants from Tortola or St. Thomas who worked on the Victorian houses of the city.
"So I started to put my family in order. It was an original, the intimism of a man from Puerto Plata. It would become a long series."
After completing his family album he would not paint a man again, from then becoming a flag-bearer for the internal struggles of women toe scape poverty and marginalization.
Amantina Villalona
Severino's work would soon fall under a heavy influence of symbolism as a way to express his disdain for violations to civil liberties and human rights, which in those days were being strongly questioned.
An unfortunate event would spawn an important series of paintings for the artist, whose sensibilities were shaken by the suicide of a 13-year old girl in 1974. Ajmantina Villalona took her own life in San Cristóbal and her death was reported in a story int he El Nacional newspaper, which would later spark the unsuual series. The artist would always paint the child wearing her birthday dress, accompanied by her doll.
As an exception to his proclivity for only painting black women, Amantina Villalona was white. "I blamed all of Dominican society, the Church, the military, Balaguer and myself for the situation," he said. "Life, Passion and death of Amantina Villalona," won him the Grand Prize of the Bellas Artes Bienal and subsequently a Special Mention in the Tri-annual Engravings Prix held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Brides for Ogún
Among Severino's most lauded creations, Brides for Ogún is a series of religious paintings that also denote protest. Through these canvasses he tells the tragic stories of the women of his youth. "The woman that I met was a prisoner in her home. As a hild she was brought up at home, while the boys were sent out to roam the streets freely. But the little girl could only go out when accompanied. I painted her for myself, feeling that she dreamed of being free. The only way to leave home was by marriage. The tragic part of the story is that when she left the ghetto in pursuit of her freedom, she discovered she had gotten nowhere," he explains.
In this fantastic sequence of paintings, the character appears naked under the seductive lace of her wedding dress, hoping that by marrying Ogún (St. James) she would be set free.
Severino incorporates a mirror that reflects what the women in the painting are living. "The young woman would criticize her mother, only to discover with her own marriage that her mother-warden was also a prisoner."
In all his paintings, the eyes of his women are the focal points. "I place the point of light that the other sees, that indicates where she is focusing," he said, describing his technique. "My paintings are always looking at you. If not, then I have made a mistake."
Despite being his compaion for the better part of his life, one set of eyes that Severino has not dared depict on his canvas are those of his wife. He has never used her as a model. Why? "Superstition. Those I have painted I have lost."
