ART ON THE INTERNET: Tuberculosis, by Fidelio Ponce

When Fidelio Ponce (1895-1949) portrayed some of his life experiences (as would seem to be the case), the ambience of his canvas looked like that we have met on dreams.

This view is oneiric. Characters look like specters. They look at the spectator as if they were taking a long hard look at us and simultaneously, feeling pity. We do not see tuberculosis sufferers, but those who watch closely to the sick people.

Somnolence results in some diseases: in the eyes of those suffering from them, the people and other elements become ghostly shadows: fabrication of delusion.

In this classical piece of Cuban modernism, that morbid perception of the world is brought to mind, fertile ground to art.

The illusion caused by fever may figure out master pieces.

Fidelio Ponce: Tuberculosis, 1934. Oil on canvas; 92 x 122 cm. Collection Surgimiento del Arte Moderno (1957-1938) at the National Museum of Fine Arts.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff