Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
Exhibited
Buffalo, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, The Rush for the Freedom Land, 27 September- 15 November 1998, then travelled to San Diego, Centro Cultural de la Raza (6 March- 25 April 1998), New York, Longwood Arts Project (9 May-27 June 1998), Chicago, School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Betty Rymer Gallery (28 August- 14 October 1998)
Catalogue Essay
Abel Barroso's wooden hobby horses and map of Cuba are core elements of The Rush for theFreedom Land, a large-scale installation he made in 1997. In an interview at that time with curator Holly Block, Barroso described The Rush for the Freedom Land as "an environment which includes sculpture, printmaking, and installation." Although originally conceived with a strongly political message, "more fully developed, leaving nothing open to interpretation," in the course of creating the piece Barroso "decided to alter some of the political content slightly. I allowed it to become more based on one’s own conclusion, as opposed to specific information." Even so, the work is politically pointed; as Barroso told Block, it "has to do with foreign capital and its relationship to Cuba," with the carved horses representing foreign countries "leaving with all the riches and leaving Cuba with nothing."

A SELECTION OF CUBAN CONTEMPORARY ART CUBA

Abel Barroso

The Rush for the Freedom Land

1997
ink on carved wood
Cuba map 22 x 92 in. (55.9 x 233.7 cm.); each wooden horse 33 x 44 x 13 1/2 in. (83.8 x 111.8 x 34.3 cm.)

Estimate
$4,000 - 6,000

Sold for $10,625

Contact Specialist
Laura González
Head of Latin America Sale
lgonzalez@phillips.com
+ 1 212 940 1216

New York 21 November 2013 4pm