HUTCHINSON MODERN & CONTEMPORARY PRESENTS FREDDY RODRÍGUEZ: EARLY PAINTINGS 1970-1990
Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary, a new art gallery specializing in Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean art, holds its inaugural exhibition Freddy Rodríguez: Early Paintings 1970-1990. Spanning the first two decades of the sixty-year decade-long artistic career of the New York-based Dominican-born artist, the exhibition will be on view from October 22, 2020 to January 8, 2021.
An array of Rodríguez’s paintings from the 1970s and 1980s, including works from his Paradise (1985-1988) and his Cimarrón (1985-1988) series, alongside a selection of his never before exhibited collages revealing Rodríguez’s multifaceted and varied practice are featured in the exhibition.
Since the 1970s, the artist has created a consistent body of work adopting former Hard-edge, Geometric Abstraction, and Minimalist aesthetics seen in his Geometries (1970-1990) series, later expanding upon expressionist vocabularies to convey his Afro-Dominican heritage, as well as the transnational dialogues between the Dominican diaspora and the homeland.
Presenting a highly abbreviated view of Rodríguez’s oeuvre, the exhibition and the online viewing room introduce one of the many Latinx artists continuing to challenge assumptions of Caribbean national belonging, suggesting myriad ways to look at island-based and diasporic relations. Bridging geometric abstraction and figurative language, Rodriguez’s works attest that the artist’s exploration has not only been artistic, but also political in character.
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Freddy Rodríguez, Bura Bura, 1981
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Freddy Rodríguez , Dance in Paradise, 1987, Oil on Canvas, 56 x 42 in
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Freddy Rodríguez, Joe Puán, 1982
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Freddy Rodríguez, Cenizas, 1988
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Freddy Rodríguez, Atrapado en punzó, 1986
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Freddy Rodríguez, El Cimarrón Deja El Monte, 1986
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Freddy Rodríguez, Untitled, 1970
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Freddy Rodríguez, A-Rod, 2007
Born in 1945 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, Rodríguez moved to New York City in 1963 after fleeing Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship (1930-1961), a period marked by severe social and political upheaval. In 1961, Trujillo’s three-decade-long dictatorship ended with his assassination, following several years of political turmoil, and later culminating with the 1965 Civil War. Being drafted into the U.S. army in 1966, Rodríguez resided between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico before settling again permanently in New York City in 1968. There he proceeded to study painting at the New School for Social Research, and textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Living and working between Greenwich Village, West Village, Chelsea, and Williamsburg during the seventies and eighties, the artist explores the relationship between personal narratives and collective memory in Latinx communities.
Founded by Isabella Hutchinson, Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary specializes in modern and contemporary Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean art. Hutchinson has over three decades of experience in the acquisition and sale of modern and contemporary art in this field. As a private dealer, she started Hutchinson Modern & Contemporary in 2001 after a successful career at the helm of Sotheby’s Latin American Art Department in New York. The gallery will enable Hutchinson to further her mission of bringing greater visibility to significant Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean artists. Hutchinson is also a long-time collector of fine art and therefore has a keen understanding of what it means to assemble a cohesive collection that blends works of historical and personal significance.
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