Picasso, Toirac, Warhol, others featured in exhibit by Colorado Springs collectors
Collector Ron Brasch loves art that tells a story.
One of his most recent acquisitions, Cuban artist José Ángel Toirac’s diptych “Achilles and Ulysses,” was purchased last year during a trip to Havana. The oil paintings feature portraits of Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Che Guevara’s body, after Bolivian Special Forces and the CIA tracked him down in 1967 and killed him in the Bolivian countryside. The other part of the diptych pictures Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro lying down while writing in his journal.
Achilles refers to Che and refers to young warriors being killed in battle, Brasch says, while Ulysses refers to old warriors such as Fidel and Ulysses who live to write the history and mythology.
There’s a particular energy and distinctiveness of contemporary Cuban art that appeals to the Colorado Springs resident.
Cuban artist Rafael Villares’ “Tree of Light” is part of the exhibit, “Tell Me a Story: A Collection from Ron & Una Brasch,” at Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo. Courtesy Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center
“Cuban artists have been isolated and under the U.S. embargo since the early ‘60s,” Brasch said. “They have a pretty unique story to tell and the shortage of art materials cause them to be very creative. There is a Cuban word — inventar — that references how Cuban people make do and jerry-rig things.”
In the exhibit “Tell Me A Story: A Collection from Ron & Una Brasch,” Brasch and his wife share 67 of their works, more than half of which are contemporary Cuban pieces mostly bought during trips to Cuba over the last 15 years. The show is up through Jan. 13 at Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo. Brasch also will give a talk Jan. 12 during an Arts After Hours event.
“Not a lot is known about Cuban artists in that genre,” said Bree Pappan, Sangre de Cristo Art Center’s director of collections, archives and exhibits. “It’s been going on for several decades, but not seen because of the turmoil in Cuba under dictatorship. It’s interesting for people to look at what type of work and inspiration and creativity is coming out of Cuba, especially in the early aughts, when the majority of these pieces were made.”
In addition to Cuban art, the exhibit features three other components: American artists, international artists and eight light sculptures, mostly by Cuban artists, including Duvier del Dago, a sculpture professor at Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana.
Other luminaries include American artists Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Tony Ortega and Tom Wesselmann, and international artists Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte, Joan Miro and Anish Kapoor.
The Brasches’ collection numbers in the hundreds. At any given time, the couple has almost 200 works on display in their home — they rotate them depending on what’s being displayed at museums.
“I love living with the art,” Brasch said. “There’s tremendous connection to the artists and individual art pieces. Everything is a gift to museums after we die. I acquire things museums don’t have the budget or opportunity to do.”
Visual art has always been a passion for Brasch, who started collecting art in college. He didn’t get serious about it until 35 years ago, when he owned an ad agency and magazine publishing company and came into contact with a lot of artists.
The couple began traveling to Cuba in 2008 to visit the artists in their studios and buy directly from them, and now own about 70 pieces of Cuban art.
“As a patron he’s visited homes and studios and has close relationships with artists,” Pappan said. “Historically speaking, that is classic patronage in terms of people going to an artist studio. You see Ron in terms of collecting and his love of the work and the pursuit of getting these, but you also see the relationship he has with Cuban artists and how he wants to elevate them.”
Some years see the Brasches purchasing up to 20 new pieces. It’s more about the quality and how the pieces fit into the collection.
“I just picked up a print by Hernan Bas in Miami,” Brasch said. “He’s a relatively young American artist who has a major exhibit at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami. I’m really looking for pieces that 50 or 100 years from now, when someone sees them in a museum, it’ll be memorable.”
Contact the writer: 636-0270
“Tell Me A Story: A Collection from Ron & Una Brasch,” through Jan. 13, Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center, 210 N. Santa Fe Ave., Pueblo, $10, $8 kids, military and 65 and older; 719-295-7200, sdc-arts.org
Cuban artist José Ángel Toirac’s diptych, “Achilles and Ulysses,” is part of the exhibit, “Tell Me A Story: A Collection from Ron & Una Brasch,” at Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo. Courtesy Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center
“Back Out,” by Robert Rauschenberg, is part of the exhibit, “Tell Me A Story: A Collection from Ron & Una Brasch,” at Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo. Courtesy Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center
Pablo Picasso is one artist featured in the exhibit “Tell Me A Story: A Collection from Ron & Una Brasch,” at Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo.
Cuban artist José Ángel Toirac’s diptych, “Achilles and Ulysses,” is part of the exhibit, “Tell Me A Story: A Collection from Ron & Una Brasch,” at Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in Pueblo. Courtesy Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center