Serie Guitarras #3

Carlos del Toro Orihuela

Carlos del Toro Orihuela helped establish the international reputation of the important Taller Experimental de Grafica de la Habana (Experimental Graphics Workshop) in Havana, Cuba, in the 1970s and ‘80s. The workshop was originally founded in 1962 by Orlando Suarez with the support of Che Guevara, who served as Director of Industry at the time. Lithographic and intaglio printmaking, with the need for expensive and difficult-to-ship equipment, had been slow to arrive at the island due to political constraints, but over time the TEG was able to obtain what it needed to expand its capabilities.

Orihuela’s early work reflected the growing post-Cold War interest in experimental printmaking in the southern hemisphere, following on the heels of such South American and Cuban printmaking luminaries as Eduardo Roca Salazar, Roberto Matta, Mauricio Lasansky, and Wilfredo Lam, among others.

The guitar was a central focus of Orihuela’s work in the 1970s. Here, the vibrational energy of the stringed instrument is effectively illustrated in a series of finely wrought textures contrasted within the exaggerated, asymmetrical shapes of the body, neck, and tuning pegs. The neck and frets are angled and contorted, making them appear almost like a staircase, suggesting the ascension of sound as it is expressed under the hands of a maestro.