Popular religiosity: metaphors and appropriations from the visual arts in the northeast of Cuba

Abstract

Popular religiosity in Cuba has contributed to the search for an iconic identity. This article sets out the purpose of showing its importance in Holguin visual arts, based on the works of José G. Rodríguez Maslótikhass and Rubén Hechavarría Salvia. With varying degrees of involvement, they develop poetics anchored in symbolic and ritual elements of popular religiosity present in the local identity of those who are bearers. The sociocultural substrates that favored these approaches are raised, especially from the nineties of the s. XX. In the interpretive exercise, the artistic image is resized as a depository object and generator of culture, which was favored by the use of Iconology as a method of analysis. The deep depth of the approaches studied set guidelines within the artistic production in Holguín. He demonstrated the importance of this aspect for the local visuality that connects with a line of reflection rooted in Cuban art. This is manifested as an object of polyhedral study that invites new interpretations from other fields of knowledge, as an artistic event closely linked to cultural identity.