Cuban Rafter - Balseros Cubanos 1998 70x57 Huge - Immigration

Year1998

Hand Signed 

Condition Excellent 

Framed without Glass 

Purchased fromArtist 1999 

Provenance / HistoryThe piece was created to help launch the opening of the Key West Museum of Art and History in the new millennium. The exhibit of the collection "Who is Key West" was scheduled for 4 months. Due to is popularity the museum requested an extension of a decade and a half.  

Story / Additional InfoBalseros, the courageous humans who enter the torrential ocean water in Cuba to seek a better life while willing to risk their lives on make shifts rafts. rnWe are offered an intimate glimpse into the souls of these brave survivors immortalizing for history. Arturo Cobo, the founder of the Cuban Transit Home in Key West and Purita Martin, West Miami Commissioner, helped to preserve history with a reenactment of triumphant human act. With the use of an authentic raft that survived the voyage and real survivors, we depicted the final moments of overwhelming emotion when they realized that had made it to the United States. Eduardo Diaz said when he entered the water and climbed on the raft at Smather’s beach, he relived the tragedy of the journey. Maria Molena, remembered her nine-year-old son she left behind in Cuba to portray her emotions. Sergio Perodin senior and his son Sergio junior were survivors of a tugboat attack by Cuban gunboats. Heartbreakingly, Sergio Perodin senior lost his wife and eldest son during the attack. With the help of Purita Martin, director of the Cuban Transit Home and West Miami Commissioner, Arturo Cobo, founder of the Transit Home allowed raft from the museum to reenact this triumphant human history.The price for freedom given to some is not always the case, many of them sadly are denied. 

Certificate of AuthenticityArt Brokerage 

LID120844

Paul Collins - United States

Art Brokerage: Paul Collins American Artist: b. 1936. Paul Lamar Collins is an American realist painter. Collins is known for his skillful use of textures, light, and attention to detail. Collins has also designed many distinguished awards and emblems. He is the creator of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-Violent Peace Prize Medal commissioned by Coretta Scott King for the centers highest honor. The award has been bestowed upon such leaders as Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, President Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu. He also designed the Challenger 7 Space Shuttle logo commemorating the first U.S. woman in space, and the Presidential Fitness Mural for the President Carter Administration. His work has been viewed not only in galleries, from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., but also in various libraries, schools, gymnasiums, correctional institutes, community centers and hospitals. He continues to lecture students, teaching children about other cultures through his art and life experiences. Collins has painted numerous murals on school walls and donated the reproduction rights to scholarship funds. Collins has received many awards for his efforts throughout the years, including the Mead Book Award, The Tadlow Fine Arts Award, The People’s Choice Award in Paris, The Golden Centaur of Italy, and the Ceba Award for Excellence. He was marked as one of the top twenty painters in America by the Watson-Guptill Publication. He has also served on a number of executive boards for various organizations, including the The Marin Luther King, Jr. Board in Atlanta and the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He served as President of the Greater Grand Rapids Fund where he helped raise over $350,000 from various corporations to establish the “Teens Summer Jobs Program” creating over 600 summer jobs. Collins also co-chaired the Grand Rapids Youth Commonwealth Campaign with President Gerald R. Ford and Senator Glenn Steil in a campaign to restore the existing Seidman Youth Center and build an additional center across town. Listings wanted.