Nlloro is a multipart work comprising nine sheets united into a single composition. The work is a collagraph—a type of print in which everyday materials are affixed to a rigid substrate to create the printing plate—a less conventional printmaking process favored by artist Belkis Ayón. She built a body of work around her personal interpretation of and interest in the Afro-Cuban religion Abakuá: a secret, male-only religious brotherhood that is culturally significant in Cuba but for which little visual imagery exists. In Nlloro, which translates to "weeping," Ayón depicts a funerary scene with the white, silhouetted figure representing a deceased Abakuá, or member of the religious brotherhood. The work unites multiple figures, printed surfaces, and sheets to defy a seamlessly unified composition and underscore the importance of formal and technical experimentation to the artist’s invented visual record of the Abakuá.
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the artist (1991–d. 1999; her estate, 1999–2025; sold through David Castillo Gallery, Miami to MMA)
Silke Denecke inKunstwelten im Dialog: Von Gauguin zur globalen Gegenwart. Ed. Marc Scheps et al. Exh. cat., Museum Ludwig. Cologne, 1999, pp. 360, 511, no. 32, pl. 247 [Estate of Belkis Ayón edition].
Piter Ortega Núñez and Yaniber Acosta Batista. "Belkis Ayón y la redención de Sikán." Revista de Artes Visuales no. 2 (2005), p. 36, ill. pp. 36–37.
Wouter Welling in Irene Hübner and Wouter Welling. Roots & More: De Reis van de Geesten/The Journey of the Spirits. Exh. cat., Afrika Museum. Berg en Dal, 2009, pp. 131–32, ill. p. 130 [Estate of Belkis Ayón edition], dates it 1981 in caption.
Cristina Vives. "Belkis Ayón, Su Propia Voz/Belkis Ayón: Her Own Voice." Arte Cubano: Revista de Artes Visuales no. 2 (2009), p. 67, ill. pp. 62–63.
Cristina Vives. "Belkis Ayón. Su propria voz/Belkis Ayón: Her Own Voice." Nkame: Belkis Ayón. Ed. Alex Fleites. [Madrid], 2010, pp. 27, 265, ill. pp. 24–25 [reprints Ref. Vives 2009].
Lázara Menéndez. "Para destuir un miedo/Banishing Fear." Nkame: Belkis Ayón. Ed. Alex Fleites. [Madrid], 2010, pp. 68, 72–73, 276, 277 nn. 36–37, p. 278.
José Veigas and Katia Ayón. "Catálogo razonado/Catalogue raisonné." Nkame: Belkis Ayón. Ed. Alex Fleites. [Madrid], 2010, p. 189, no. 91.10, ill.
"Belkis Ayón: Statements by and About the Deceased Artist." Callaloo 37, no. 4 (2014), ill. p. 775.
Isabel María Pérez Pérez, ed. Belkis Ayón. [Havana], 2016, ill. p. 47 [Estate de Belkis Ayón, La Habana edition].
Cristina Vives. Behind the Veil of a Myth. Belkis Ayon. Ed. Cristina Figueroa and Laura Llópiz. Exh. cat., Fowler Museum at UCLA. Houston, 2018, pp. 139, 169 n. 6, p. 198, 202 n. 6, ill. [unknown edition] pp. 18, 121, 138–39, 207 (installation photos), 30–31 (color, sketch), 140–41 (overall).
Adrian Emmanuel Hernandez. "A Residual Note on Weeping: Ayón's 'Nlloro'." ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America [revista.drclas.harvard.edu] 20 (Winter 2021), ill.
Cristina Vives inBelkis Ayón: Colografías. Exh. cat., Museo Reina Sofia. [Madrid], 2021, pp. 33–34, 175, ill. pp. 60–61 (color, print matrix), 62–63 [Estate de Belkis Ayón, La Habana edition].
Lázara Menéndez inBelkis Ayón: Nkame mafimba. Ed. Laura Badsey et al. Exh. cat., Ludwig Forum Aachen. [Madrid], 2024, pp. 88, 92 nn. 36–37, pp. 93, 374, 375 nn. 36–37, p. 376 [revises Ref. Menéndez 2010].
José Veigas et al. inBelkis Ayón: Nkame mafimba. Ed. Laura Badsey et al. Exh. cat., Ludwig Forum Aachen. [Madrid], 2024, pp. 161, 237–38, no. 91.10, ill. [revises Ref. Veigas and Ayón 2010].
Sandra García Herrera inBelkis Ayón: Nkame mafimba. Ed. Laura Badsey et al. Exh. cat., Ludwig Forum Aachen. [Madrid], 2024, pp. 330, 398, fig. 40 (color, installation photo) [unknown edition].
Stuart Davis (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1892–1964 New York)
1924
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