Pedro Baldriche in New York City

Story by Armando Alvarez Bravo that first appeared on August 8, 1999 in El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

Cuban exile artist Pedro Baldriche, a Miami resident, presented his solo exhibit at the Euroamerica Gallery in New York City from July 2nd to the 30th entitled Wall Landscape: Two Seasons.

Baldriche, born in Havana in 1949—who graduated as an architect from the university of his native city—during the 1970s directed the painting of many murals in the cities of Santa Clara, Sancti Spiritus, and Cienfuegos. His first solo exhibit was held at the Wifredo Lam Gallery in the Cuban capital, having participated in numerous artistic events in Cuba and abroad.

The paintings in this viewing are anchored in his formal training as an architect. They are ideal urban landscapes in their conception and are characterized—from an unusual perspective—almost dreamlike—by the sturdiness of the buildings, which in their verticality are brimming with ascendancy.

In these color-laden landscapes—in these vistas of urban zones of stunning strength—frequently appear contrasting elemental structures that treat the surfaces as in a game in which reality and shadows suggest a great desolation. This emptiness is underscored by the total absence of humans. It is almost as if—in a plastic metaphor— Baldriche would like to give witness that the inescapable development that is synonymous with human progress will eventually drive humankind out of its own creation. That it will deny humanity the enjoyment of its most splendid dreams.