The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

I Always Return

I Always Return

1993, printed 1994
(Cuban, 1967–1999)
Image: 95 x 68 cm (37 3/8 x 26 3/4 in.); Sheet: 95 x 68 cm (37 3/8 x 26 3/4 in.)
© Belkis Ayón
Catalogue raisonné: Ayón 93.11

Did You Know?

Of Sikán, the subject of this work, Belkis Ayón wrote that “[she] is a transgressor and I see her as such, as I also see myself.”

Description

Belkis Ayón worked almost exclusively in collography, a printmaking technique in which a three-dimensional plate embosses designs into paper, to depict the subject seen here: Abakuá, a secretive fraternal society established by African slaves in 19th-century Cuba. Because the founding myths of the group were not well known and it had no visual tradition, Ayón invented her own. Here, a faceless figure—presumably Sikán, a princess sacrificed following an act of betrayal in Abakuá mythology—floats imposingly above three initiates.
  • ?-2019
    Estate of Belkis Ayón, Havana, Cuba
    2019
    (David Castillo Gallery, Miami Beach, FL, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2019-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Ayón, Katia, ed. Nkame: Belkis Ayón. Madrid: Turner, 2010. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 203, no. 93.11
  • New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2023-April 14, 2024).
    Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-June 19, 2022).
    A Graphic Revolution: Prints and Drawings in Latin America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-August 2, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=I Always Return|url=false|author=Belkis Ayón|year=1993, printed 1994|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.227