The Journey

Raised in Havana, Luis Cruz Azaceta fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba for the United States in 1960 at the age of seventeen. Eventually settling in New York, Azaceta began creating art that focused on such social concerns as violence, displacement, and exile, often utilizing his personal narrative as a vehicle to address universal themes.

In The Journey, a looming head in profile, recognizable by the distinctive nose as Azaceta’s self-portrait, is fused with the form of a boat on choppy waters. The subject refers not only to the artist’s own escape from his homeland, but to the hardships experienced by all immigrants and exiles, as suggested by the figure’s head, bowed in melancholy and resignation. Azaceta’s painting also refers to the often-fatal attempts of refugees from Cuba and other Caribbean islands to reach American soil on makeshift rafts or unstable boats. The potential dangers of immigration are mirrored by Azaceta’s aggressive painting style, marked by the use of vibrant colors and gestural brushstrokes and drips, which reflect the artist’s interest in the work of German Expressionist artist Max Beckmann, as well as in graffiti art.