CAMAGÜEY.- Oscar (Rodríguez) Lasseria paints The time we had to live. It is a series of quarantine. I also never knew how to stay still at home. Its colors, its lines, but others the reasons for pain.

In the repertoire of images is Cuba with the altar of a palm, warriors of hope and white figures presented as a memory of the body of the victims that the pandemic reduces to the coldness of a number.

I intuit that from the views of the works posted on Facebook and the spontaneity of comments from an audience thirsty for the free expression of his large canvases in the galleries where he sweats and truly offers himself.

The title of the series seems redundant, because Oscar Lasseria has always painted the time we had, and has shown more. He was born with the virtue of artistic sense. He is the soul and pride of Camagüey.

Perhaps the mystery of that clarity underlies the birth sign, since on September 29 Venus rules and, astrologically speaking, that planet combines with the Moon.

The new pieces also take me to his exhibition From the Orishas to the Beatles, by codes of Cuban religiosity as springs to heal the tears of humanity debated with sounds and silences.

Hopefully no one else dies because Oscar Lasseria will be 70 years old. His audience deserves to celebrate without the mediations of screens, he has a tremendous desire to smell his paintings.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez