CAMAGÜEY.- They had a few weeks for dialogue with the audience, and for most of the time of the three months there, the works of Nazario Salazar have had no choice but to talk among themselves, with the custodians or with the occasional visitor to the control pass. Despite so much silence, the Visuality of a diversion remains exquisite for when the República 289 Gallery can reopen.

Around 45 pieces including paintings, photos, drawings, engravings and ceramics make up the exhibition inaugurated with the aim of celebrating 80 years of life and 60 years of professional career of the multifaceted artist from Camagüey. That opening night, the space was overflowing with joy because then, in a new normal stage, no one suspected the sudden return to confinement.

His profile on Facebook maintains the photos of those happy moments as nostalgia postcards, forbidden as long as the rate of COVID-19 infections in the city does not change for the better. In the foreground you can see the art critic Teresa Bustillo, and through her gesture it is possible to hear her statement: "It takes much more than ripping pages from an almanac to deserve the respect and gratitude of an era" .

The sample opens like a book. The small room contains the evolution of shapes, colors, textures, discoveries and the poetics that have represented Nazario Salazar. The new is in the main one, almost a score of twinned canvases such as the series De gules y azures, vórtices en movimiento. The first objective was to get attention for the title. Then surprise by the texture and the use of soft colors like a breeze of white, pinks and blues. The eye does not see gules (bright red) or azures (dark blue). In the fruit of this mischief, the author noticed something: "I have met the young Nazario again."

There are no contradictions in the contrast proposal. Without one side, the other cannot be interpreted or understood to a fair degree. In the words to the catalog, Teresa Bustillo, who does not give undeserved compliments, maintains: “Nazario has known how to build a visuality with an innocuous and graceful surface with which he activates the basic levels of our sensoriality, and then immerses us in memory full of images of a almost infinite restlessness ”.

Freedom is precisely a privilege that his work offers to the viewer's heart. No frame captures the invisible vanishing lines of the traditional painting format. “It seems I have left a trail. It's nice but it takes work. To have 60 years of artistic life and still want to continue, it is necessary to break many ties. I have done everything from the heart, and that is transmitted ”, expresses who trusts in the protection of works outside the home.

In fact, none were damaged last Sunday by a severe local thunderstorm. María de los Ángeles Marrero fulfilled her turn as guardian. Without calling anyone or protesting afterward, she cleaned the floor on which water collects and rises an inch when it rains heavily and clogs the drain. Juan Carlos Mejías, president of the Provincial Council of Plastic Arts, shares with Adelante the good opinion of the rigor of the surveillance in the block of the property, in a street with restricted movement.

Hopefully soon no tape will prevent the arrival at República 289 Gallery, which has been a home for the largest Nazario Salazar exhibition of our days. He has the gift of virtues. He knows that man receives what he gives, or said with the scene of the clay inside the wood oven: the hardness and the color of the pottery that is born there depends on the punishment or the caress of the tongues of fire.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez