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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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1825) and the son of Mercedes Rosa Maggiolo Núñez and Francisco Javier Veloz Molina.
23
He was born in San-
to Domingo. He is a writer, archaeologist, and anthropologist, and he is considered one of the most important
intellectuals in the Dominican Republic. He studied painting at the National School of Fine Arts where he was
an outstanding student of Gilberto Hernández Ortega, Yoryi Morel, and other great national painters.
24
In 2006 he presented an exhibition under the title
Gramática del Color
(Grammar of Color), consisting of
drawings and paintings, within the framework of the IX edition of the Santo Domingo International Book Fair,
which was also dedicated to him.
Dominican Artists with Ties to Italy—Either through Educational Stints or Sojourns
in Italy or through Study under Italian Instructors Elsewhere
Alejandro Bonilla
(1820-1901). A painter and draftsman, Bonilla was born in Santo Domingo. He participated
in the process of independence and depicted crucial moments in Dominican history in his work. In 1868, he
lived in Caracas, where he studied with an Italian instructor from whom he learned techniques in portraiture.
Bonilla is the first to deal with the subject of sugarcane and machinery used in the sugar industry.
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Juan Ramón Fiallo Cabral
(1874 - ?). This Dominican painter emerged in the late nineteenth century.
He studied in Italy and created two portraits of the Puerto Rican philosopher and educator Eugenio María de
Hostos. Hostos wrote a sketch where he “praised some of his paintings and in which he advocated that the
young artist return to Italy.”
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Marian Balcácer
(1967). A photographer who was born in Santo Domingo. She studied at the Altos de
Chavón Academy, at the Parsons School of Design in New York, and at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED)
in Milan, Italy (1987-1990), obtaining a degree in photography. She has participated in numerous photographic
collectives with the group Visiones X Ocho. In 1996, she won an award at the International Film and Pho-
tography Festival, called the Festival des 3 Continents, in Nantes, France. She lives in Milan where she runs a
photography studio.
Elena Cabrera
(1942). Painter, draftswoman, and installation artist. She was born in Moca, Dominican Re-
public. In Santo Domingo, she graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in 1963 and in that same year
obtained First Prize in the Poster Contest of the National Office of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo. She studied
in Mexico and at the Art Students League in New York, where she was a disciple of Jack Farragazo and where
she participated in group shows. She also attended drawing classes at the Salmagundi Club and painting classes
under the Italian professor Luis de Donato. She traveled to Europe, where she visited museums and galleries.
She had her first solo show at the Casa de Francia in Santo Domingo in 1978. In 1989, she promoted her work
in a collective that brought together 45 Dominican artists. She has taught at the University of Santo Domingo
(UASD). Her figurative work presents approaches framed within Surrealism. Her subsequent schematic figu-
rations project internal dynamics. At the 1984 National Biennial, she presented an installation titled
Deforesta-
tion 2000
, one of the first Dominican works to focus on this subject.
Antonio Guadalupe
(1941). A painter and draftsman, Guadalupe was born in Moca, Dominican Republic.
He studied painting and drawing in his hometown under Poncio Salcedo. In 1959, he obtained a scholarship to
study at the National School of Fine Arts, where he studied with Gilberto Hernández Ortega. Later, he moved
to New York and enrolled in classes taught by Italian professor Prillo Grinilli. He had his first solo exhibition
in Santo Domingo at the Dominican-American Cultural Institute (ICDA) in 1968. His work, which features
geometric figures, makes use of large formats and diluted drawing with which he has captured the cultural
references of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the island and of our Afro-Caribbean culture. He also incorpo-
rates figures from Dominican history, such as the
campesino
leader Mamá Tingó.
Cristian Martínez
(known professionally as Crismar, b. 1939). An architect, sculptor and installation artist
who was born in Santo Domingo. He studied in Italy. Beginning in 1967, he turned his artistic focus to mo-
biles composed of huge painted plexiglass plates that he hung at the International Airport of the Americas and