The Oceania Riviera cruise ship is a floating museum. The artwork aboard was hand-selected to inspire conversation. These weren’t just ‘color themed’ random images from a stock art source. The team went out to find fascinating art to get people talking.
It certainly does that.
The first art we really saw was “Dungeon” by Alberto Jorge Carol of a woman locked in an iron cage, right by the Italian dining room. Hmmm. My mother said I looked just like “The Visitor” by Arcadio Cancio, which is a ‘lopsided’ portrayal. Another hmmmm.
I had to smile at the many paintings by Humberto Benitez which hid the peoples’ faces. I know many artists who do something similar because they feel they aren’t great at faces and therefore it’s easier to hide them. I imagine that wasn’t Benitez’ reason, but I definitely took photos of these to show my artist friends.
Artist-in-Residence Noel Suarez wanted me to study El Descanso (Rest) by Luis Armando Zesatti for its great use of contrast.
The art of Ramon Vazques by the spa area was both beautifully fantastical and also had some iffy themes. Similarly, I didn’t even take a photo of “Exotica” by Mariano Rodriguez which was right in the main hall to the dining room and appeared to show naked people becoming a bit too familiar with a male horse. Quite a number of the paintings showed pointy-nippled lounging naked women in various poses. Strangely, there were pretty much no naked men. I’m not keen on this skewed art situation, especially when I’m stuck staring at one for two hours at dinner.
So I found it a mix. Some were simply breathtakingly beautiful. But for a number of them, there was a strong bias toward ‘slim naked women’ being ogled and male artists in general, which is a real shame, given the wealth of options out there to celebrate.
Ask with any questions!
Soundtrack:
Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod
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#cruiseship #paintings #cuban