An exceptional printmaker, Belkis Ayón is part of a generation of Cuban artists active during the “Special Period”–a prolonged phase of economic crisis in Cuba that began roughly in 1991 and coincided with the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of socialism in eastern Europe. Her brilliant career was cut short in 1999, when at the age of thirty-two she unexpectedly committed suicide. From 1986 to 1991, Ayón studied printmaking at the reputed San Alejandro Academy in Havana. While several artists from the island had been interested in the Afro-Cuban spiritual practices of the Congo and Yoruba, Ayón delved deeply into the myths of the Abakuá religion, devoting most of her collagraphs—her preferred printing technique—to the topic. The images, many monumental in scale, are tinged with a profound sense of mystery and dislocation. On the surface, they give visual form to a Nigerian myth in which the princess Sikán was ruthlessly sacrificed for revealing an important secret. In Ayón’s prints, Sikán often becomes a surrogate for the artist. In many of the prints, the black figures are associated with living beings and earthly darkness, while the white ones are connected with death and liberated souls. The meaning of the white figure in this image, peering out intently at the viewer, remains enigmatic and may simultaneously represent Sikán and Ayón.

This impeccable collagraph is part of a portfolio of eleven prints published by Arizona State University Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and Survival of the Utopian Island (1998). The other prints in the portfolio include works by Pedro Álvarez, Abel Barroso, Jacqueline Brito, Yamilys Brito, Carlos Estévez, Luis Gómez, Sandra Ramos, Fernando Rodríguez, José Angel Toirac, and Tonel. The lithographs and photolithographs were printed by Joe Freye at Segura Publishing Company, Inc., Tempe, and the woodcuts, linocuts, etchings, and Ayón’s collagraph by John Armstrong at Armstrong-Prior, Inc., Phoenix. The portfolio is an edition of thirty-five (plus ten artist proofs).