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“In 1972 I sold one of my geometric paintings to the Aldrich Museum in CT for their exhibition “Contemporary Reflections.” Eva Hesse was in the show as well as other well known artists. That painting belongs to the Bronx museum today (I have that catalogue somewhere in my house, but I can’t find it). In 1972 I showed several geometric paintings at NYU along with Carmen Herrera, Eduardo Ramírez, Arnold Belkin, and Tony Bechara.”
Rodríguez in conversation with Aranda-Alvarado (2015)
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“It’s been a goal to be able to put content into art. Also, it was a response to the Abstract Expressionists or the New York School and their assertions ‘that what you see is what you get.’ The challenge for me is: behind what you see, there is something else. A good poem—it’s what’s behind that poem. It’s not just the words and the sound—you have to really get into it. And I think that good abstract art can do that too. It’s not easy.”
Rodríguez with Richard Klin in Something to Say: Thoughts on Art and Politics in America (Leapfrog Press, 2011)
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At the same time, the Dominican Republic, Caribbean culture, and transnational concerns have continuously inspired the subjects and ethos of his work. Rodríguez’s interest in Caribbean history and the African diaspora lead him to explore the plight of the cimarrón, or fugitive slave. Throughout this series of work, begun in 1985, the artist repeats certain symbols, including the human leg and the fish. By including gallery reviews taken from the New York Times and the MoMA calendar, in El Cimarrón Deja El Monte (1986), Rodríguez gestures towards the exclusion of artists of color from mainstream exhibitions in New York—combining both histories and present occurrences of racial inequity.
Researcher Susan Breyer on Freddy Rodríguez (2019)
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Freddy Rodríguez | Latinx Abstract Artists 2021
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America's Pastime - Portrait of the American Dream - Works by Freddy Rodríguez
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Publications
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Cuadernos de poetica no. 36, Julio-Dec 2021
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El artista Freddy Rodríguez, el dolor humano y su creación destructiva en su Serie Tsunami
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Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-Today
Freddy Rodríguez was included in the group exhibition Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s-Today at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. -
Freddy Rodríguez
Memory and Postcolonial Studies: Synergies and New DirectionsIn the postcolonial reassessment of history, the themes of colonialism, decolonisation and individual and collective memory have always been intertwined, but it is only recently that the transcultural turn in... -
Freddy Rodríguez
A to Z of Caribbean ArtA to Z of Caribbean Art is a joyous celebration of the lives and works of many of the most outstanding, prolific, groundbreaking, critical, fascinating, and controversial artists of the... -
Freddy Rodríguez
Our America: The Latino Presence in American ArtOur America: The Latino Presence in American Art explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture. This beautifully... -
Freddy Rodríguez
Something to Say: Thoughts on Art and Politics in America'Klin is an insightful interviewer and a marvelous writer. We were delighted to have the opportunity to publish the interview with Howard Zinn from Something to Say.'—The Bloomsbury Review The... -
Freddy Rodríguez
Caribbean: Art at the Crossroads of the WorldThe first book to explore the entire range of modern and contemporary art of the Caribbean Unprecedented in scope, this beautiful book offers an authoritative examination of the modern history... -
America's Pastime: Portrait of the Dominican Dream
Works by Freddy RodríguezThe Newark Museum organized this traveling exhibition. -
El Dorado (Myths of Gold)
This fully illustrated catalog accompanies the two-part group exhibition at Americas Society El Dorado: Myths of Gold , exploring the legend of El Dorado as a foundational myth of the...
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About the Artist
Born in 1945 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, Rodríguez moved to New York City in 1963 after fleeing Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship (1930-1961), a period marked by severe social and political upheaval. In 1961, Trujillo’s three-decade-long dictatorship ended with his assassination, following several years of political turmoil, and later culminating with the 1965 Civil War. Being drafted into the U.S. army in 1966, Rodríguez resided between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico before settling again permanently in New York City in 1968. Here he proceeded to study painting at the New School for Social Research and textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He passed away peacefully in 2022.
Rodríguez had exhibited in numerous group and individual shows, including The Illusive Eye, El Museo del Barrio, New York City (2016); Caribbean Art at the Crossroads of the World, Pérez Art Museum, Miami (2014); and Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC (2013); among many other. His work can be found in various public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC; El Museo del Barrio, New York City; The Newark Museum, New Jersey; Jersey City Museum, New Jersey; Queens Museum of Art, New York City; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York City; and the Museo de Las Casas Reales, Santo Domingo. He is also the subject of a forthcoming monograph by the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Acting Chief Curator and Curator of Latinx Art, Dr. E. Carmen Ramos, as part of the A Ver: Revisioning Art History book series published by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.