Carlos Betancourt Imperfect Utopia

by Laster, Paul; Thompson, Robert Farris; Blanco, Richard; Mason, Petra

• ISBN13: 9780847846474
• ISBN10: 0847846474
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-10-20
• Publisher: Skira Rizzoli

Summary

Mixed-media artist Carlos Betancourt and his influential studio, Imperfect Utopia, helped to launch the Miami art scene in the 1980’s. Betancourt’s oeuvre 
is a lush explosion of radiant, eccentric colors in which he explores the kaleidoscope (multi-racial, multi-lingual, trans-cultural) of Caribbean and American culture. His work alludes to issues of memory, beauty, identity, and communication.  He bends the lines between art, photography, and nature in his photographs, collages, painting, installations, and conceptual pieces.
Carlos Betancourt’s imagery reinterprets the past and present and offers it in a fresh context. He is inspired by Puerto Rico, Miami, and his extensive travels; also artist Ana Mendieta’s interventions in nature, Robert Rauschenberg’s assemblages, Andy Warhol’s perceptions, Neo Rauch compositions, and a Federico Fellini-esque cast of characters for his photo assemblages.
This exuberant volume explores Betancourt’s body of work, with more than 250 images and texts by art critic Paul Laster, art history professor Robert Farris Thompson and United States Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco.

His artwork is included in the permanent collections of various museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Portrait Gallery, and The Smithsonian Institute.

Author Biography

Paul Laster is a writer, editor, independent curator, artist, and lecturer. Robert Farris Thompson is one of America’s most prominent scholars of African art and the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art at Yale University, where he is one of the longest-serving alumni. Richard Blanco is the 5th presidential inaugural poet of the United States. He has published three award-winning collections of poetry and two memoirs.