The 2012 Guy Pérez-Cisneros Art Critics and Curatorship Prizes were recently presented in Havana. Granted by Cuba's Consejo Nacional de las Artes Plásticas (CNAP), the award ceremony was held at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, with the participation of Rubén del Valle-Lantaróm, president of the CNAP, and Lesbia Ven Dumois, president of the Asociación de Artistas Plásticos of the UNEAC.
The jury for the Art Critic Prizes—formed by president María de los Ángeles Pereira, Jorge Fernández, and Anaeli Ibarra—granted the Prize in the category of Critical Essay to Caridad Blanco de la Cruz, for her text entitled Iván y Joan Capote. Materia/Espíritu: Divergencias en la Poesía Visual (Iván and Joan Capote. Matter/Spirit: Divergences in Visual Poetry). The essay centers on two prominent Cuban artists and their poetic interactions. In the category of journalistic genres, the jury awarded Israel Castellanos for his text entitled Lezama, Dentro y Fuera de la "Prisión del Rostro" (Lezama In and Out of "Prisión del Rostro") for his vast and pertinent command of literary and artistic information and his fresh approach to Lezama Lima's visual iconography. The jury also agreed in granting a Special Mention to Héctor Antón, for his text entitled Un León de Piedra no le Teme al Abismo (A Stone Lion is not Afraid of the Abyss), centered on the aesthetic values in the work of Lázaro Saavedra.
The jury panel for the 2012 Curatorship Prize was formed by President Caridad Blanco de la Cruz and Silvia Linares and Darys Vásquez. They awarded René Franco and Corina Matamoros the Prize in the category of Solo Exhibition for Viejo Verde (Green Old Man), as they regarded it as a work that underscores artistic, pedagogical, and curatorial creativity; and, thus, one that represents a lesson in art history. In the category of Group Exhibition, the jury awarded Isabel Pérez for her work Las Vanguardias Soviéticas en la Colecciónn del IVAM (The Soviet Vanguards in the IVAM Collection), for delving into the language of the Russian-Soviet vanguard and its central role in the renovation of Twentieth Century art; and to Yoan and Iván Capote for their Fonemas y Morfemas I y II (Phonemes and Morphemes I and II), a work that explores themes pertaining to communication, visual concepts, and poetic suggestions. The jury also awarded a Special Mention to Aliosky Garcia for Grabado en la Memoria (Engraved in Memory), a work that reflects the innovative engraving approaches in Cuban contemporary art.
The Guy Pérez-Cisneros Art Critics Prize was created in 1999 with the goal of encouraging the publication of works centered on the theme of art criticism in Cuba. The Curatorship Prize was created in 2000, and is granted in a competition that selects the best curatorship that took place during the year previous to the award.