Javiel Raúl Cabrera

The most complete exhibition of Cabrera's work at the MNAV, held 28 November, 2019 and 9 February, 2020. Together with the publication of this book, both events are a tribute in recognition of the artist on the centenary of his birth. Better known for the anecdotes that adorn a life of bohemia and seclusion than for the virtues of an exceptional pictorial work, the figure of Javiel Raúl Cabrera (Montevideo, 1919 - Santa Lucía, 1992) oscillates between the extremes of oblivion and legend. One hundred years after his birth, a rereading of his work and a settling of accounts with his legacy -which exceeds the merely pictorial- are imposed, to give him definitive entrance, and through the front door, to the main art gallery from the country. The emergence of the young artist within the so-called generation of 45', his first Montevideo exhibitions, the friendship with the poet José Parrilla, the links with the Torres García Workshop, the prolonged psychiatric hospitalization and his subsequent discharge with a trip to Europe included , as well as the last years of peaceful existence in Santa Lucía, are some of the paths that will be reflected in a pictorial production that also knows extremes, with bright and dark, coarse and subtle stages. The exhibition presents testimonies and unpublished documentation, writings and personal objects to clarify some of the historical circumstances that gave rise to the "Cabrerita" legend. But, in particular, he seeks to recover his enormous plastic significance, the symbolic load of his characters, his musicality and his high poetic flight