HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES IN CUBAN

29 May - 19 Sept 2021

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are known all over the world, also in Cuba. In the capital Havana lives a magazine illustrator and illustrator - Ricardo Reyes Ramos - with the artist name Richar. He is both a trained draftsman and an economist, born in 1961. Confronted with Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, which we perceive as very Danish, Richar has made more than 20 large drawings as illustrations for various of the fairy tales: What the father does is always the right thing to do. The ugly Duckling. The little girl with the matchsticks. The brave tin soldier. KlodsHans et al.

As a Cuban and as an illustrator, Richar interprets the fairy tales in his own way. He builds his drawings through a wealth of details and scenes: some harmonize well with our notions of the more than 150-year-old fairy tales. Others seem refreshingly new in the context - and his self-portrait surprisingly appears in several of the drawings.

As an audience, we may see angles and perspectives in the well-known fairy tales that we have not previously perceived. The old stories get a touch of alienation and modernity.

The drawings are made in pencil, ink and watercolor. They were created in the period 2008-2017 and are in Danish private ownership, from which we have had the opportunity to borrow them.