Tradition and modernity in bronze*
This has to do with human experiences…. with the surmounting effort of a man, Lázaro Valdés, and his family, attached, since they can remember, to farm work in a spot in Pinar del Río province, almost lost in the map of the island of Cuba. There, during the 90s, Lázaro strived to channel his artistic flair when the country was trying to overcome an economic crisis of apocalyptical dimensions. In Pinar, Valdés combined his farm work with higher geographical studies, but it is in woodcarving that he found a marvelous universe of possibilities which, little by little, helped him to throw a bridge to other horizons in which to try new aims.
Far away, abroad and encouraged by the dream of creating a family business, he spent years helping to bring his relatives, now the backbone of his artistic emporium located between the Miami Airport and Hialeah. ASUbronze covered a long road of work and experimentation which today allows it to offer its clients the consummated mastery of processes and techniques: “… innovations are so many – Lázaro underlines – that I have a new dream: to make a book explaining the methods and solutions we have contributed in what has to do with casting molds, lost wax, smelting, restoration of sculptures and so on.”
ASU’s depurated style is also due to a continuous close contact with great international masters, and American and Spanish American first-rate artists who entrust their pieces to them. Many are regularly present in their installations.
* This text combines considerations by Aldo Menéndez on ASUbronze published in the ASU flier Art and Sculpture Unlimited and in “ASUbronze, el arte de fundir en familia” (AZUbronze, The Art of Smelting in Family), in El Nuevo Herald, Saturday, 08.31.13.
