Femininity, spirituality and Cuban identity are themes explored in “The Necessity of Seduction: Cuba and Eros,” a new exhibition on view at the Echo Contemporary, with works by three artists from Cuba and the US. The curator and featured artist Karen Graffeo was inspired by tiny erotic photographs that were once included with cigars sold in Cuba in the 1800s. She joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to share more about the history of these photos and why they spoke volumes about the themes represented in the exhibition.
Interview highlights:
The nuances of seduction and beauty hinted at by Cuban cigar box photos:
“When I scanned and enlarged the tiny photographs, there was one of them where I could clearly see a large thumbprint across the belly of the woman in the photograph,” recounted Graffeo. “This physical mark showed me that the viewer was united with the woman in the photograph, and I realized these images were seductive secrets, and the cherished tiny size of them gave evidence that these images were handled, caressed and cherished.”
“In researching these, I found that at first these tiny photographs that informed the rest of the work, these were somewhat taboo until there was a turning point; and in the ’20s, women of the era would go to the photographers that worked for the tobacco companies and many of them would ask to be photographed as one of the women in the tiny photographs, and that was another aspect of seduction. I realized that this was a standard of beauty before dieting and surgery informed beauty. It was a real, sensuous, positive beauty, and so I felt like these tiny photographs that were little personal peepshows carried in pockets were very important to the women of the time as well.”
