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The theme of pain, illness, tragedy is not new in art, and it can be said that it is precisely such themes that are the least commercial. As a rule, the creators of such creations convey in this way something completely personal, some kind of their own constant pain and anxiety. Of course, not every collector would like to contemplate every day, say, in his house a picture that depicts a semblance of a human face with a grimace of terrible pain, fright or disgust. But this does not at all reduce the artistic value of such works and, as a rule, immerses the viewer into a world of deep and sad thoughts. Cuban artist Antonia Aires (1929-1995) suffered from polio as a child, which, apparently, left an imprint on her work. It is very unusual to see such a theme of death, hopelessness, pain in a Cuban artist – after all, we associate Cuba with a holiday, carnival, carelessness and uninterrupted love. But looking at the painting “Announcement” (La anunciacion), you involuntarily become serious, as you contemplate the tragedy depicted in the appropriate color. The artist, perhaps, wanted to introduce us to an elderly woman, exhausted by endless labor, sitting at her sewing machine from morning till night, to whom the queen of death suddenly appeared with terrible news with her sharp crown on her head. All the horror of this woman, all her pain and screams, the endless cruelty of death, all the meaninglessness of life – we can see all this on this brown-brown canvas. And having seen it once, we are unlikely to forget it soon.
