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Olofi Owner of the Landscape
(Olofi, Dueño del Paisaje)
Author: Manuel Mendive
Year: 1994
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 46 x 74 1/4 inches
Inventory No: 07036
Price: $
SOLD
Exhibited in MENDIVE, Carin Arte, Thiene, Italy, 1997.
Exhibited in MENDIVE, Joan Guaita Art Gallery,
Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1997.
Exhibited in MENDIVE, Galerie Le Monde de L’Art,
Paris, France, 1997.
Illustrated in the corresponding three-exhibition catalog,
MENDIVE, Dr. Guillermina Ramos Cruz and
Juan Delgado, M&G, non-numbered page, 1997.
Illustrated in IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS,
Volume Twenty, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL,
2023, page 113.
A sister painting by the artist, Olofi and the World,
executed in the same year and the same medium,
technique, and dimensions, is in the permanent
collection of the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Acquired by a Private Collector in New York.
The peaceful scene in Olofi, Owner of the Landscape, depicts
divine spirits roaming alongside believers in a lush Eden.
Within the work, all energies are shared – a man nourishes a
ceiba tree, just as the garden nourishes the man. Everything
is magical, sincere, alive and in harmony. Olofi is an honorific
title of Olodumare, the Supreme creator God of the Yoruba
pantheon. For the Cuban Yoruba, Olodumare has three
manifestations, each syncretized with Catholic beliefs:
Olodumare is the divine essence, (the Father); Olorun is the
creative act, (the Son); and Olofi is the creation itself, a
conduit between heaven and earth, (the Holy Spirit).
The devout praise Olofi by respecting the earth -- he has no
temples in his honor, nor does he have consecrated priests.
The work is part of an informal series executed by
Manuel Mendive during the 1990’s in honor of Olofi.
Nico Hough
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