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The Cuban poet, critic, and curator Osvaldo Sánchez Crespo passed away this Saturday in the Mexican city of Mérida at the age of 68, a victim of cancer, a person close to the intellectual confirmed to CiberCuba.
His death casts a shadow over both Cuban and Mexican culture, where he became an influential figure in contemporary art and directed several of the country's leading museums.
The Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico expressed its sorrow over his passing, highlighting that the curator "led the direction of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico, the Tamayo Museum, and the Carrillo Gil with rigor and freshness. He was a co-founder of the Patronage of Contemporary Art and a generous collaborator with artists and colleagues."
That same University, the most important in the country, recognized him as a figure of influence in contemporary art in Latin America.
He emphasized that the Cuban poet, curator, and art critic, in addition to directing the aforementioned museums, "was a co-founder of the Contemporary Art Patronage and screenwriter of 'Papeles secundarios' and 'Mujer transparente' (...) His notebook 'Matar al último venado' (1982) won the David Award in Cuba."
The National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature also highlighted that the intellectual "left a significant mark on the development of contemporary art in Mexico" in the institutions he led.
Additionally, Casa Gallina, an important community project of which he was a founder, honored his life and legacy. Osvaldo "laid the conceptual and ethical foundations of the project and served as its director for the first five years. His intellectual clarity allowed for the construction of an innovative space capable of questioning and rethinking the everyday ways of making art. Thanks to his vision, Casa Gallina has established itself as the project it is today, serving various communities as a lively, open, and challenging space," he emphasized.
In addition to other important institutions in Mexico, dozens of artists from the island have expressed their sorrow over Osvaldo's death.
Among them are the artist and writer Coco Fusco; the director of the Sonora Museum of Art, Octavio Avendaño Trujillo; the curator Cuauhtemoc Medina; and Alfonso Miranda Márquez from the Soumaya Museum.
The artist Gustavo Pérez Monzón, the economist Mauricio de Miranda, the visual artist Consuelo Castañeda, the painter Juan Miguel Pozo, the theater director Carlos Celdrán, and the poet Ramón Fernández Larrea, among others, also highlighted his work and legacy.
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Born in Havana in 1958, Sánchez Crespo belonged to the literary generation of the 1980s in Cuba. He won the David Poetry Prize in 1981 with the collection To Kill the Last Deer, regarded as a foundational text of that poetic wave.
Some of her poems, such as "Family Poetic Declaration" or "Playita 16. Golden Masks", are etched in the collective imagination of Cuban poetry.
Disciple of filmmaker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, he worked as a screenwriter for the film Papeles secundarios (1989), the feature film Mujer transparente (1990), and the short film Fortuna lo que ha querido (1991), all directed by Orlando Rojas. He also taught at the San Alejandro School of Art and at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana.
In 1990, he emigrated to Mexico at the invitation of the photographer Graciela Iturbide. Since then, he has developed a prolific career as a curator and cultural manager.
In that country, he directed the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (1997-2000), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Rufino Tamayo, and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Ciudad de México (2007-2012), where he promoted projects with a vision of art as a bridge between creation and community, as highlighted by the newspaper La Jornada.
He was also the artistic director and curator of inSite/Artistic Practices in the Public Domain in Tijuana-San Diego (2001-2006), and a co-founder of the Contemporary Art Trust in Mexico. Additionally, he worked on international projects, such as the selection committee for the curator of Documenta 14 in Kassel and the advisory committee of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.
Among her most memorable projects is Casa Gallina, a sociocultural space in Mexico City focused on community, culture, and the environment.
More recently, he collaborated in Berlin with the foundation of businessman Hans Schöpflin on the Spore initiative, which is aimed at promoting regenerative ecological practices.
In addition to his published works, he leaves behind a significant unpublished legacy that includes two novels, several poetry notebooks, a compilation of his art writings, and a personal diary that he kept for much of his life, reported the magazine Rialta.
That independent medium reports that Sánchez Crespo's latest creation was the novel In the Garden of My Foreigner Friend, handcrafted and shared with close ones shortly before his death.
In the flap of that book, she wrote: “What I write is a testimony of losses, I emphasize the urgency we all have to exercise our hearts, the obligation to defend our dose of human energy. I would never want to fall asleep, nor accept the most significant of masks.”
In recent years, he settled in Mérida, on the Yucatán Peninsula.
Osvaldo Sánchez Crespo is remembered as one of the most influential Cuban intellectuals of his generation and an essential bridge between the art of Cuba and that of Mexico.
His colleagues in Mexico have mourned his passing in several posts shared on Facebook.
Luis Vargas Santiago, a researcher at the Institute of Aesthetic Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, described him as "a whirlwind of intelligence, creativity, insight, and inspiration."
"Her texts and curations will continue to provide much for reflection. I will hold many good memories and am grateful for her closeness, trust, and mentorship. I will always cherish the fact that she invited me to be part of the board of Casa Gallina, where we will continue to honor her memory and expand her legacy. Infinite hugs, dear Os," she wrote.
The Cuban intellectual had been suffering from cancer for several months. He passed away at his home in Mérida, under the care of good friends.
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