| |
Dr. Pastor Castillo was born in 1945 in
Pinar del Rio, Cuba. From early on he has a profound
sensibility and a natural gift for the Visual Arts. However,
his intense interest on man as his destiny prompted the artist
to become a Doctor in Psychiatry, graduating from the
University of Havana. Dr. Castillo's professional work was
deeply influenced by the studies of Fernando Ortiz, world
renown Cuban anthropologist often referred to as "The Third
Discoverer of Cuba". Dr Ortiz' developed the concept of Tran
cultural Psychiatry, revealing a great deal about Afro Cuban
culture and its anthropological consequences.
The work of American psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan was
also an important influence.
Dr. Castillo has literally been around the world, in his never
ending pursuit of understanding different cultures and
determining how they shape human behavior. In 1980 he visits
several African countries and falls under the spell of the
cradle of civilization. It is in Africa where the artist finds
himself face to face with what he considers his own ancestral
culture, a culture that has always been present in Cuban socio-cultural makeup. There he undergoes "...an emotional
corrective experience, which produces a true insight into my
identity and reveals my long dormant vocation for painting and
an unavoidable urge to use the canvas as a mean of
expression."
Recently, he begins using the visual language of other artists
in his "Revisiting the Masters" series of canvases, where
subtle intellectual interplays and spiritual content make
them true philosophical explorations of Art and Existence
itself. |
