Red Cows by Myrna Báez (Interpretation and Analysis)

Red Cows
Source: El Museo del Barrio

For some reason or another, cows are a perpetual and common subject in fine art. It is perhaps natural that they should be so. Cows have lived alongside humans for thousands or years and have become symbols of country life, prosperity, fertility, and more depending on the culture. However, in Myrna Báez’s painting, Red Cows (Vacas Rojas), they have a double meaning.

Báez, a Puerto Rican artist, produced highly distinctive work. She studied in Spain and was heavily influenced by impressionism and surrealism; there are even elements of cubism in her style. She tends to use cool tones in her paintings and experiments heavily with light and shadow.

Red Cows exemplifies these characteristics. Here, Báez uses the cow to experiment with shape and colors within the landscape. The result is an otherworldly scene: a herd of bright red cows arranging themselves in geometric patterns. While the animals are clearly cows, their shape and color are reminiscent of the flamboyán, a tree with red flowers that has become one of the symbols of Puerto Rico (although it grows elsewhere too). The clever ambiguity of the red cows gives the painting the feeling of a visual illusion while also summoning the emotional and psychological reality of abstract art.

However, setting aside all of this, I think it’s also important to view the painting on its own, separated from the cultural veil I’ve been discussing. While she supported the Puerto Rican independence movement, Báez did not want to be viewed only as a Puerto Rican painter. While her work was informed by her home, she—quite naturally—wanted to be viewed as an artist first. As Báez herself explains:

“I do not want to do landscapes for tourists nor make pictures of the sentimental, nostalgic or folkloric things that people in this country suffer from due to a lack of identity. I am using landscape because I am interested in the form, because I'm interested in color, because I'm interested in the place... I'm interested in expressing: light—that which surrounds us, the shapes that have formed me, that have made me and that move me.”

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.