La Venus Roja by Myrna Báez (Interpretation and Analysis)

La Venus Roja
Source: Museo de Arte de Bayamón

Myrna Báez is one of the seminal artists of Puerto Rico’s modernist movement. Báez, who studied in Spain, produced very distinctive work. She was heavily influenced by impressionism and surrealism; there are even elements of cubism in her style. She experimented with different color schemes and with light and shadow in her paintings. According to the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, “Báez is known for her technical experimentation in painting and…[for] her depiction of ambiguous interior spaces that layer and merge the landscape and the human figure.”

Báez’s Spanish education is particularly on display in her masterpiece La Venus Roja (which translates to The Red Venus). Here, Báez creates a visual criticism of the work of Diego Velázquez, one of the great artists in the history of Spain. The title of the piece references Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus, in which the nude goddess gazes at herself in a mirror held by Cupid. Báez borrows the outline of Velázquez’s Venus, filling in the goddess’ body with an undifferentiated shade of bright, garish red. Instead of looking at herself in the mirror, an image of the painter Diego Velázquez is reflected in the glass.

The painting turns the subject of Venus—traditionally a sensual figure in Western art—on its head. The painting de-sexualizes the goddess and reimagines her as a figure of empowerment who can confront the male gaze—as represented by Velázquez—directly.

Rokeby Venus
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The painting also betrays a desire to dissect traditional themes and topics in Western art. As a Modernist artist and a Puerto Rican woman—a representative of Spain’s colonial past—Báez would have recognized the need to confront and challenge the work of artists like Velázquez, while also recognizing the validity of their contributions to art. La Venus Roja, therefore, represents the complex relationships between past and present, male and female, and colonization and decolonization.

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.