Publisher's Synopsis
Menene Gras Balaguer's new book on Manuel Ocampo deals with more than three decades of the artist's career, from the late 80s to the present. "Fear of a Kitsch Existence" refers to how Ocampo believe his artwork should be considered, although he leaves it open to interpretation. Balaguer has gathered around three hundred images of his artwork, some of which act as key representations of a postcolonial discourse that it is clearly explicit through all his work. This volume aims to make accessible an art work that is not always easy to understand, despite the apparent popularity of the images and their relationships to a very familiar iconography. As an illegitimate son, or a "bastard" as he calls himself and the artists of his generation, he had to appropriate the ability to misrepresent reality in order to be a free individual.
