Words about masterpieces, on masterpieces: the irreverent pop art of an emerging Cuban painter
Since he first burst onto the scene in 2017, the prolific, self-taught Cuban painter CB Hoyo (born 1995) has enjoyed an enormous popularity both online and in the art industry: he has more than 500,000 Instagram followers and has held multiple solo shows throughout the world. Hoyo's work comprises "fakes" of works by canonical artists such as Warhol, Banksy, Matisse and Rothko, which he paints over with his own irreverent commentary. In one painting, titled It's a Fake Magritte, Hoyo depicts Magritte's famous The Treachery of Images complete with its well-known pronouncement, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." Above this, Hoyo has painted in red, "This is not a Magritte." Hoyo's art, relying on blunt humor and Dada-esque irreverence, embraces the new chaotic normality in which we live. This hardcover volume, the artist's first monograph, contains 170 reproductions.