October 24, 2006

Xavier Cugat

What I really want to do is talk about the weather...how right now it can be as balmy as Koriyama during the day but shrouded in fog in the morning, and the gorgeous weird sunsets lately that look like a pink cigar attack on the hills behind us. And the pineapple guavas that are ripe all at the same time and require eating. But instead I bring you Xavier Cugat.





Xavier Cugat was a Cuban bandleader far older than his hot flamenco guitar playing wife, Charo. I knew him from the TV talk shows of my youth as the old guy married to Charo. Charo's website doesn't even say that they were ever married, for whatever that's worth!

Among his many talents, XC seems to have been a visual artist. Or to have signed some paintings. Or to have sold some art that had his name on it. Or something.


This weekend I saw a painting by Xavier Cugat at an auction site and it cracked me up so I thought I'd buy it but I want to know more (painting 1).

Then I looked on the Web and saw basically the same painting with a story about how the owner's parents bought it in Mexico at a XC concert (painting 2).









Then I saw the same painting without the liver containers (painting 3).

At three and counting, the thrill is gone. Now I don't really want to own an alleged Xavier Cugat painting as much as I want to count how many instances of this painting I can find.

3 comments:

gina said...

I own one mof theses paintings as well

Unknown said...

I also became dismayed when I found out our painting was one out of many.
(My mother bought it back in the 70's in Vegas)
The only thing I learned was that Cugat often painted the same piece over and over again, often replacing the faces of people with people he met, like his dentist.
Our version does not have the jars and the dog is different.

Unknown said...

Love this painting, and I kind of love that it's also a weird reproduction of itself. I came across a version (with no liver jars, which makes me sad), and am trying to figure how much these things tend to sell for. Of course, it's been a while since this post, LOL!

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