1600 - RODRIGUEZ, HILARIO (1936–1987) “Flying Basket with Ají Chilies Against a Cloudy Background,” 1984, oil on panel. Signed and dated in black lower left: Hilario Rodriguez 84. Dimensions: 81/103 cm. In a gilded profile frame. 100/119 cm. The Dominican painter Hilario Rodríguez, who trained in his hometown of Santiago de los Caballeros under Félix Negro Disla and later at the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo under renowned mentors such as Hernández Ortega, Yoryi Morel, and José Gausachs, is regarded as a versatile master of Dominican modernism. In addition to his figurative genre paintings and landscapes, his late work is characterized by creations that straddle the fine line between reality and fantasy. In this 1984 work, Rodríguez strikingly breaks with the classical conventions of still life. The central motif of the composition is a woven basket that floats completely weightlessly in a vast, deep-blue sky amid white cumulus clouds. Spilling out of it is a multitude of bright green and scattered red ají chilies—an element deeply symbolic of Caribbean culture and folklore. A single chili has broken away from the group and drifts alone through the ether in the right-hand part of the picture. Through the surreal motif of levitation and the deliberate distortion of proportions, Rodríguez removes the objects from their mundane context. He transforms an everyday cultural artifact of his homeland into a timeless, poetic visual enigma. Stylistically, this dreamlike alienation is reminiscent of the oeuvre of European Surrealism, yet retains an unmistakably Caribbean identity through its vibrant color palette. This is a characteristic and mature work by the artist, created just three years before his untimely death in October 1987. The painting is in excellent original condition, with fresh colors appropriate for its age.