Douglas Pérez Castro Cuban, 1972

What stands out most in Douglas Pérez's Castro’s works is his great sense of humour; a humour that comments with extraordinary acuity on complex matters in our local history, society and culture. Pérez's works hardly ever use humour for its own sake. In spite of being a cheerful, funny person, he never lets himself be drawn into the simple pleasure of amusing others gratuitously. Behind his humour, his impulse to caricature, there is always an underlying critical or at least reflexive, curious, inquiring purpose. His critical commitment seems to be governed by a phrase pronounced by our great poet-philosopher José Martí: "Humour and satire should be for society like a whip with bells on the tip." Although his works may point to painful or dramatic realities such as racial discrimination against blacks, or the difficulties and contradictions that prevail in our current society, they never reflect bitterness, anger, regret or sadness, but rather amusement and humor. One often has the impression that they are not critical comments at all, but simply “painted jokes”, as the artist himself has said about his work.