{
"data": {
"id": 371392,
"accession_number": "2019.227",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "I Always Return, 1993, printed 1994. Belkis Ay\u00f3n (Cuban, 1967\u20131999). Collagraph; sheet: 94.6 x 68 cm (37 1/4 x 26 3/4 in.); matted: 115.1 x 87 cm (45 5/16 x 34 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Alma Kroeger Fund, 2019.227. \u00a9 Belkis Ay\u00f3n",
"current_location": null,
"title": "I Always Return",
"creation_date": "1993, printed 1994",
"creation_date_earliest": 1993,
"creation_date_latest": 1993,
"artists_tags": [
"Latine and Hispanic Artists",
"female"
],
"culture": [
"Cuba"
],
"technique": "collagraph",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Collagraph",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Sheet: 94.6 x 68 cm (37 1/4 x 26 3/4 in.); Matted: 115.1 x 87 cm (45 5/16 x 34 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.946,
"height_inch": 37,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 0.68,
"width_inch": 26,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
},
"image": {
"height": 0.95,
"height_inch": 37,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.68,
"width_inch": 26,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
},
"matted": {
"height": 1.151,
"height_inch": 45,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"width": 0.87,
"width_inch": 34,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Belkis Ay\u00f3n",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "inscribed in pencil at bottom center: Siempre vuelvo",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "signed and dated in pencil at lower right: Belkis Ayon Manso 1993",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "inscribed on verso at upper left in pencil: Belkis Ayon / \u201cSiempre Vuelvo\u201d / colografia / 95 x 67 / ND A2",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 373919,
"title": "A Graphic Revolution: Prints and Drawings in Latin America",
"description": "A Graphic Revolution: Prints and Drawings in Latin America. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-August 2, 2020).",
"opening_date": "2020-03-08T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 438968,
"title": "Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions",
"description": "Women in Print: Recent Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-June 19, 2022).",
"opening_date": "2022-01-16T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 541557,
"title": "New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper",
"description": "New Narratives: Contemporary Works on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2023-April 14, 2024).",
"opening_date": "2023-11-19T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Estate of Belkis Ay\u00f3n, Havana, Cuba",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-2019",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(David Castillo Gallery, Miami Beach, FL, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2019",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2019-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Of Sik\u00e1n, the subject of this work, Belkis Ay\u00f3n wrote that \u201c[she] is a transgressor and I see her as such, as I also see myself.\u201d",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Belkis Ay\u00f3n worked almost exclusively in collography, a printmaking technique in which a three-dimensional plate embosses designs into paper, to depict the subject seen here: Abaku\u00e1, a secretive fraternal society established by African slaves in 19th-century Cuba. Because the founding myths of the group were not well known and it had no visual tradition, Ay\u00f3n invented her own. Here, a faceless figure\u2014presumably Sik\u00e1n, a princess sacrificed following an act of betrayal in Abaku\u00e1 mythology\u2014floats imposingly above three initiates.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q84279705"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Ay\u00f3n, Katia, ed. Nkame: Belkis Ay\u00f3n. Madrid: Turner, 2010.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 203, no. 93.11",
"url": null
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Ay\u00f3n 93.11",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.227",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Alma Kroeger Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 371392,
"creators": [
{
"id": 371385,
"description": "Belkis Ay\u00f3n (Cuban, 1967\u20131999)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Cuban graphic artist and printmaker, 1967-1999",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1967",
"death_year": "1999",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2019-12-02T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1993,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1993, printed 1994",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:54:04.909000"
}
}