Publisher's Synopsis
The life and art of Rene Moncada, otherwise known as The Best Artist, covering his early life, philosophy, major exhibitions and performances in both New York and Venezuela, as well as photographs of his art.
For 25 years as the owner of a gallery in New York City's SoHo, Rene, best known for a series of murals undertaken between 1979 to 2000 proclaiming I AM THE BEST ARTIST Rene, is also known as Nature's Ambassador. Rene receives messages from Nature in the form of inspiration and it is his duty as her Ambassador to translate those messages into a transcendental language that everyone can understand. That language is ART, and drawing is its written form.
Through his fiber art, Rene created unique haute couture fashions. Called Nudismos because in Spanish the word to knot is nudo, Rene also ties wood and wire together into sculptural constructions and creates paintings using the same Nudismo design.
Rene noticed a subliminal image embedded within the label of the Mott's apple juice can. The label, showing a detailed rendering of a halved apple, contained an obvious representation of a vulva. Rene painted a replica of the can and held an exhibition showcasing his Mott's painting. This event was written up in numerous magazines of the 80's. Soon thereafter, Mott's redesigned the label, covering the center of the apple.
Rene regards the vulva as the purest image in nature and it is a regular part of his art. "The shape is a basic structure, a universal image." Created to liberate art from the dictatorship of religion, his most provocative image, Sex and Violence, depicts a Christian cross with a vulva at its center. Rene has put together the creation of God to give life to his son with the creation of man to kill him, and asks the question, which is more sacred?
Rene has created a series of sculptures by recycling Styrofoam, an ecological dilemma because it isn't biodegradable. Just as nature encapsulates toxic materials with vegetation, these sculptures are encapsulated with paper pulp and painted.
As a vocal opponent of censorship, hypocrisy and oppression, Rene dedicated his artistic career to bring about the respect women deserve, justifying his actions as a desire to liberate not only the art world but the world at large. It is this attribute that qualifies him as The Best Artist.
