Jose Ignacio Fletes Cruz

The saga of the Great Flood in the Hebrew Scriptures is nothing like the charming storybook tale of animals parading two by two into the ark promoted in popular culture but a truly disturbing cautionary story of the wrath of God unleashed on all of creation. Nicaraguan Artist Jose Ignacio Fletes Cruz suggests another way to interpret this foundational sacred narrative, presenting the ark not as a refuge where God seals off Noah and his family from a doomed world but as a bustling community center open to all—a second chance for humanity. Fletes Cruz paints in a naïve style, rooted in Nicaraguan folk art, which he mastered in a Christian commune, founded in the mid 1960s in the remote Solentiname Islands in Lake Nicaragua to put the egalitatian principles of Liberation Theology into practice. The utopian community was later destroyed in the Nicaraguan Revolution, but Fletes Cruz has remained true to the community's original ideals. The ark of Noah has long been viewed by Christian theologians as a foreshadowing of the Church, but there is no hint of clerical stuffiness in this carnivalesque scene of milling crowds beside the high-and-dry boat. The people have taken over the ark, and it's "all hands on deck" as they await the new captain of the ship--one who comes in the name of the Lord, bringing social justice and salvation. Says Fletes Cruz: “Christ has revolutionized everything—and that is my message.” (John Kohan)