Baruj Salinas - White tongue

White Tongue

Baruj Salinas (1935–2024)

Mixed Media on Canvas, 1979
39 x 48 inches
From The Language of the Clouds series

White Tongue (1979) is a rare and visually commanding early masterpiece from Baruj Salinas’ celebrated Language of the Clouds series — the landmark body of work that established the artist as one of the leading voices in contemporary international abstraction, postwar Latin American art, and transcultural contemporary painting. Created during the formative years of Salinas’ acclaimed Barcelona Period, the painting captures a pivotal moment in the evolution of the artist’s mature aesthetic, when his distinctive fusion of philosophical inquiry, spiritual contemplation, poetic symbolism, and atmospheric abstraction first emerged with full clarity and international resonance.

Executed at an especially important early stage within The Language of the Clouds that coincided with the international publication of his book, BARUJ SALINAS, that same year, White Tongue reveals the origins of the refined visual language that would come to define Salinas’ career over the following decades. During this transformative period in Spain, Salinas deepened his engagement with European literary modernism, metaphysical philosophy, and the legacy of postwar abstraction while simultaneously cultivating close intellectual and artistic dialogues with figures including María Zambrano, José Ángel Valente, Michel Butor, Pere Gimferrer, and members of the European avant-garde. The result was a profoundly original conceptual approach to painting that moved beyond traditional abstraction into realms of contemplation, minimalism, ambiguity, and transcendence.

Measuring an impressive 39 x 48 inches, White Tongue possesses both powerful presence and remarkable atmospheric subtlety. Executed in mixed media on canvas, the composition unfolds through luminous tonal veils, diffused whites, softened greys, gestural markings, and enigmatic linear forms that hover between calligraphy, symbolic notation, and pure abstraction. Through its intricately layered surface, Salinas explores a visual field of subtle gradations and interplay between depth and density, illumination and shadow, saturation and transparency, all animated by a quiet internal movement that unfolds with an almost celestial, muted profundity. The work exemplifies Salinas’ rare ability to sustain emotional and intellectual intensity through restraint, allowing silence, suspension, and suggestion to become active compositional forces within the painting itself.

Like many of the strongest works from The Language of the Clouds, the painting resists fixed interpretation while inviting prolonged contemplation. The title White Tongue subtly evokes themes of language, communication, revelation, and ineffability — recurring concerns throughout Salinas’ practice. Rather than presenting a literal narrative, the work operates as a metaphysical field of perception in which atmosphere and symbol merge into a transcultural visual experience that feels simultaneously ancient, contemporary, intimate, and universal.

Created during the height of Salinas’ highly sought-after Barcelona Period, White Tongue also reflects the artist’s important role in extending the legacy of Abstract Expressionism into a distinctly international and more philosophically nuanced direction. Rather than merely inheriting the gestural vocabulary of the New York School, Salinas transformed it through meditative subtlety, diasporic consciousness, literary influence, and spiritual depth — qualities that increasingly distinguish his work within the broader history of contemporary abstraction.

Widely regarded as one of the foremost Cuban contemporary masters of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Baruj Salinas exhibited internationally in more than 150 solo exhibitions during his lifetime and developed a body of work celebrated for its intellectual sophistication, atmospheric refinement, and transcultural significance. His work resides in the permanent collections of more than thirty-five museums and institutions worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Fundació Joan Miró, Museo Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Museo del Barrio (NYC), Phoenix Art Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, and Museo Rufino Tamayo, among many others throughout Europe and the Americas.

Salinas’ philosophical approach to painting and his broader artistic achievements would go on to influence generations of artists through the collectives he helped establish, the emerging art communities he helped cultivate, and the many students and younger artists he taught, mentored, and inspired throughout his career.

Important early large-scale paintings from The Language of the Clouds series have become increasingly scarce as institutional recognition, scholarly reassessment, and collector demand surrounding Salinas’ work continue to expand following the artist’s passing in 2024. In its scale, historical importance, atmospheric sophistication, and placement within the artist’s most celebrated body of work, White Tongue represents an exceptional museum-quality example of contemporary Cuban and Latin American abstraction from one of the defining periods of Salinas’ career.

MLA Gallery proudly guarantees the authenticity and provenance of this work in writing through its longstanding relationship with the Baruj Salinas Legacy Estate (BSLE).

Artwork Details

Artist: Baruj Salinas
Title: White Tongue
Date: 1979
Medium: Mixed media on canvas
Dimensions: 39 x 48 inches
Series: Language of the Clouds
Period: Barcelona Period (1974–1992)
Category: Contemporary Cuban abstract painting / Contemporary non-objective abstract art
Style: Contemporary abstraction / Abstract Expressionism
Condition: Excellent
Authentication: Fully guaranteed by MLA Gallery

Historical & Artistic Significance

• Rare early phase large-scale work from Baruj Salinas’ seminal Language of the Clouds series

• Created during the artist’s highly sought-after Barcelona period

• Important example of Salinas’ formative, recognizable abstract aesthetic

• Reflects the influence of European literary modernism, metaphysical philosophy, and American Abstract Expressionism

• Museum-caliber example of contemporary Cuban and Latin American abstraction

• Demonstrates Salinas’ pioneering transcultural approach to abstraction and conceptual painting

• Increasingly scarce investment-grade work with strong institutional and collector relevance

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Arte del Siglo XX, Casa de la Asegurada, Alicante, Spain.

Bacardi Collection, Miami, Fl

Beit Uri Museum, Israel. 

Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Spain. 

Cabinet des Estampes, Geneva, Switzerland.

Cuban Museum of Art, Miami, Florida. 

Fundacion Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain.

Fundación Maria Zambrano, Velez-Malaga, Spain.

Fundacion Miguel Aleman, Mexico City

Institute of International Education, New York, NY. 

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City

Musee Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France

John Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida. 

Lowe Art Museum (Cuban Collection) Coral Gables, Fl.

McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas. 

Museo Alvar Carrillo Gil, Mexico City

Ayuntamiento de Soria, Spain

Museo Arte Contemporaneo LatinoAmericano (MACLA), La Plata, Argentina.

Museo Cuevas, Mexico City

Museo de Arte Moderno, Ibiza, Spain.

Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City 

Museo de Villafames, Villafames, Spain.

Museo del Barrio, New York, NY 

Museo Rayo, Roldanillo, Colombia.

Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City

Museo Nacional D'Árt de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. 

Museum of Art, Budapest, Hungary.

Museum of the Americas (OAS), Washington, DC.

Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan.

Pemex Collection, Mexico City 

Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix, Arizona. 

Public Library, City of Miami, Miami, Florida.

San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas.

University of Ohio Museum of Art, Miami, Ohio.

Villa de Montecatini Collection, Italy 

Museo Maria Zambrano, Velez-Malaga, Spain