Augusto G. Menocal y Cordova

Prestigious artist; style painter, portraitist was a brilliant professor of the School of Fine Arts, San Alejandro

Born March 13, 1899 in La Havana, descendant of illustrious patriots, began his studies at a religious school La Salle, then studied painting at the School of Arts San Alejandro where He graduated from art teacher and painting.

Among his most important works they are: The Amazon, 1920 An Outdoor Lesson, 1921; I do not want to go to Heaven (Torment of Hatuey); Moonlight ; The ruins of the Hospital and Church of Paula; Cuban national heroes; Landing of Columbus, located in the Presidential Palace in Havana.

Menocal won the first prize of the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1920.

Source : "La Pintura y la Escultura en Cuba"book

CUBA, COLONIAL PERIOD AND EARLY REPUBLIC

Cuban landscape painters

Eduardo Morales

Was born in Havana, Cuba in 1862. A considerable part of the Eduardo Morales’ work is composed by landscapes of the Cuban countrysides. These artworks call the attention for the exquisite way of tacking onto the canvases meticulous details that talk by themselves of his mastery of drawing. The carriages are a distinctive seal of his work, which he reproduced with sharp vision.

He engaged in formal study at the San Alejandro Academy, which he interrupted in order to participate in the struggle for the Cuban independence. Once the war was over, he became a member of the National Police Force, and painted during his hours of leisure. Later, upon retirement, he devoted himself to capturing the charm of the Cuban landscape. His work was included in the historical exhibit Three Hundred Years of Art in Cuba, on which occasion his piece Volanta (Cuban Carriage) was exhibited. His 1912 painting Carretas (Carts) was shown at the exhibit Pinturas Españolas y Cubanas del Siglo XIX (Cuban and Spanish Paintings of the 19th Century) in Salamanca, Spain (1999).

Gonzalo Escalante Díaz

Was born on January 9, 1865 in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, and died on August 28, 1939, in Havana, Cuba. He lived the best years of his prolific life in the city of Guantanamo, where he quickly linked the cultural movement.Although his career was photography, Escalante was given the task of organizing a charanga with some of the old instruments of Simancas Regiment Band of the Spanish army; thus, the retreats that were made in the José Martí Park were restored. Escalante studied painting in Mexico City during 1880 to 1884 and then traveled to Madrid, Spain, where he continued to study painting from 1884 to 1888 at the Academy San Fernando. In 1888 he exhibited artworks at the Exposition Universal de Barcelona and shortly afterwards, in 1890, he moved to Cuba and established residency in the city of Guantánamo. There in the Oriente province of the Island he intensified his artistic endeavors, and from 1918 to 1920 he was totally dedicated to painting. His preferred subject matters were landscapes, marinas and the occasional portrait. With his family, he moved to Havana, where he ended his life working as a photographer and artist, becoming one of the most remarkable landscape of Cuba.

Juan Gil Garcia

Juan Gil García born in Madrid, Spain in 1876, died in 1932, Habana, Cuba. He moved to Cuba near the end of the 19th century. In the Island he developed, on his canvases, the theme of the national landscape, combined with the fruits and flowers of the country. His painting was the first in Cuba in giving great relevance to the local fruits, expressing, through their opulent and tasty forms, the sensuality and fertility of his adoptive homeland. The Magazine Bohemia, in 1917, dedicated seven front pages to reproduce his artworks Cocos (Coconuts), Anones, Mangos (Mangoes), Zapotes, Naranjas (Oranges), Plátanos (Bananas) and Mameyes. In 1916 and 1917, he exhibited at the Fine Arts Salon, in Havana. It wasn’t until May of 1971 that he was granted the first personal exhibit at the Museo de Arte Colonial (Colonial Art Museum), in Havana.

Cuban Painting History

Cuban academic painting is characterized, since its inception, by backed of neoclassical canons of French and Italian school. This condition determined during the nineteenth and early twentieth century artistic guidance of Cuban painting. Art as a way to represent the sublime and uplifting will determine not only the subject but also, of course, the form of representation of this theme. In other words, beauty will not only physically by the perfection of form, but the matter to be addressed in the paint will have a fundamental weight when designing the paintings. It is ultimately the application of Academy Aristotelian concept of beauty. Hence, the historical theme and allegory by the landscape and portrait, prevail in the landscape of the academy. For the landscape, the idyllic. In the portrait, the ideal. Of course, within the body of exponents that will paint his future there will be variations, without openly breaking with established codes, they make concessions to other ways to make themselves nineteenth. Century as in the case of romanticism and realism. The latter is almost a rarity in the context of Cuban painting of the period. The Vasco painter, based in Cuba since 1850, Victor Patricio de Landaluce, is a major character. Just two years in Cuba makes the book illustrated by him and José Robles, painted by Cubans themselves.

Abstract art and its influence in Cuba

Abstract and Concrete Art assume the primacy of logical thought process over the appearance of the visual image they share they reflect the artist's interpretation of reality The fifties universally represented the domain of abstraction in the most important artistic centers in the US and Europe since after World War II many painters emigrated to the United States where this movement emerged from abstract painting. Cuban artists were not the exception. Abstract movement in Cuba took boom in the 50s, which caused great impact with painters like: Sandu Darie, Guido Llinas, Antonio Vidal, Fayad Jamis Rene Avila, Jose Ignacio Bermudez, Hugo Consuegra, Viredo Espinosa, Cervando Cabrera, Mario Carreño Carmen Herrera, Mariano Rodriguez. In Cuba the influence of American abstract artists in the national movement known. Among the most prominent trends are informalist abstraction and concrete. The most prominent figures of this current abstract joined the group Los Once, as they were called by the initial number of participants, and in the Concrete...

Mirta Cerra important Cuban Artist

Mirta Cerra was born ,April 23, 1904 in Bejucal, Cuba , was a Cuban painter. She studied from 1928 until 1934 at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, Havana, and at the Art Students League, New York, between 1935-1936. She had a solo exhibition in 1943 titled Exposición de Pintura Mirta Cerra at the Lyceum, Havana. In 1950 she showed her works at the Club de las Naciones Unidas, Washington, D.C. In 1955 she had a show in New York titled Mirta Cerra, at the Galería Sudamericana. Later in 1983 some of hers works were exhibited as Vida Plena. Pinturas y Dibujos de Mirta Cerra at Galería L in Havana.

Carlos Sobrino ,Cuban(1909 - 1975)

  Title: “Retrato de Eloisa Carbonell de Sobrino”

                                                                                                       Year: 1954

Carlos Sobrino:  (1909 - 1975).  Cuban Artist studied at the Villate School, and at the San Alejandro Academy. He showed numerous exhibits of his work including in 1932 at the Lyceum and Lawn Tennis Club in Havana. He participated at the Fine Arts Salon of Havana. His work was showed in countries such as the United States and France. He was a painter but also a sculptor and ceramics artist. Carlos Sobrino received a gold medal in the 1954 Hispanic-American Biennial. He also received the 1957 National Painting Award at the Fine Arts Palace in Havana. His work Rural Peasant Concentration received the National Painting Award in 1959 and the National Fine Arts Museum in Havana acquired it for their collection. He went into exile in 1969 and died in Madrid Spain.