IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS, Volume Ten - Cernuda Arte

IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS VOLUME TEN

Cernuda Arte 1

Eduardo Morales (1862-1938), Volanta en el CaĂąaveral, (Carriage in the Sugar Cane Plantation), ca. 1915, oil on canvas, 13 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches

Cover: Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Mujer de Pie, (Standing Woman), 1944, mixed media on paper laid down on canvas, 42 x 33 3/4 inches 2

IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS VOLUME TEN

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elcome to Important Cuban Artworks, volume ten. With this edition we complete a decade of yearly presentations of some of the better creations by the Antillean artists that we are honored to purvey.

The national artistic movement in which we specialize, spans over more than two centuries. This school of Cuban art has been nourished by European, African, Chinese and North American cultural influences that cohabitated, commingled and competed for popular favor and recognition – first in the social fabric of the Island colony and later, in the bosom of the republican nation.

The dynamics of cultural coexistence expanding the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries of so many varied manifestations in this small Island, amplified by the subdivisions of different African “nations”, separately represented in their respective cabildos (ethnic-associations of different tribes); the regional distinctions of the various Spanish groups, organized in clubs according to their provincial origins; the French émigrés who escaped the Haitian Revolution, the British merchants, the Chinese indentured laborers and a community of North American businessmen, helped to create a social phenomena that was uncommon for its epoch. Under these fertile cultural circumstances the arts have flourished in Cuba, especially those with more popular appeal – music and the visual arts.

This mosaic of vibrant cultures preluded the current First World (North American and European) social reality of increasing ethnic diversity, constant habitual fusion and multicultural human existence. As we observe the contemporary interest and closeness of the Other in our Global Village, we realize that in the arts, the inclusion of artworks by deceased Masters and Contemporary Cuban artists in international public and private collections is merely part of a wider phenomena. Life is enriched and expanded by the angle of view that different cultures contribute. (continues on next page)

Cernuda Arte’s Staff (from left to right): Nercys Cernuda, Ramón Cernuda, Sergio Cernuda, Luisa Lignarolo and Emily Codik Cernuda Arte provides a warranty of authenticity for every artwork offered in this catalog, according to the terms established in the Certificate of Authenticity that Cernuda Arte issues to the buyer(s) of artworks acquired from Cernuda Arte.

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Our proposal for this season, as presented in this year’s catalog, reflects the amalgam of cultural heritage that configures “Cubanness”. By careful observation of the artworks, the artist’s bios, their moments and places in the constant evolution of art history, we will see more than just an image, more than the dominion of the artisan’s technique, we will decipher the ajiaco – the stew of cultural ingredients that made the specific creation possible. We invite you to take a fuller-deeper look and savor its meaning.

This year’s publication documents one hundred and ninety-three works, of which ten are part of the 19th Century Colonial period, and seven other paintings that come from its related Early Republic era. The AvantGarde Vanguardistas from the 1920s to 1970s are represented by seventy-four works. Special attention has been given to René Portocarrero (1912-1985), whose one hundredth birthday anniversary takes place during this season, in February of 2012. A total of twelve works by Portocarrero adorn the catalog. The Modernists from the 1950s to the 1980s contribute another eighteen paintings and sculptures, while Contemporary Cuban art from the Island and the Diaspora complete our offering with eighty-four artworks. Please enjoy.

Ramón Cernuda

Painting by Vicente Escobar illustrated on page 5:

Of Vicente Escobar, the renowned art critic, José Gómez Sicre wrote in his book, Cuban Painting Today, published in 1944, “The second artist [to be recorded in Cuba] Vicente Escobar (1757-1834) was born in Havana. He painted a fine series of family portraits of the aristocracy of that period and his canvases are noteworthy for their luminosity and delicate charm reminiscent in some respects of Goya. He used a very rich palette although his plastic interpretation was sometimes quite naive. His enthusiasm for his profession is reflected in the loving care with which he painted all the minute details of drapery in his compositions. Among the several pupils and assistants who worked in Escobar’s studio, Juan del Río was his closest.”

The Enciclopedia del Arte en América, published in 1968 by Bernardo Lerner, Bibliográfica Omeba, 1968, states of Escobar, “Cuban painter born in Havana in 1757, and dies in the same city in 1834.

This artist of color distinguished himself as a portraitist, leaving a gallery of portraits that illustrated the era’s aristocratic personalities. The sincerity and ingenuity in his works give his extensive portraits a freshness and vitality rarely reproduced during the colonial period in Cuba. Calcaño observes, ‘Without a teacher or a model to imitate, without a school to follow, guided only by his genius and his perseverance, he became the first portraitist artist of this genre in Cuba. An honor student from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Escobar was designated painter of the Royal House by Queen María Cristina of Spain on May 15, 1827. He received these awards after undertaking an extensive trip throughout Italy, France, and Spain.”

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Vicente Escobar (1757-1834), Retrato de Agustín de las Heras y Carazo, (Portrait of Agustín de las Heras y Carazo), 1828, oil on canvas, 35 x 27 inches, signed, with the artist’s inscription “A sus Sres. Padres D. Feliciano de las Heras y Da. María Carazo Salduero, and dated Habana, Agosto de 1828.”

Provenance: Sotheby’s Latin American Art, June 4, 1999, lot no. 87.

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Eduardo Laplante (1818-1860) and Leonardo Barañano (19th Century), El Valle de Yumurí, Cuba, (The Yumurí Valley, Cuba), ca. 1856, lithograph, 24 x 33 1/2 inches

The two etchings by Eduardo Laplante and Leonardo Barañano that we present are part of the series Isla de Cuba Pintoresca (Picturesque Island of Cuba) in 1858. The images of these nine prints documented the Island's major cities of that moment, such as Havana (two etchings), Matanzas, Cárdenas, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Puerto Príncipe and Santiago de Cuba. A landscape view of the fertile Valle del Yumurí completes the elusive set.

These nine prints were produced in a larger format than prior etchings as they were intended to be framed and used as decorative items on the walls of the colonial homes of the Island. Prior publications of other Cuban prints had always been executed in small formats, appropriate for book illustrations and book size albums.(1) The drawings of Isla de Cuba Pintoresca correspond to Leonardo Barañano, who had moved to Cuba from Laredo, Spain, and was also a professor of drawing at the Havana schools, Siglo XX and Empresa. According to Jorge Rigol, in these works “we see Leonardo Barañano’s sensibility tremble before the insular landscape, grasp via poetic means some of its essential signs, [and] grant us one of the prized versions of our physical environment”.

Barañano, of whom Cuban art history gathers not much information, accentuates in Isla de Cuba Pintoresca, the development of urban landscape in towns and cities, emphasizing the civilized advancement of the Island during his era. (continues on next page) 6

Eduardo Laplante (1818-1860) and Leonardo Barañano (19th Century), Cienfuegos, Cuba, (Cienfuegos, Cuba), ca. 1856, lithograph, 24 x 33 1/2 inches

Eduardo Laplante, (the engraver of this series), a Frenchman who arrived in Cuba towards the end of 1848, determined to sell modern machinery for sugar industrialization, left us an extraordinary artistic-historical contribution with his oils, drawings, and etchings. His works are guided by European artistic canons. The quality of his lithography, realized in a detailed manner relevant to photography, is distinguished by the professional mastery of the lithographic technique, manifested in the multiplicity of lines, dots, the confident scrapes and the tonalities. All of these things make his lithographs among the best in their gender on the Island in the nineteenth century.

(1)Zoila Lapique Becali, La Memoria en Las Piedras, Publicación de la Oficina del Historiador

de la Ciudad de La Habana, Ediciones Boloña, Havana, Cuba, 2002, p. 153, 190 to 193.

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Philippe Chartrand (1825-1889), Glorioso Atardecer, (Glorious Sunset), 1886, oil on wood, 9 1/2 x 14 inches

Philippe Chartrand Dubois (1825-1889) was born on May 31, 1825, at the Ariadne sugar plantation in the region of Limonar, Matanzas. Son of a family of wealth, he traveled to Paris in the 1840s and again in the 1850s where he studied painting under the influence of the artists of the Barbizon School of landscape. In later trips to Europe, Philippe surely became aware of the artistic innovations of Jean-Baptiste Corot and of the Impressionist revolution that ensued in the country of his ancestors.

Along with his brothers, Esteban and Augusto Chartrand, he dedicated his artistic oeuvre to landscape painting.

He excelled in smaller format works, oftentimes on boards, on china plates, hand held fans and miniatures. In August of 1886, he was named the first Interim Professor of Landscape and Perspective at the San Alejandro Academy, in Havana, where he taught until November of that year. He was again asked to teach at San Alejandro in January of 1888.

His known and properly identified pictorial production is not abundant. Only one work is listed in permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Cuba, and five works have been presented at international auction houses in the past 25 years. Philippe’s paintings have been included in major Cuban Colonial art exhibitions, such as: 300 Years of Art in Cuba, at the University of Havana, April, 1940; and in Colonial Painting in Cuba, at the National Capitol Building, Havana, 1950. In Miami, his works were exhibited at the Bacardi Gallery, in 1988, as part of the show entitled, Cuban Painting and Lithographs (1825 – 1925), and in the exhibition, One Hundred Years of Cuban Landscape, 1850 to 1950, at Cernuda Arte, in 2001.

Philippe’s contributions to the development of the genre in Cuba have not been fully studied and certainly not properly recognized. Particularly during the last years of his life (1880s), his creations evolved from Romanticmelancholic landscapes with naturalist inclinations (à la Barbizon) to looser, spontaneous compositions with visible and forceful brushstrokes. The application of color was executed in a way that accentuated the effect of light on the various forms and the undefined linear contours emphasized motion versus the statical characteristics of his earlier work. In the last years of his life, Philippe Chartrand in Havana had quietly linked with the ranks of the rebellious Impressionists of the Paris of his days, making him the first Cuban painter to produce art in this then revolutionary style. If we take into account that Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and the other Impressionists were still facing in Europe the rejection of the critics and limited collector acceptance, Philippe Chartrand’s bold and drastic late period works deserve the attention of art historians.

Ramón Cernuda 8

Augusto Chartrand (1828-1899), Veleros en el Mar, (Sailboats at Sea), 1888, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, signed “A Chartrand ” lower left This painting was part of the Collection of the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont and was deaccessioned by this institution.

Augusto Chartrand Dubois (1828-1899) was born in Charleston, North Carolina, on January 23, 1828. Augusto, Philippe, and Esteban form the trio of Chartrand brothers that developed the art of landscape painting in the Island and focused on the theme of the Cuban countryside.

Augusto Chartrand Dubois We are grateful to Margarita Chaplin Chartrand, granddaughter of Esteban Chartrand, who, on July 8, 1997 shared with us copies of her family’s archives, authorizing their publication.

Augusto studied in France from age nine to nineteen. He traveled through various countries in Europe, Canada, Chile, India, and frequented different regions of the United States. He was known to be an eccentric, a musician, an explorer, an adventurer, and a womanizer. His dedication to painting was occasional since diverse occupations such as the administration of the family sugar plantation and other business dealings detracted him from painting.

Until recently, the artist had been forgotten by art critics, but the fortuitous appearance of two small canvases depicting scenes from the Canímar River in Matanzas, served to initiate the “rediscovery” of this fine landscape artist of scarce yet solid melancholic production, of exquisite filtered lights and Romantic palette. Like his brothers, Augusto preferred rendering rural scenes of his beloved Matanzas. At the Goupil Gallery in New York – which represented him from 1879 until his death – he exhibited at least seven documented works, two of these were scenes from the Yumurí Valley and others were seascapes of Matanzas. He lived convinced of the pictorial talents of his brothers and of his own. In a parting letter to Rosa Chartrand, his niece, shortly before his death, Augusto tells her that Esteban and he “would be acknowledged in the history of the world”. He died days later, on August 25, 1899 in Matanzas, Cuba.

Ramón Cernuda

One Hundred Years of Cuban Landscape, 1850- 1950 9

Esteban Chartrand (1840-1884) was educated in the tradition of the Barbizon School of landscape painting and tutored by Thèodore Rousseau, the leading figure of that French nineteenth century movement. Rousseau, the Maestro with whom Esteban trained in the 1860s, was imbued in a Romantic spirit and a marked preference for melancholic Fontainebleau forest scenes.

From his teacher, Chartrand surely developed the custom of the execution of elaborate and detailed preparatory drawings, realized by the young artist en plein-air, in direct contact with nature. The intention was not only to be fully faithful to the terrain, but to go further into nature’s moods and its spirituality.

These pencil drawings, kept in notebooks by the artist for easy and frequent reference, were later used by Chartrand as a trustworthy guide to render his oil on canvas.

Esteban Chartrand (1840-1884), Guanabacoa, (Guanabacoa), 1879, graphite on paper mounted on board, 4 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches

Esteban Chartrand (1840-1884), El Guayabal, (Grove of Guava Trees), 1872, graphite on paper laid down on board, 8 1/4 x 12 inches

Esteban Chartrand (1840-1884), Ceiba en Bolondrón, (Ceiba Tree in Bolondrón), 1869, graphite on paper mounted on board, 4 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches 10

JosĂŠ Carol (19th Century), Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, (Our Lady of Charity Virgin), 1871, oil on canvas, 63 3/4 x 39 inches Provenance: Goya Subastas, Madrid, Spain.

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Armando Menocal (1863-1942), Bailarina Española con Mantilla, (Spanish Dancer with Mantilla), 1889, oil on canvas, 33 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches

Armando Menocal (1863 – 1942) was born into a highly cultured and learned family in Havana, Cuba, on July 8, 1863. Menocal first began his studies at the San Alejandro Academy under the tutelage of Miguel Melero. In 1880, Menocal’s parents sent him to Spain, where he studied and met important cultural figures of literature and the arts, like Sorolla and Menéndez Pelayo. In Spain, Menocal participated in several shows and won prizes in various national Spanish exhibitions. Ten years later, in 1890, the artist went back to Cuba and joined the Liberating Army during the Independence War. After the war, Menocal continued his studies at San Alejandro Academy and focused greatly on landscape painting. In 1927, Menocal was named director of the San Alejandro Academy and in 1940 he was honored with the title of Emeritus Professor. During his artistic career, Menocal created artworks that continue to adorn the walls of the Presidential Palace, the Palace of the City Council and the University of Havana. He was also a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters in Havana. A brilliant landscapist, portraitist and history painter, Menocal died in Havana on the 28th of September in 1942, leaving behind a trace of light and beauty within the history of Cuban art.

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Enrique Caravia (1905-1992), Desnudo de Mujer, (Nude of a Woman), 1930, oil on canvas, 35 1/4 x 49 3/4 inches

Enrique Caravia was born in Havana in 1905, and died in that same city, in 1992. He studied drawing and painting first in Villate Academy and later in San Alejandro Academy. He continued his studies in the United States, and afterwards in Madrid, in 1929, and in Rome, in 1930. By 1936, he was a professor at San Alejandro Academy, in Havana, and became its director in 1953. During his long and illustrious career, Caravia received various awards and recognitions, including, the Silver Medal at the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, Spain, 1930. His paintings have been exhibited at the National Museum of Cuba, Havana, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, The Riverside Museum, New York, and in other institutions in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Madrid.

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Antonio Sánchez Araujo (1887-1946), Músico Negro, (Black Musician), ca. 1925, oil on wood panel, 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches

In this composition, the musician is playing a botijuela, an autochthonous instrument of Afro-Cuban origin. The instrument was made from a clay pitcher used in the importation of olive oil to the Island. An added perforation on the side allowed the player to blow air into the container while with one hand introduced in the larger opening, various bass sounds were obtained.(1) (1)Fernando Ortiz, Los instrumentos de la música afrocubana, 1952

[Antonio Sánchez Araujo] Painter of admirable composition of folk customs, of strong technique and beautiful coloring; fecund creator of valuable works; Professor of the National School of Fine Arts “San Alejandro”, he was born in Santa Lucía, Oriente in 1887.

He commenced his studies in the National School of Fine Arts “San Alejandro”, in 1907, amplifying them freely later in Paris, Madrid and Barcelona, pensioned for five years to study abroad by an Act of Congress of the Republic in 1918. In Paris he attended classes in the Academies Colarossi and La Grande Chaumière. (continues on next page) 14

Exhibited in the Autumn Salon of Madrid in 1920 and 1921; San Francisco, California, 1925; Philadelphia, 1926; Baltimore, 1930; Seville, 1930; Lyceum Society of Havana, 1932, and the Association of Painters and Sculptors of the capital from 1918 to 1928. He held various personal expositions, among which were; Palace of the Senate, 1918; Layetanas Gallery, Barcelona, 1919; Museum of Modern Art, Madrid, 1921; Salon Bohemia, Havana, 1922; and Association of Painters and Sculptors, Havana, 1924.

He won the Bronze Medal in the International Exposition, Philadelphia, 1926; Gold Medal, Seville, Spain, 1930; and Gold Medal Fine Arts Club, Havana.

He was Director of the Free School of Plastic Arts in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Havana from 1926 to 1929.

Antonio Sánchez Araujo entered the Faculty of the National School of Fine Arts “San Alejandro” in 1926, occupying the Full Professorship of Ancient Greek Drawing until his death in Oct.13, 1946. He cultivated landscape painting and portraiture, and popular types, fields of art in which he was notably outstanding.

La Pintura y la Escultura en Cuba, Editorial Lex, Havana, 1952, pages 133 - 134.

Benigno Vázquez Rodríguez,

Antonio Sánchez Araujo (1887-1946), Comparsa, (Street Dance), ca. 1920, oil on masonite, 13 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Antonio Sánchez Araujo (1887-1946), Mujer con Frutas, (Lady with Fruits), ca. 1920, oil on wood panel laid down on canvas, 10 x 9 inches

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NOT AVAILABLE Federico Sulroca Spencer (1860-1931), Campesino y BohĂ­os, (Peasant and Huts), 1905, oil on canvas, 24 x 40 inches

Federico Sulroca Spencer (1860- 1931) was born in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba, on November 25 of 1860.

He studied at the San Alejandro Academy where the illustrious landscape painter ValentĂ­n Sanz Carta, and Miguel Melero were his instructors. He gained recognition for his paintings, winning First Prize in a 1905 competition sponsored by Diario de La Marina newspaper. In 1908, his excellent landscape Una Puesta de Sol received the highest distinction at the Athenaeum of Havana. He was a distinguished participant in various Annual Fine Arts Salons in Havana, from 1916 to 1930.

In 1912 he became a Professor at the San Alejandro Academy, a position he held for many years. He was a teacher of the painter Wifredo Lam, who praised him in several interviews. Sulroca Spencer participated in numerous art juries that evaluated emerging artists. He was also a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters. The artist passed away in Havana, on August 30 of 1931.

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NOT AVAILABLE Eduardo Morales (1862-1938), Camino Real, (Royal Way), 1916, oil on wood, 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

Eduardo Morales was born in Havana, Cuba in 1862 and died in 1938, in this same city. He studied at San Alejandro Academy and had amongst his teacher the distinguished landscape artist, ValentĂ­n Sanz Carta.

Morales’ art studies were interrupted when he enrolled in the War of Independence, where he reached the rank of Colonel. It is known that after the years of war (1895-1898), he joined the National Police and continued to paint in his spare time. After retirement from the force, he became totally dedicated to his art. Two years after his death, his work, Volanta, a two-wheeled covered carriage, pulled by a horse and rider, was included in the exhibition, Three Hundred Years of Art in Cuba, 1940, at the University of Havana.

Eduardo Morales was an excellent artist who expanded on the naturalistic landscape genre, choosing different bends and turns of the Cuban countryside. He painted scenes from rural life with gusto, often repeating his favorite subjects which frequently included colonial carriages (volantas, quitrines), and the classic horse rider, in the style of an epoch long gone.

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NOT AVAILABLE Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), Campesina, (Countrywoman), 1925, oil on wood, 20 3/4 x 17 1/4 inches

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1925 was a decisive year in the life of young Víctor Manuel. In February, he participated in the prestigious Annual Salon of Beau Arts, in Havana, an event sponsored by the Association of Painters and Sculptures. His presentation included a total of nine artworks.

Later that year he took his first educational trip to France. Coming from a poor family the economics of such a venture were egregious. The travel expenses were covered partially by public raffles of paintings, and augmented by small donations from friends in the artistic and intellectual circles. Víctor Manuel also received some modest income from the sale of touched-up photographic enlargements of individual portraits, intervened by the painter with crayons, stump drawing, soft erasers, and occasionally with oil colors.

Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), Paisaje con Figuras, (Landscape with Figures), ca. 1925, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 10 x 8 3/4 inches

The painter arrived in the City of Light towards midyear and in October, he briefly visited Brussels. Evidently impacted by the Louvre and other museums, and charmed by the Impressionists, his initial influences were closer to the artistic vein of Gauguin and Modigliani.

It was precisely during this one-year trip that Manolo García changed his name and signature on his works to the distinctive “Víctor Manuel”.

His friends of the Parisian bohemia had insisted and Miguel Angel Asturias, the poet, officiated over the sacramental baptism, spilling a cup of champagne over the painter’s hair.

The cumulative impact of his travel experience in Europe had transformed the artist. In Campesina, (illustrated on page 18), signed “Víctor Manuel” and dated “Paris, 1925”; we rediscover one of the first works of this decisive stage in the artist’s career.

Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), Campesino, (Peasant), ca. 1938, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on cardboard, 17 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches 19

Rafael Moreno (1887-1955), El Country Club de La Habana, (The Havana Country Club), ca. 1945, oil on canvas, 23 x 38 3/4 inches Provenance: Pierre Loeb Collection, Paris, France; Galerie Albert Loeb, Paris, France.

Rafael Moreno was born in Huelva, Spain, in 1887. He arrived in Cuba around 1923 and quickly became integrated to the Island’s way of life. Lacking a formal education, Moreno did odd jobs, and a truly amazing variety of trades. From time to time, he was a brick layer, a farm laborer, a bull-fighter, a proprietor of a bodega (small grocery store), a fruit vendor, and a manager of a shooting gallery. In the 1930s Moreno began painting murals and other decorations for bars and cabarets in Havana. His strange and fantastical compositions, in a naïve and spontaneous style, became a topic of conversation amongst the cultural elite of the city and eventually attracted the attention of many, including European art marchands Madame Kate Perls and Monsieur Pierre Loeb. It was Loeb, the distinguished French art dealer of Picasso, Lam and other luminaries, who supported and financed the self-taught Moreno, providing the painter with the protection that gave him celebrity status in Cuban and North American art circles. (continues on next page)

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Rafael Moreno (1887-1955), Tierra y Cielo, (Land and Sky), ca. 1945, oil on canvas, 47 1/2 x 75 1/2 inches Provenance: Pierre Loeb Collection, Paris, France; Galerie Albert Loeb, Paris, France.

Such was Rafael Moreno’s success that by 1944, his works were solicited by Alfred Barr to be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Afterwards (1944-1946) four of his paintings traveled to the National Art Gallery, Washington D.C.; the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum and eight other museums in the U.S.A. In 1945 and again 1952, the Lyceum in Havana, Cuba, presented one person exhibitions of Rafael Moreno, while the artist continued to be invited to participate in significant international group events. José Gómez Sicre, the renowned art critic, added Moreno’s paintings to the Sixth Exposition du Centre d’Art, Les Peintres Modernes Cubains, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1945. In 1947 Knoedler Galleries, in New York, presented his works as part of the show Paintings and Drawings of Latin America, and in 1953, Cuban authorities selected his paintings to be part of the country’s presentation at the Second Bienal de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The sincerity and simplicity of Rafael Moreno’s plastic poetic, the sober dignity of his quiet compositions, the purity of his draftsmanship and the originality of his ingenious creations astonished the sophisticated cultured of his time. Thanks to Pierre Loeb’s sharp eye, this talented painter was not lost to indifference.

Ramón Cernuda

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Amelia Peláez (1896-1968), Interior con Balcón, (Interior with Balcony), 1947, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 22 x 30 inches

In the most insightful analysis of [Amelia] Peláez’s stylistic sources in Cuban architectural decoration, artist Robert Altmann introduced the issue: “The paintings of Amelia Peláez are a conscious vision of the dominant role of ornament in relation to the theme of still life and of the elements of Cuban ornamental art of the last century.”(1) “In her own studio,” he observed, “Amelia Peláez accumulates vestiges of the colonial past: corinthian columns, mamparas, sculpted chairs, and other objects that remind her at every glance of a precise stylistic language [that of Cuban nineteenth-century ornamental art].”(2) About the specific connections between her style and the precise visual language of colonial architectural decoration, Altmann was one of the first to point out that her use of color and chiaroscuro suggests the filtration of light created by the medio punto, and that her linear arabesques construct a limited, static space defined by perforated screens parallel to the picture plane, not unlike the space found in traditional Cuban ornamental iron and wood works. He concluded that Peláez’s paintings were a carryover and a rehabilitation of forgotten ornamental tradition found in Cuban nineteenth and early-twentieth-century architecture and crafts.

(1)(2)Robert Altmann, “Ornamento y Naturaleza Muerta en la Pintura de Amelia Peláez”, Orígenes, La Habana, No. 8, Invierno, 1945.

Juan Martínez,

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Cuban Art and National Identity, The Vanguardia Painters, University Press of Florida, 1994, page 133.

NOT AVAILABLE Amelia Peláez (1896-1968), Naturaleza Muerta con Pez, (Still Life with Fish), 1945, oil on heavy paper laid down on board, 22 1/2 X 29 1/2 inches

This painting was exhibited at the Washington, D.C. Organization of American States, Seven Cuban Painters, August 1952. Also exhibited at the University of Miami, Lowe Art Museum, October, 1952.

Also exhibited at Christie’s New York, Important Latin American Paintings, November 17, 1984, and illustrated in the auction catalog, lot 156.

Also exhibited at Art Miami Art Fair, Miami Beach, Florida, Cernuda Arte, Important Cuban Artworks, volume one, January 2003, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, page 10.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz, dated February 13, 2001.

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NOT AVAILABLE Carlos Enríquez (1900-1957), La Haitiana, (The Haitian Woman), 1945, oil on canvas board, 19 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches Illustrated in the book, Cuban Art, Remembering Cuba Through its Art, 2004, Arte al Día Internacional, page 129.

Also illustrated in the book by Juan Martínez, Carlos Enríquez, The Painter of Cuban Ballads, 2010, page 188.

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Carlos Enríquez (1900-1957), Retrato del Dr. Ponce de León, (Portrait of Dr. Ponce de León), 1947, oil on canvas, 20 1/4 x 16 3/8 inches Illustrated in the book by Juan Martínez, Carlos Enríquez, The Painter of Cuban Ballads, 2010, page 205.

Illustrated in Important Cuban Artworks, volume five, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, December 2006, page 44.

Exhibited at Art Miami Fair, Miami Beach, Florida, January 5 – 8, 2007.

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Mirta Cerra (1904-1986), Campesina, (Pesant Girl ), ca. 1946, oil on canvas board, 20 x 16 inches

Mirta Cerra (1904-1986) was born in Havana at the onset of the twentieth-century, precisely at the moment of birth of the group of artists who later became part of the first generation of the Cuban Vanguardia.

She attended San Alejandro Academy from 1928 to 1934 where she garnered awards and a scholarship to continue studies at the Art Students League in New York, from 1935 to 1936. In the 1930s, her works were shown at the yearly Salons of Beaux Arts of 1934, 1937 and 1938. In 1940, the artist was invited to participate in the major exhibition, 300 Years of Art in Cuba, at the University of Havana. In the 1940s, she exhibited works at various group shows at the Centro Asturiano in 1944; at the Capitolio Nacional and at the Lyceum, in 1946, and at the Municipal Palace of Havana in 1949. During this decade, she had three one-person shows, in 1943, 1946 and 1949, all in Havana.

In the United States, Mirta Cerra had solo exhibitions at the New School of Social Research of New York in 1950, and that same year, at the United Nations Club in Washington, D.C., José Gómez Sicre, the renowned art critic, wrote the essay for the New York exhibition catalog saying, “She [Cerra] is hailed as a competent new member of avant-garde Cuban painters, who today enjoys international prestige”. In 1953, Mirta Cerra participated in the Second Hispanic American Biennial. She was honored with two awards at this international event held at the National Museum of Cuba. (continues on next page) 26

Mirta Cerra (1904-1986), Campesino, (Pesant Boy), ca. 1946, oil on canvas board, 20 x 16 inches

Throughout the next thirty years, she continued to exhibit in and outside the Island. Her works can be found at the Museum of Arts and Science, Daytona Beach, Florida, and at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana.

Mirta Cerra’s paintings of the 1940s can be perceived as Cézannesque and post-impressionistic. Her favorite subjects of the period were peasants, field workers – young and old – oftentimes appearing as subdued, resigned, almost as medieval serfs attached to the land and the primitive farming instruments with which they survived.

There is certainly social criticism in Mirta Cerra’s campesinos series.

Later, via cubism, her paintings evolved to quasi abstract compositions of city scenes and everyday still lifes.

Art critic, Adela Jaume, opined in the pages of Diario de la Marina newspaper, “In Mirta Cerra’s work you can appreciate… a style of exquisite quality. She knows, like few, the science and the art of color and the gamut she achieves through her knowledgeable neutrals has great richness.”

Ramón Cernuda 27

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Rostro con Máscara y Eleguá, (Face with Mask and Elegguá), 1947, oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 17 inches This painting is illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume I, 1923-1960, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 393, no. 47.13 and on page 196 in a photograph of Lam and the painting in the artist's studio.

This painting is also illustrated in Wifredo Lam in North America, with essays by Curtis L. Carter, Lowery Stokes Sims, Dawn Ades, Valerie J. Fletcher, Edward Lucie-Smith and Lou Laurin Lam, published by the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, page 113, no. 39.

NOT AVAILABLE

This painting was exhibited in Wifredo Lam in North America at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 11, 2007 to January 21, 2008; was then exhibited at Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida, February 8, 2008 to May 18, 2008; exhibited at Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, June 12 to August 31, 2008, and exhibited at Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida, October 2, 2008 to January 10, 2009.

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Totem, (Totem), 1951, oil on canvas, 35 3/8 x 23 3/8 inches This painting is illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume I, 1923-1960, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 441, no. 51.15.

This painting is also illustrated in Wifredo Lam in North America, with essays by Curtis L. Carter, Lowery Stokes Sims, Dawn Ades, Valerie J. Fletcher, Edward Lucie-Smith and Lou Laurin Lam, published by the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, page 126, no. 52.

This painting was exhibited in Wifredo Lam in North America at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 11, 2007 to January 21, 2008; was then exhibited at Miami Art Museum, Miami, Florida, February 8, 2008 to May 18, 2008; exhibited at Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, June 12 to August 31, 2008, and exhibited at Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida, October 2, 2008 to January 10, 2009.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

28

NOT AVAILABLE

In 1935 Fidelio Ponce was awarded the initiatory artistic recognition of his career at the National Salon of Cuba where his painting Beatas was selected as first prize in the contest. It was precisely during this very productive year (1935) that Ponce prepared his one-person exhibition at the Lyceum of Havana, which inaugurated on the 23rd of November, at this venerable cultural institution.

For this exposition, the artist produced a group of fundamental works of his creative corpus: El Baño (The Bath), Tuberculosis, Estudio en Blanco (Study in White), and Los Niños (The Children).

This painting (The Children) is considered one of the top works

by Ponce and was later awarded First Prize at the National Salon of Cuba in 1938. Shortly afterward, the painting was acquired by the National Museum of Cuba where it is in permanent exhibition.

The painting, Niña con Gorrito (Girl with Bonnet), hereby illustrated, is part of a series of compositions dedicated by Ponce to infants.

In these, the artist accentuates Fidelio Ponce de León (1895-1949), Niña con Gorrito, (Child with Bonnet), 1935, oil on canvas, 15 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches the vulnerability of the young amidst mysterious and awkward surroundings. The tension is heightened by the monochromatic use of siennas and ochres, and an insinuation of peril is achieved by furious and maniacal brushstrokes, together with the application of the occasional impasto, precisely positioned.

NOT AVAILABLE

Ramón Cernuda

29

NOT AVAILABLE Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), Mujeres en Interior Habanero, (Women in Havana Interior), 1943, ink and watercolor on paper, 19 3/4 x 14 1/2 inches Illustrated in José Veigas; Mariano, Catálogo Razonado, volumen I, 2nda. Edición, page 129, number 43-10.

Provenance: Feigl Gallery, New York, New York.

30

NOT AVAILABLE Cundo Bermúdez (1914-2008), Hombre Sentado, (Seated Man), ca. 1943, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on canvas, 20 x 16 inches This painting is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity signed by Cundo Bermúdez dated, July 12, 2007.

In March 1947, Cundo Bermúdez, then thirty-three years of age, was invited to present a one person exhibition at the Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This show was one of a string of Cuban Vanguardia art events at this Haitian institution, founded and directed by Dewit Peters. Thanks to the enthusiastic promotion and curatorial endeavors of José Gómez Sicre, the Cuban modernist artists had established a presence and an alliance with the then emerging École Indigéniste and the Haitian Renaissance of the 1940s.

Seated Man, by Cundo Bermúdez, was one of the thirty works shown in this 1947 event. The exhibition included eleven works on canvas and nineteen on paper. Some of Cundo’s most famous paintings were part of this grouping, such as Three Musicians and Young Girl in Pink Dress.

Seated Man, listed as number thirteen in the exhibition catalog, depicts a muscular mulatto male, with robust working hands, resting on a Cubist throne. The work exalts the image of people of everyday life and mixed race, a common denominator to both countries, Cuba and Haiti in the 1940s.

31

Fidelio Ponce de León (1895-1949), La Sobrinita, (The Little Niece), 1946, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches Provenance: Jorge Fernández de Castro and Martha Sardiñas Collection, Havana, Cuba.

Exhibited at Christie's, Latin American Art Auction, New York, November 23, 1999, lot no. 128.

Exhibited in Ponce, Lyceum, Havana, Cuba, April 1949, no. 26 in the exhibition catalog.

32

NOT AVAILABLE Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Mujer de Pie, (Standing Woman), 1944, mixed media on paper laid down on canvas, 42 x 33 3/4 inches Exhibited in Lam, Galleria Ferrari, Treviglio, Italy, 1988, and illustrated in the exhibition catalog.

Exhibited in Wifredo Lam, Un Percorso, Galleria Gruppo Credito Valtellinese, Refettorio delle Stelline, Milano, Italy, November 2002, and at Museo di Storia e Arte, Palazzo Sassi de Lavizzari, Sondrio, Italy, January 2003.

Illustrated in the exhibition catalog, Wifredo Lam, Cuba Italia. Un Percorso, Silvanna Editoriale, 2002, page 63.

Exhibited in Wifredo Lam, L’Oiseau du Possible, Galerie Boulakia, May 2004, and illustrated in the exhibition catalog, page 47.

This painting is illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue RaisonnĂŠ of the Painted Work, Volume I, 1923-1960, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 342, no. 44.07.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Lou Laurin Lam, dated May 11, 2011 and no. 11.11.

33

Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), Mujer con Jarra, (Woman with Jar), ca. 1943, ink and watercolor on paper, 17 3/4 x 12 inches This work is included and illustrated in Mariano, Catálogo Razonado, volumen uno, page 137, Num. 43-28. The painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity issued and signed by Alejandro Rodríguez, son of the artist, on May 20, 2003.

Amelia Peláez (1896-1968), Perfil, (Profile), 1930, crayon on paper laid down on board, 15 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches, signed and dated “Paris 1930” Provenance: Guido Addriansens Collection.

We are grateful to Carmen Peláez, sister of the artist, for having confirmed the authenticity of this artwork.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity, signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz, dated November 21, 2001.

NOT AVAILABLE 34

René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Mujer en Interior, (Woman in Interior), 1943, ink and pencil on paper laid down on board, 14 x 9 3/4 inches This painting was exhibited in Tribute to Julian Levy, Tajan Art Auction, Paris, France, October 5 to 7, 2004, lot number 575, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog.

Roberto Diago (1920-1955), Sin Título, (Untitled ), 1946, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on canvas, 27 x 19 1/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Roberto Diago is considered one of the great modern Cuban artists of the 20th century. He distinguished himself not only in painting, drawing and engraving, but also, as a successful theater set designer and illustrator of books. In his body of work the artist blended elements of Surrealism and abstract art.

Diago studied in the San Alejandro Academy from 1934 through 1941, and attended simultaneously the Free Studio of Painting and Sculpture in Havana. In 1944, he had his first solo exhibition at the Lyceum in Havana. During this same year, he also held a position as the art director of one of the city’s monthly art magazine, Artes. Revista Mensual. In 1945, he became a professor of art teaching courses in color theory, and was named member of the board of directors of the School of Arts in Matanzas. In that same year, he had his second solo show at the Grolier Club in New York. In 1947, Diago traveled to Washington, New York, Boston, Canada and ended his tour in Haiti, where he had his third one person exhibition.

His work captured the attention of Alfred H. Barr Jr., then director of the MoMA, who in the 40s acquired an ink on paper from his series, Cabezas (Heads), for the Latin American art collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

After two other personal exhibitions at the Lyceum in Havana (1948 & 1950), he had a solo show in 1953 at the Panamerican Union in Washington, D.C. which included, oil paintings, drawings and collages.

Roberto Diago’s works have been exhibited in various countries including, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras and the U.S.S.R. The artist died tragically on February 20, 1955 in Madrid, Spain.

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Brujo de Carnaval, (Carnival Sorcerer), 1945, mixed media on board laid down on canvas, 36 1/4 x 27 3/4 inches This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector, prior to the publication of this catalog.

NOT AVAILABLE 35

NOT AVAILABLE René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Bembé, (Afro-Cuban Dance), 1947, pastel on heavy paper laid down on board, 24 1/4 x 17 inches

“In 1947, Portocarrero begins to work on a group of pastels that occupy him all of that year and are prolonged sporadically until 1949… in this collection of pastels it is possible to find still lifes with flowers, images from Catholic iconography, interiors with elaborate screen panels, groups of dancers, harlequins, and also the exceptional version of a native satyr.

The scene of dancing figures in interiors becomes the most interesting of the series, as they touch upon the realm of the popular world. They generally represent bembés [dances] of santería, ritual feasts of syncretic character, where African roots have mixed with Catholicism, in which the dance is the fundamental element.”

Graziella Pogolotti, Ramón Vázquez Díaz, 36

René Portocarrero, Editorial Henschel, Berlin 1987, section no. 11.

NOT AVAILABLE

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Gallo Caribe, (Caribbean Rooster), 1944, oil on canvas, 11 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches Provenance: Galerie de la PrĂŠsidence, Paris, France; Inna Salomon Collection, Paris, France.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Madame Lou Laurin Lam, dated Paris, December 21, 2010.

37

NOT AVAILABLE

Carlos Enríquez (1900-1957), Desnudo Velado, (Veiled Nude), 1956, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 12 x 9 inches Provenance: Claudio & Saymelis Ferioli Collection, Italy.

This painting is illustrated in the book by Juan Martínez, Carlos Enríquez: The Painter of Cuban Ballads, 2010, in color, on page 258.

Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), Flores [Los hombres y las plantas vigilan], (Flowers), 1963, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 18 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches 38

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Pájaro Onírico, (Oneiric Bird ), 1956, ink on paper laid down on board, 10 x 8 inches Provenance: Ragnar von Holten Collection, Stockholm, Sweden.

Exhibited at Stockholms Auktionsverk, Stockholm, Sweden, March 17, 2010 and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, lot number 4.

We are grateful to Monsieur Eskil Lam for having confirmed the authenticity of this work.

NOT AVAILABLE

René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Angel con Florero, (Angel with Flower Vase), 1955, ink on heavy paper laid down on board, 13 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches

Eduardo Abela (1889-1965), El Bobo, (The Fool ), 1953, ink on heavy paper laid down on cardboard, 8 3/4 x 6 inches Hossana Abela, the daughter of the artist, has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work.

39

NOT AVAILABLE Carlos Enríquez (1900-1957), Desnudo Velado en el Río, Eva Fréjaville, (Veiled Nude in the River, Eva Fréjaville), 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches This painting is illustrated in the book by Juan Martínez, Carlos Enríquez: The Painter of Cuban Ballads, 2010, in color, page 252.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

40

NOT AVAILABLE Carlos Enríquez (1900-1957), Desnudo Velado, (Veiled Nude), 1956, oil on canvas, 22 x 19 inches Provenance: Isabel Enríquez de Martull (sister of the artist), Isabetta Enríquez de Lancella (daughter of the artist), Cristina Lancella Enríquez (granddaughter of the artist).

This painting has been exhibited in Carlos Enríquez, Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, Florida, March 1986, illustrated in color on page 21 and listed on page 48 of the exhibtion catalog.

This painting is illustrated in the book by Juan Martínez, Carlos Enríquez: The Painter of Cuban Ballads, 2010, in color, page 258.

41

NOT AVAILABLE Carlos Enríquez (1900-1957), Mujer Haitiana Bailando Bajo la Luz de la Luna, (Haitian Woman Dancing in the Moonlight), 1952, oil on canvas, 29 1/4 x 24 inches This painting was exhibited at Christie’s Latin American Art auction, November 21, 1995, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, No. 208.

Illustrated in the book by Juan Martínez, Carlos Enríquez: The Painter of Cuban Ballads, 2010, page 222.

42

NOT AVAILABLE René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Ciudad Flotante, (Floating City), 1952, mixed media on cardboard laid down on canvas, 12 x 16 3/4 inches

“The great series of Cities by Portocarrero commences, not considering isolated anticipations, in the year 1952, and it prolongs itself as a one of his recurrent themes… the first [cities] carry the trace of Portocarrero’s most synthetic style and really are, more than a metropolis, dreamed cities in an ideal space… verticals and horizontals define the basic structure: way in the background are Klee and Mondrian. The geometric scheme of verticals and horizontals, the juxtaposition of squares and rectangles, modulated in a compact unity, grows in richness with other forms. Triangles, semicircles, diamonds, etc., become the frontispiece, the domes, the arched windows, and the glass stained reflections that conform the [Portocarrero] city.” and Ramón Vázquez Díaz, René Portocarrero, Editorial Letras Cubanas, La Habana, page 14.

Graziella Pogolotti

43

NOT AVAILABLE

RenĂŠ Portocarrero (1912-1985), Figuras de Carnaval, (Carnival Figures), 1952, mixed media on board, 14 1/2 x 18 3/4 inches Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by Joseph Cantor; Sotheby's, Latin American Art Auction, New York, May 30, 1984, lot 224 (illustrated in the corresponding catalog); Dr. Luis FernĂĄndez Rocha Collection, Coral Gables, Florida; Navarre Fine Arts, Coral Gables, Florida

44

NOT AVAILABLE RenĂŠ Portocarrero (1912-1985), Figura de Carnaval, (Carnival Figure), 1957, oil on canvas, 39 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches Provenance: Arquitect NicolĂĄs Quintana Collection, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Collection of a Subsidiary of Pepsico, Inc., U.S.A. Exhibited at Sotheby's, Important Latin American Paintings, New York, November 27, 28 and 29, 1984, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog.

45

NOT AVAILABLE

Antonio Gattorno (1904-1980), El Molino, (The Windmill ), 1960, oil on canvas, 10 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches This painting is illustrated in Sean M. Poole, Gattorno, A Cuban Painter for the World, 2004, page 173.

NOT AVAILABLE

Mario CarreĂąo (1913-2000), ComposiciĂłn en Rojo, (Composition in Red ), 1956, oil on canvas, 33 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

46

NOT AVAILABLE

Eduardo Abela (1889-1965), La Novia, (The Bride), ca. 1957, oil on wood, 13 x 9 1/2 inches This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

Carmelo González (1920-1990) painter, engraver, draftsman and art professor. He studied at the National Academy of San Alejandro, Havana, from 1939 to 1945, and then continued studies on a scholarship at the Student’s League in New York from 1946 to 1947.

During his lifetime, Carmelo participated in over forty oneperson exhibitions and more than one hundred group shows in the Americas, Europe and Asia. As an art professor, he taught at various institutions and in 1959 became the Director of the National Academy of San Alejandro in Havana.

Carmelo González (1920-1990), Figura, (Figure), 1958, oil on canvas, 34 1/2 x 15 inches 47

NOT AVAILABLE

Luis Martínez Pedro (1910-1989), Composición No. 16, (Composition No. 16 ), 1958, oil on canvas, 58 x 38 inches Provenance: Property of the Bradley Family Foundation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

NOT AVAILABLE Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), Pájaros, (Birds), 1958, oil on canvas, 44 1/4 x 49 3/4 inches This painting was exhibited in Mariano, The National Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela, June 1958, and listed as no. 16 in the exhibition catalog.

Also exhibited at the Center of Fine Arts in Maracaibo, Venezuela, in 1958.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed

by Alejandro Rodríguez, son of the artist, dated April 26, 2010.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

48

Agustín Fernández (1928-2006), Duplicidad, (Duplicity), 1966, oil on canvas, 49 1/2 x 37 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Antonio Vidal (b.1928), Abstracción, (Abstraction), 1958, oil on canvas, 35 x 28 1/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE 49

NOT AVAILABLE

Loló Soldevilla (1901-1971), Sin Título, Mundo Celestial, (Untitled, Celestial Realm), 1956, mixed media on cardboard, 27 1/4 x 39 1/4 inches This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity, signed by Flora Carranza Barlea, granddaughter of the artist.

Loló Soldevilla (1901-1971) went to Paris in 1949 as the Cultural Attaché of the Cuban Embassy in France, where she served until 1956. There she studied at the La Grande Chaumière with professors Kutz and Ossip Zadkine, and also, at the abstract studio of Jean Dewasne and Edgard Pillet. Artists such as, Robert Jacobsen, Jean Arp and Victor Vasarely supported and advised Loló in her development, while she became a close friend of a group of Venezuelan artists known as the Dissidents of Paris. (continues on next page)

NOT AVAILABLE

Loló Soldevilla (1901-1971), Sin Título, Mundo Celestial, (Untitled, Celestial Realm), 1956, mixed media on cardboard, 26 3/4 x 39 inches This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity, signed by Flora Carranza Barlea, granddaughter of the artist.

50

NOT AVAILABLE Loló Soldevilla (1901-1971), Sin Título, Música Tangible, (Untitled, Tangible Music), 1958, oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Flora Carranza Barlea, granddaughter of the artist.

While in Europe, she exhibited one person shows at Galerie Armand in 1953, and at the Círculo de la Universidad de Valencia, Spain. She was also included in various group shows at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, from 1951 to 1955, and at the Galerie Saint Jacques in 1953.

In 1957, she became the co-founder of the short lived Galería de Arte Color-Luz in Havana, a gathering place for the circle of artists who followed abstract geometry. The following year, 1958, the group of the Ten Concrete Painters was officially formed by, Pedro de Oraá, Salvador Corratgé, Sandú Darié, Luis Martínez Pedro, José Mijares, Rafael Soriano, Pedro Alvarez, Wilfredo Arcay, Alberto Menocal and Loló Soldevilla.

In 1961, Galería de Arte Color-Luz closed its doors and the group, Ten Concrete Painters, ceased to exist.

Loló’s artistic work then evolved towards figurative forms, with influences from Op Art and Pop Art. 51

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Pรกjaro, (Bird ), 1964, pastel on paper laid down on canvas, 19 x 25 inches This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Madame Lou Laurin Lam, dated September 22, 2011.

NOT AVAILABLE Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Cuatro Mujeres, (Four Women), ca. 1962, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on canvas, 27 1/4 x 39 1/4 inches This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Madame Lou Laurin Lam, dated May 5, 2011.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

52

NOT AVAILABLE Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), El Pájaro, (The Bird ), 1962, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 24 1/2 x 18 1/4 inches The painting is dedicated: “To Dr. Hamne with the utmost gratitude and friendship, Falun, 1962”, and signed by the artist.

We are grateful to Monsieur Eskil Lam for having confirmed the authenticity of this painting.

53

Amelia Peláez (1896-1968), Naturaleza Muerta con Frutero, (Still life with Fruit Bowl ), 1960, mixed media on cardboard, 40 x 30 inches Exhibited in Amelia Peláez Retrospective Exposition, National Museum of Cuba, Havana, November 1968, and listed as no. 129 in the exhibition catalog.

Exhibited at Sotheby’s Latin American Art, New York, November 23 & 24, 1999 and illustrated as no. 146 on page 133 of the auction catalog.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

NOT AVAILABLE

Amelia Peláez (1896-1968), Autorretrato en Cenicero, (Self Portrait in Ash Tray), 1959, one-of-a-kind, painted ceramic plate, signed and dated on the back "AP 59 cc", 9 1/4 inches diameter x 2 inches Provenance: Dr. Adalberto Quintana Collection, San José, Costa Rica.

54

NOT AVAILABLE

RenĂŠ Portocarrero (1912-1985), Ciudad de La Habana, (City of Havana), 1970, oil on masonite, 21 1/2 x 29 1/4 inches

55

NOT AVAILABLE

Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), A Mi Amor, (To My Love), 1965, graphite on heavy paper laid down on board, 11 1/2 x 9 inches

Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), Retrato de Joven, (Portrait of a Young Woman), 1968, graphite on heavy paper laid down on board, 10 1/4 x 8 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), Rostro de Joven, (Face of a Young Lady), ca. 1960, graphite and ink on heavy paper laid down on board, 13 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches

Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), Lily, (Lily), 1962, graphite on heavy paper laid down on board, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches

These four drawings were part of the Madame Odette Lavergne Collection, Cannes, France.

They are documented in the Besch Commissaire-Priseur Exhibition Catalogue of the Mme. Odette Lavergne Collection, Hotel Martinez, Cannes, France, November 1, 2009.

56

NOT AVAILABLE RenĂŠ Portocarrero (1912-1985), Retrato de Flora, (Portrait of Flora), 1970, gouache on heavy paper laid down on board, 27 3/4 x 20 3/4 inches 57

NOT AVAILABLE

Angel Acosta Leรณn (1930-1964), Cafetera, (Coffee Maker), ca. 1960, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 11 x 9 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Angel Acosta Leรณn (1930-1964), Pareja, (Couple), ca. 1960, mixed media on paper, 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches 58

NOT AVAILABLE Angel Acosta León (1930-1964), Pájaro Zunzún, (Hummingbird ), 1963, oil on masonite, 25 3/4 x 32 inches Exhibited at Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, Florida, Ten Cuban Artists in Paris, 1985, and illustrated in the exhibition catalog, page 10.

Also exhibited at Christie’s, Latin American Art, May 1998, Lot 128, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog.

Provenance: Joaquín Ferrer, Paris, France.

From Left to Right, Angel Acosta León, Gina Pellón and Joaquín Ferrer at the home of Gina Pellón, in Paris, France, ca. 1963.

59

NOT AVAILABLE Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Pรกjaros, (Birds), 1967, one-of-a-kind ceramic plate, 15 inches in diameter Exhibited in La Fabrica Dei Sogni, Mantova, Italy, January 2008, and illustrated in the exhibition catalog, plate no. 83.

Illustrated in La Storia delle Ceramiche San Giorgio, 1958-2008, Ateneo Edizioni, page 238.

This artwork is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Lou Laurin Lam, dated May 12, 2011.

This artwork has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

NOT AVAILABLE

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Mรกscara, (Mask), 1977, one-of-a-kind ceramic plate, 16 1/4 inches in diameter This artwork is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed

by Lou Laurin Lam, dated May 12, 2011.

This artwork has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

60

NOT AVAILABLE Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Mujer, Caballo y Deidad, (Woman, Horse and Deity), 1974, oil on canvas, 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches Illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1982, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 445, no. 74.34.

Exhibited at Galeria Arte Borgogna, Wifredo Lam, 1991, illustrated, no. 48.

This painting is accompanied by two photo-certificates of authenticity signed by Lou Laurin Lam, dated February 2, 1995 and July 10, 2003.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

NOT AVAILABLE

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Pájaro y Mujer, (Bird and Woman), 1973, oil on canvas, 13 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches Illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1982, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 414, no. 73.122.

Provenance: Galleria d’Arte Perli, Reggio Emilia, Italy.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Wifredo Lam, dated 1974.

This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

61

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Pájaro con Figuras, (Bird with Figures), 1972, oil on canvas, 19 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches This painting is illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1980, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, 2002, page 380, no. 72.128.

Also illustrated in, “Sei Opere di Lam”, Notizie d’Arte, Milano, Italy, June-July, 1974.

Painting by Wifredo Lam illustrated on page 63: Untitled, Femme Énigmatique, (Enigmatic Woman), 1970, oil on canvas, 63 x 51 inches This painting was exhibited in Wifredo Lam, Galerie Maeght Lelong, 1987, Zurich, Germany, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, no. 9.

Also exhibited in Wifredo Lam, óleos, pasteles y aguafuertes, Galería Der Brücke, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 12.

This painting is illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1982, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 331, No. 70-34.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Lou Laurin Lam, dated January 22, 1992, No. 92-04.

62

NOT AVAILABLE

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Untitled, Femme Énigmatique, (Enigmatic Woman), 1970, oil on canvas, 63 x 51 inches

63

Roberto Estopiñán (b.1921), Pareja, (Couple), 1968, mixed media on paper, 40 x 26 1/2 inches

Roberto Estopiñán (b.1921), Torso, (Torso), ca. 1960, one-of-a-kind alabaster sculpture, 21 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches This sculpture has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

64

NOT AVAILABLE

NOT AVAILABLE

Rolando Lรณpez Dirube (1928-1997), Esfera Alterada VI, (Altered Sphere VI ), 1975, Dominican mora wood and copper, one-of-a-kind, 20 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches in diameter Illustrated in Dirube, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Ala Art Editions, Madrid, 1979, page 47, no. 39.

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NOT AVAILABLE

René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Mujer y Palomas de Perfil, (Woman and Doves in Profile), 1970, mixed media on paper laid down on canvas, 18 1/2 x 21 inches

NOT AVAILABLE René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Bailarinas de Carnaval, (Carnival Dancers), 1971, mixed media on paper, 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 inches 66

Raúl Milián (1914-1984), Figura, (Figure), 1958, mixed media on cardboard, 14 3/4 x 11 inches

Raúl Milián (1914-1984), Interior en Abstracto, (Interior in Abstract), 1973, mixed media on cardboard, 15 3/8 x 11 3/8 inches

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Agustín Cárdenas (1927-2001), Hacia la Luz, (Towards the Light), 1960, bronze sculpture, signed and numbered 3/3, stamped with foundry mark, and seal of Le Point Cardinal, 92 ¼ x 15 ¾ x 15 ¾ inches Provenance: Le Point Cardinal, Paris, France.

Galerie Albert Loeb, Paris, France.

Exhibitions and Literature: Exhibition catalogue, Cárdenas – Sculptures Récentes, 1972-1973, Le Point Cardinal, Paris, May – July 1973, illustrated and listed as no.25 in the catalogue.

Exhibition catalogue, Cárdenas, 1974, Galerie de France et du Benelux, Bruxelles, illustrated and listed as no.11 in the catalogue.

Exhibition catalogue, Cárdenas Sculpteur, 1981, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris, listed as no.21 in the catalogue.

Exhibition catalogue, Cárdenas – Trente Ans de Sculpture, 1988, JGM Galerie, illustrated on page 8 and listed on page 32 in the catalogue.

Exhibition catalogue, Cárdenas, Sculture 1947-1997, Milan, Galleria de Credito Valtellinese, 1997, Skira Editore, illustrated on page 93 and listed as no. 10 in the catalogue.

Exhibition, Cárdenas, Retrospective, 1997, Couvents des Cordeliers, Ville de Paris.

NOT AVAILABLE

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Agustín Cárdenas (1927-2001), from left to right: side, front and back view, Columna de la Memoria, (Column of Memory), 1974, bronze sculpture, signed and numbered 1/3, stamped with foundry mark, and seal of Le Point Cardinal, 86 ½ x 16 ¼ x 17 ¼ inches Provenance: Le Point Cardinal, Paris, France; Galerie Albert Loeb, Paris, France.

Exhibitions and Literature: Exhibition catalogue, Cárdenas, Sculptures Récentes 1973-1975, Le Point Cardinal, Paris, listed as no. 29 and illustrated.

Exhibition catalogue, Cárdenas Sculpteur, 1981, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris.

A version in wood of this sculpture is illustrated and listed as no. 17 in this catalogue.

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NOT AVAILABLE

A person of keen intellect and sensibility, Servando was an outstanding draftsman and painter with a brilliant sense of color and composition – an accomplished artist in every sense of the word. He was passionate about art and developed throughout his career a highly personal style.

Some of his paintings are sensual interpretations of the human nude; some others –intentionally– display a kind of inyour-face eroticism, while other compositions are somewhat more ambiguous or awkward.

Oftentimes, his subjects seem to fight the physical limitations of the surface (canvas, wood panel, paper) and they seem to crystallize a frustration or outcry – a combative affirmation or protest. These works share the commonality of being visually stunning and powerful. And yes, they aim to stir the viewer with a naked truth.

Extrapolating this into the limitations and prejudices suffered by the artist during most of his lifetime for being a homosexual, these compositions are certainly strong and daring, brave and honest. They could be viewed as metaphors for the cruel realities of an era. (continues on next page)

Servando Cabrera Moreno (1923-1981), Primera Persona, (First Person), 1970, oil on canvas, 69 x 33 inches

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And yet, in essence, they are the product of a social and political moment in Cuba (during the sixties and seventies), which determined thereafter the path of Servando’s body of work.

The artist suffered, like many other people, the atmosphere launched by the Cuban government in the 1960s against gays, hippies, and persons of certain religious denominations such as, Jehovah witnesses, Catholic seminarians and Baptists, to name a few. Some, branded as undesirables, were sent to the UMAP (Military Units to Aid Production) forced labor camps in the island’s countryside.

Others were publicly marginalized or repudiated.

It was an ill period in Cuba when deviation and free thinking were actively confronted and persecuted by the cultural policies of those years.

Servando Cabrera Moreno – because of his sexual preferences – was no exception to the rule.

NOT AVAILABLE Servando Cabrera Moreno (1923-1981), El Espejo, (The Mirror), 1976, oil on canvas, 44 x 34 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Servando Cabrera Moreno (1923-1981), La Bella Aparece, (The Beauty Appears), 1973, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 33 3/4 inches

71

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), L’Oiseau de Feu, (Bird of Fire), 1970, set of two, polished brass and chrome-plated metal, 192/500 A, 192/500 B, 10 1/2 x 6 x 4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Tres Figuras, (Three Figures), 1972, signed and dated on the back, oil on canvas, 13 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches Provenance: Originally acquired from the artist by Galleria Seno, Milano, and sold to a private collector, Milano, Italy.

Illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue RaisonnĂŠ of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1982, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 364, no. 72.36.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Lou Laurin Lam, dated September 22, 2011.

72

NOT AVAILABLE

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982), Sin TĂ­tulo, Reencuentro de Amigos, (Untitled, Friends Reunited ), 1972, signed on the front, and signed and dated on the back, oil on canvas, 13 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches Provenance: Originally acquired from the artist by Galleria Seno, Milano and sold to a private collector, Milano, Italy.

Illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue RaisonnĂŠ of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1982, Acatos, Project Director: Eskil Lam, page 407, no. 73.81.

73

NOT AVAILABLE Mario Carreño (1913-2000), Frutero, (Fruit Bowl ), 1974, bronze sculpture, two of eighteen, 13 1/2 x 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches Another piece from this series was exhibited in Mario Carreño, Exposición Retrospectiva, 1939-1993, Museo de Arte Visuales, Santiago, Chile, March – May 2004, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 54.

NOT AVAILABLE

Mario Carreño (1913-2000), Figuras con Pescado, (Figures with Fish), 1948, tempera on paper, 11 x 15 inches 74

NOT AVAILABLE

Mario Carreño (1913-2000), Chiquita Banana, (Chiquita Banana), 1986, oil on canvas, 47 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches This painting was exhibited in Carreño, April - May 1986, Acanthus Gallery, Coral Gables, FL. Provenance: Leo Carreño (nephew of the artist), Miami, FL; José Ortega Collection, Key Biscayne, FL. 75

NOT AVAILABLE

Cundo Bermúdez (1914-2008), Mujer en Fondo Azul y Rosa II, (Woman in Blue and Rose Background II ), 1989, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches 76

Cundo Bermúdez (1914-2008), La Entrega, (The Surrender), 1971, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 30 x 22 inches Provenance: Mariano Martínez Collection, Miami, Florida.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and dated July 18, 2008.

NOT AVAILABLE NOT AVAILABLE

Cundo Bermúdez (1914-2008), Muchacha con Mariposa, (Young Lady with Butterfly), 1970, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 30 1/4 x 22 inches Provenance: Roberto Paris Collection.

This painting is illustrated (erroneously as an oil on canvas) in the book, Cundo Bermúdez, Cuban Endowment for the Arts, Miami, Florida, 2000, page 194.

77

[Gina Pellón] was born in Havana in 1926, and studied at the San Alejandro Academy, graduating in 1954. That same year she began to teach art, particularly drawing, at the Polytechnic Institute of Vedado in the Cuban capital. She continued in this activity until 1957.

Pellón’s career as a creative artist can be said to date from 1953, when she exhibited at the annual salon sponsored by the Fine Arts Circle. Though this was the refuge of academicians and other officially recognized artists, it was also open to those who followed a middle course between the conservative and the avant-garde. Participation in other salons followed. Some took place in the capital, others in provincial cities, chief among them Camagüey. By this time Pellón was beginning to show a preference for newer directions in art.

Her last appearance in Cuba was at the government sponsored national salon in 1959. It was in December of that year that she left for France.

Her career in Europe has been a fruitful one. She has had a score of individual shows in places such as Paris, Lausanne, Amsterdam, Brussels, Gina Pellón (b. 1926), Una Boda, (A Wedding), 1965, Toulouse, Silkeborg (Denmark), Larvik oil on canvas, 51 x 38 inches (Norway), Miami, and Caracas. The list of salons and group shows in which she has taken part is far more extensive, and many are the awards she has received at these events. She is one of the most highly respected Cuban artists in exile, and a leading figure among Latin American artists resident in Paris.

In the best Cuban plastic tradition, Pellón makes use of a brilliant palette. As a true colorist, she creates form from pigment, with frenzied energy. Her compositions might be described as the work of a highly chromatic expressionist. Charged with tropical sensuality, they impart a linear vision of ambient reality. Lines are traced in color, for the most part pure, whose shimmering luminosity attracts the viewer at once. There is no striving for effect. Pellón’s art is simple and straightforward in the extreme. Its sources are relatively remote. There is some influence of German Expressionism, some of Dutch Expressionism, as exemplified by Karel Appel, and some of the general undercurrent of the Expressionist spirit latent throughout the present century. What really counts, what constitutes the attraction of Pellón’s painting, is the rare combination it evinces of imagination and technical skill.

José Gómez Sicre,

78

Art of Cuba in Exile, Editora Munder, Miami, Florida, 1987, page 105.

NOT AVAILABLE

Gina Pellรณn (b. 1926), El Caballo Azul, (The Blue Horse), 1986, mixed media on canvas, 39 1/4 x 31 3/4 inches

79

NOT AVAILABLE

Gina Pellรณn (b. 1926), Radiante, (Radiant), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 39 1/2 x 31 3/4 inches

80

Gina Pellรณn (b. 1926), Carnaval, (Carnival ), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 24 x 19 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

NOT AVAILABLE

Gina Pellรณn (b. 1926), Rojo Anaranjado y Rosa Tierra, (Orange-Red and Earth Pink), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 57 1/2 x 44 inches 81

Gina Pellรณn (b.1926), Mujer en Negro No. 1, (Woman in Black No. 1), 2008, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on canvas, 28 1/2 x 21 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Gina Pellรณn (b.1926), Mujer en Negro No.2, (Woman in Black No.2), 2008, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on canvas, 28 1/2 x 21 inches

82

NOT AVAILABLE

NOT AVAILABLE

Luis Martínez Pedro (1910-1989), Aguas Territoriales, (Territorial Waters), 1967, oil on wood, 16 1/2 x 16 inches This painting is signed, dated 1967 and dedicated “Para Manila y Harold con cariños”, on the back.

Provenance: Harold Granach Collection, Havana, Cuba.

Tony López (1918-2011), Apple, (Manzana), 1985, bronze sculpture with marble base (artist’s proof ), 8 x 7 x 10 inches This sculpture is illustrated in José Gómez Sicre, Art of Cuba in Exile, Editora Munder, 1987, page 132.

NOT AVAILABLE 83

NOT AVAILABLE

Alfredo Sosabravo (b. 1930), Fanรกticos de Cine, (Film Fans), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 46 1/4 x 39 inches

84

Alfredo Sosabravo (b. 1930), De Repente, el Verano, (All of a Sudden, Summer), 1992, oil on canvas, 51 x 39 ½ inches Illustrated in Sosabravo, Alejandro Alonso and Rufo Caballero, 1996, Studio Publication, La Habana Vieja, Cuba, n.n.

NOT AVAILABLE

Alfredo Sosabravo (b. 1930), Mujer Cosida, (Sewn Woman), 1993, bronze sculpture, one of eight, 23 x 16 x 12 inches signed, dated and inscribed, “Fonderia Art FLLI, Bonvicini, Sommacampagna, Italia”

85

NOT AVAILABLE Pedro Pablo Oliva (b. 1949), Julia y los Lagartos, ( Julia and the Lizards), 2000, oil on canvas, 26 x 22 inches

Pedro Pablo Oliva (b. 1949), El Frescor de la NiĂąez, (The Freshness of Childhood ), 1991, oil on canvas, 70 x 70 inches 86

Pedro Pablo Oliva (b. 1949), Retrato para Teresa, (Portrait for Teresa), 1976, oil on canvas, 46 x 43 inches

87

NOT AVAILABLE Flora Fong (b. 1949), Aguas Cálidas, (Warm Waters), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 45 1/2 x 51 1/4 inches

The attraction toward the natural surroundings has become, for Flora Fong, a true specialty within her work.

The artist, with her slight stature and delicate demeanor, exhibits the traces of a unique blending of cultures. In this case, her heritage carries considerable proportions of the Orient through the father, a Chinese national who married a Cuban woman.

Now we ask ourselves, how does this woman perceive the vigorous natural surroundings which characterize the Cuban archipelago, that enchanted island garden so admired by visitors from all over the world? Her very dark, oblique eyes, made as if to grant passage only to what is essential, act as filters of the many details reaching the boundaries of her pupils. Then, bathed in courage and spirit, with the senses as mediators between that which has been inherited and the results attained through rigorous professional training, a potent mixture occurs, taking shape in an artistic formula that suddenly appears. This artistic formula emerges – born in a fortuitous fusion of the ecstasy of passion and the moderating power of taste – producing works which have provoked such widespread interest.

It is not difficult to find in her expression, features situated within the confines of “abstract expressionism”.

Vigorous outlines, abundant use of the color black to contain the presence of hues, and the resonance of sentiment.

On the other hand, the themes being forged seem drawn from the catalog of tradition: landscapes, marinas, still lives. The vast expanse of the panorama and a kind of “close up” of plantain trees, sunflowers or tobacco leaves that remits the viewer to an intimate structure, to a fundamental place, are inseparable aspects of her poetics. However, if we tend to think that static, minute, or overly detailed grasp is what moves the artist, (decidedly, the draw of the beloved motifs of the mother country), then we are committing a basic error of appreciation. Flora Fong’s paintings pulsate with the vitality of dynamic transition: the subtle breath of a breeze or the violent gusts of a hurricane, tousled royal palms, the flow of currents. The enticement of a potential return to the seed. The presence of that which is carried by Cubans throughout their lives, and which marks the most profound embers of national identity.

Alejandro Alonso, 88

excerpt from The Motifs of the Mother Country, Cernuda Arte, April 2001, page 3.

NOT AVAILABLE Flora Fong (b. 1949), Abanico Tropical, (Tropical Fan), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 28 3/4 x 35 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Flora Fong (b. 1949), Día de Fuego y Mar, (A Day of Fire and Sea), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 44 1/2 x 49 1/2 inches 89

NOT AVAILABLE

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Sueño y Transfiguración, (Dream and Transfiguration), 1989, oil on canvas, 46 x 74 3/4 inches Illustrated in the book, Mendive - Pierre Restany and Giorgio Segato, CarinArte, Padua, Italy, 1990, page 55.

90

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Gallina, (Hen), 2003, bronze sculpture, artist proof of a series of eight numbered works, 16 x 14 x 7 1/2 inches This sculpture is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed both by the artist and Joan Guaita, the editor.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Gallo, (Rooster), 2003, bronze sculpture, artist proof of a series of eight numbered works, 14 x 12 x 8 inches This sculpture is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed both by the artist and Joan Guaita, the editor.

91

NOT AVAILABLE

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), La Ofrenda de Yemayรก, (The Offering of Yemayรก), 2004, acrylic on royal palm trunk, 32 1/2 x 13 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), El Encuentro, (The Meeting), 2000, acrylic on canvas, 30 3/4 x 40 1/4 inches 92

Roberto Fabelo (b. 1950), La Tentaciรณn Existe, (Temptation Exists), 2004, oil on canvas, 62 1/2 x 46 inches 93

NOT AVAILABLE

Tomรกs Sรกnchez (b. 1948), A la Orilla, (By the Shore), 1996, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 1/4 inches

94

Tomás Sánchez (b. 1948), Orilla, (Shore), 1980, acrylic on canvas, 25 1/2 x 33 inches This painting was exhibited in Primer Concurso Nacional de Paisaje, Leopoldo Romañach, Biblioteca de Guantánamo, Cuba, September 1980. On the back of the painting it reads, “This painting was executed by me. It was awarded First Prize in the First National Salon of Landscape, Leopoldo Romañach, 1980”, signed Tomás Sánchez.

This painting is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

95

Tomás Sánchez (b. 1948), Al Sur del Calvario, (South of the Calvary), 1994, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches This painting was exhibited in Tomás Sánchez, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, May, 2008, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, number 11.

Illustrated in Tomás Sánchez, Edward J. Sullivan and Gabriel García Márquez, Skira Editore, 2003, page 170.

96

NOT AVAILABLE

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Silencio Puro, (Pure Silence), 2011, acrylic on canvas, 55 1/4 x 55 3/4 inches

97

NOT AVAILABLE Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Tu Amor en Mí Dondequiera, (Your Love Within Me Everywhere), 2011, acrylic on canvas, 71 x 51 1/4 inches 98

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Tu Ausencia, (Your Absence), 2011, oil on canvas, 37 x 33 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Cuando Sรณlo Queda el Recuerdo, (When Only Memories Remain), 2011, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches

99

NOT AVAILABLE Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Todo Me Recuerda a Ti, (Everything Reminds Me of You), 2011, oil on canvas, 9 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Dulces Recuerdos del Ayer, (Sweet Memories of Yesterday), 2010, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches 100

NOT AVAILABLE

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Tu Dulzura, Tu Alegría, Aquí, (Your Sweetness, Your Joy, Here), 2010, oil on canvas, 9 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Tú Me Tienes Olvidado, (You Have Forgotten Me), 2011, oil on canvas, 13 3/4 x 10 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), El Amor Florece, (Love Blooms), 2010, oil on canvas, 9 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Eres mi Melodía, (You Are My Melody), 2011, oil on canvas, 13 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches

101

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), El Día y la Noche, (Day and Night), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 59 1/4 x 78 3/4 inches

102

NOT AVAILABLE

Vicente Hernรกndez (b. 1971), Una Palma se Alza, (A Palm Rises Up), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 78 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Vicente Hernรกndez (b. 1971), Misiรณn Posible, (Mission Possible), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 78 3/4 x 21 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Vicente Hernรกndez (b. 1971), Un Canto a La Vida, (A Song to Life), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 39 1/4 x 51 1/4 inches 103

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), La Coral de las Pijamas, (The Pajamas’ Choir), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 31 1/2 x 39 1/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), Despertando al Pueblo, (Waking Up the Town), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 23 1/4 x 31 1/2 inches 104

Vicente Hernรกndez (b. 1971), Camino a lo Desconocido, (Road Towards the Unknown), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 31 1/2 x 78 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Vicente Hernรกndez (b. 1971), Andando Las Antillas, (Moving Through the Antilles), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 21 1/2 x 78 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

105

Ever Fonseca (b. 1937), Sin Título, (Untitled ), 1990, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 31 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Humberto Castro (b. 1957), Aries, (Aries), 1989-1990, oil on canvas, 49 x 43 1/8 inches

106

Tomรกs Esson (b. 1963), Retrato No.2, (Portrait No. 2), 1994, oil on canvas, 68 x 68 inches

107

NOT AVAILABLE Giosvany EchevarrĂ­a (b. 1971), Murmullo Campesino, (Murmur in the Countryside), 2011, oil on canvas, 66 3/4 x 47 1/4 inches 108

NOT AVAILABLE Giosvany Echevarría (b. 1971), El Color del Mediodía, (The Color of Midday), 2009, oil on canvas, 47 x 35 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE Giosvany Echevarría (b. 1971), Sortilegio, (Enchantment), 2005, oil on canvas, 31 1/2 x 47 1/2 inches 109

Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), Origamis de Paz y Esperanza, (Origamis of Peace and Hope), 2011, oil on canvas, 55 x 47 1/4 inches

110

NOT AVAILABLE

Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), El Mundo de Laura, (Laura's World ), 2011, oil on canvas, 59 x 59 inches

111

Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), Conteo Regresivo, (Countdown), 2011, oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 68 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), Azul Inquieto, (Restless Blue), 2011, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches 112

NOT AVAILABLE

Humberto Calzada (b. 1944), Una Premonición de Paz, (A Premonition of Peace), 1999, acrylic on canvas, 29 3/4 x 39 3/4 inches

José Bedia (b. 1959), Papa Legba, (Papa Legba), 2002, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 47 3/4 inches 113

NOT AVAILABLE Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Sonata de Mar y Tierra, (Sonata of Sea and Earth), 2011, acrylic on canvas, 59 x 78 3/4 inches This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

The heart of Irina’s art is nourished from a formal academic study of other renowned painters that have cast a spell on her. The artist’s works connect with diverse Italian Renaissance maestros such as, Fra Bartolommeo and Titian, and the great 17th-century Dutch painter, Frans Hals. Furthermore, the artist has found fertile ground and inspiration in the hard-paved contributions of exceptional Northern European women artists during the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly, those of the prominent Italian painter, Lavinia Fontana, and also of the eminent Dutch master, Judith Leyster, whose works were admired for their vibrant palette and astonishing detail of the clothes and jewelry that their subjects wore. Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Naïve Art, Art Nouveau, Surrealism, craftwork, and tapestry have likewise influenced the artist’s approach.

Her paintings are imbued with grace, freshness and metaphor. Symbols of beauty, joy, youth, providence and paradise abound, together with certain constants that appear and reappear in her compositions, such as – the feminine imagery, the intimate-surreal setting, the sheer pleasure of fantasy, and the marvelous sense of craft.

Ultimately, Irina Elén’s body of work displays her gift for bestowing compositions of extraordinary beauty and sensibility. The merging of creative virtue with genuine authenticity is what makes her artistic career so engaging and promising. In her painterly world – where imagination is queen – everything is possible… even the joyous thought of harvesting dreams.

Nercys Cernuda, excerpt from When Dreams Come True, Cernuda Arte exhibition catalog, October 2011, pages 4-5.

114

NOT AVAILABLE Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Salvando el Amor, (Saving Love), 2011, acrylic on canvas, 38 1/4 x 26 1/2 inches This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

NOT AVAILABLE Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Sueño en Fuga, (An Escaping Dream), 2011, acrylic on canvas, 36 3/4 x 36 3/4 inches 115

NOT AVAILABLE

Ramรณn Vรกzquez (b. 1972), De Donde Nace lo Sagrado, (From Where the Sacred Emanates), 2007, oil on canvas, 57 x 43 1/2 inches 116

Ramón Vázquez (b. 1972), Fantasía, (Fantasy), 2010, oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

NOT AVAILABLE

Ramón Vázquez (b. 1972), Paisaje Fantástico, Número Uno, (Fantastic Landscape, Number One), 2011, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches

117

NOT AVAILABLE

David Rodríguez (b. 1956), Hiatos, (Pausa), 2011, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

David Rodríguez (b. 1956), Prototipo, (Prototype), 2011, oil on canvas, 50 x 34 inches

118

NOT AVAILABLE

David Rodríguez (b. 1956), Nubes en Mi Café, (Clouds in My Coffee), 2011, oil on canvas, 46 x 48 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

David Rodríguez (b. 1956), Las Cosas Que Nunca Me Dijiste, (The Things You Never Told Me), 2010, oil on canvas, 27 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches

119

Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Tú, Yo y La Habana, (You, Me and Havana), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 78 x 59 inches This painting was exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago, Galería Arte Consult., Yaco García Arte Latinoamericano, Panamá, República de Panamá, March 2002, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, n.n.

120

NOT AVAILABLE

Joel Besmar (b. 1968), Ven y Mira, (Come and See), 2011, oil on canvas, 78 3/4 x 59 inches

The towering cross composed of books in this rendition is inspired by the fifth chapter of the Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of St. John. This final book of the New Testament of the Bible delivers a divine message, using codes, images and numbers. It is a symbolic and allegorical representation of a sealed book with seven wax signets that hold hidden meanings and predictions of historical future events.

The four books in the upper center of the composition – with their pages facing the viewer – allude to transcendental attributes of God, such as, faith, unity, beauty and goodness. The other seven blocks of books, with their book spines all in Latin, symbolize all mankind, with its virtues and sins –and moreover – it is a thought-provoking compendium of the struggle between the righteous and the immoral.

As in the Book of Revelation, the title of the painting, Come and See, invites the viewer to take a closer look, engage, and try (or dare!) to unravel this mystical experience, supposedly beyond all human understanding.

121

NOT AVAILABLE Joel Besmar (b. 1968), La Migración de los Textos, (The Migration of Texts), 2011, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 59 inches

“The Migration of Texts is a metaphor for intertextuality, a form of literary analysis which studies the links that exist between different writings. The three books depicted represent three connected literary treasures: Homer’s The Odyssey (ca. 8th century BC), Virgil’s The Aeneid (ca. 29 to 19 BC), and James Joyce’s Ulysses (ca. 1922).

There is an interwoven exchange of memorable references and parallels in each written work. The books are physically connected with a rope that directly references a jigsaw puzzle game evidencing the difficulty of untying the knot among the three elements. The rope serves as the channel through which the three texts nourish each other, and in the same way, acts as the bridge that joins them. Consequently, the proliferation of bridges in the landscape reiterates this stream of ideas, as they exemplify the elements that connect the various land masses, enabling the flux, the migrations of writings and of mankind.”

Joel Besmar

122

NOT AVAILABLE

Joel Besmar (b. 1968), Otro Día de la Ira, (Another Day of Wrath), 2011, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches

Joel Besmar (b. 1968), La Botella Rota, (The Broken Bottle), 2010, sanguine on heavy paper laid down on board, 29 1/2 x 41 inches 123

Dayron Gonzรกlez (b. 1982), Quiero Salir, (I Want Out), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 63 x 54 inches

124

Dayron Gonzรกlez (b. 1982), Repudio, (Repudation), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 54 x 63 inches This painting has been sold by Cernuda Arte to a private collector prior to the publication of this catalog.

NOT AVAILABLE Dayron Gonzรกlez (b. 1982), Fuera de Lugar, (Out of Place), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 58 x 70 inches 125

Dayron González (b. 1982), Más Allá del Límite, (Beyond the Limit), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 42 1/2 x 30 1/2 inches

NOT AVAILABLE

Dayron González (b. 1982), Alta Tensión, (High Voltage), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 42 1/2 x 30 3/4 inches

126

NOT AVAILABLE Dayron Gonzรกlez (b. 1982), Obediencia, (Obedience), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 44 3/4 x 43 3/4 inches

NOT AVAILABLE Dayron Gonzรกlez (b. 1982), La ร ltima Marcha, (The Last March), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 58 1/2 x 51 1/2 inches 127

NOT AVAILABLE Gabriel Sรกnchez (b. 1979), Dormido en el Bosque, (Asleep in the Forest), 2008, acrylic on canvas, 57 x 45 inches

Ismael Gรณmez Peralta (b. 1967), Solemnidad en la Isla, (Solemnity on the Island ), 2007, oil on canvas, 46 1/2 x 57 1/4 inches 128

CĂŠsar Santos (b. 1982), Entre Bastidores, (Backstage), 2007, oil on canvas on panel, 12 x 16 inches

NOT AVAILABLE Demi (b. 1955), Retrato de Familia No. 4, (Family Portrait No.4), 2000, acrylic on canvas, 42 x 50 inches This painting was exhibited in Demi – Family Portraits, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, February 2001, and was illustrated in the cover of the corresponding exhibition catalog.

129

Li Domínguez Fong (b. 1978), Guajiro II, (Cuban Peasant II ), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 51 x 43 1/4 inches

Li Domínguez Fong (b. 1978), Guajiro I, (Cuban Peasant I ), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 68 3/4 x 51 inches

130

Agustín Cárdenas (1927 – 2001), La Bola No.2, (The Ball No. 2), 1971, white Carrara marble, 21 x 21 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches Provenance: Lorenzelli Arte, Milan, Italy.

Exhibited in Cárdenas, Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo, Italy, 1971, illustrated and listed as no. 6 in the corresponding exhibition catalog.

Exhibited in Agustín Cárdenas – Marmi Opere 1970-1971, Lorenzelli Arte, Milan, Italy, Sept. 2004, illustrated on page 39 and listed as no. 12 in the exhibition catalog.

Back Cover: René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Retrato de Flora No. 18, (Portrait of Flora, No. 18), 1966, oil on canvas, 30 x 23 3/4 inches This painting was exhibited at the XXXIII Exposicione Biennale Internazionale D’Arte di Venezia, 1966.

Also signed, dated and numbered 18 by the Artist on the back.

Exhibition label of the Venezia Biennale included on the back of the painting.

This painting is illustrated in the book, Memoria: Cuban Art of the Twentieth Century, 2002, California/International Arts Foundation, page 288.

Catalog Coordinator: Luisa Lignarolo • Photography: Pablo García • Proofreading: Nercys Cernuda • Word Processing: Emily Codik • Printing: Bellak Color 131

NOT AVAILABLE

René Portocarrero (1912-1985), Retrato de Flora No. 18, (Portrait of Flora, No. 18), 1966, oil on canvas, 30 x 23 3/4 inches

Cernuda Arte 132

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