Homenaje a la soledad (Tribute to Solitude), 1970 Oil on canvas, 175.5 x 326 cm MNBA collection
in our embassies and diplomatic residences, which are today an impressive heritage of the Cuban chancellery. In 1967 Servando suffered a serious myocardial infarction that required a long period of recovery. He decided to take care of his health and shut himself up in his studio, where he painted and drew feverishly. In 1969 I suggested that he participate in that year’s International Joan Miró Prize for Drawing. He finally entered the erotic piece Flor de carne (Flower of Flesh) and was awarded first mention, consolidating his reputation as a master of drawing. I remember him choosing the pieces he would send to Salon 70. One of them, Homenaje a la soledad (Tribute to Solitude), was among the most beautiful paintings shown in this important event, in which his students exhibited as professionals for the first time. Little or nothing of his erotic painting was seen after 1971, and many of his erotic drawings and paintings of those years were given away as presents or stored in homes of friends. Servando could not live without working; he focused on Cuban faces and the women’s heads he baptized as “Habaneras,” which soon became famous. His long friendship with filmmakers, literati and theater figures made up his world of relationships during that pe-
riod. This is clear from the requests he received for his drawings and paintings, and in posters and illustrations that today are collectors’ items. He accepted two important requests in those years: Alfredo Guevara commissioned two large pieces for ICAIC: La cordillera (The Mountain Range) and El Moncada. Architect Andrés Garrudo, the designer of the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational School, included a Servando mural painting to enhance the artistic ambiance of the school.
Presencia joven (Youthful Presence), 1973 Oil on canvas. Mural designed for the Vladimir I. Lenin Vocational School