ICA18 by CernudaArte

IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS VOLUME EIGHTEEN

Cernuda Arte 1

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Untitled [Winged Figures], (Sin Título [Figuras Aladas]), 1955, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 12 ¼ x 18 ¼ inches Dedicated on the bottom left: "A mi amigo Enrique Fuente de su amigo Wifredo Lam HAB 11 Febrero 1955"

Carlos Enríquez, Women on the Balcony, 1944 (illustrated on the cover) Carlos Enríquez (1900 – 1957), Women on the Balcony, (Mujeres en el Balcón), 1944, oil on canvas, 27 x 23 inches Please reference page 42 for additional information. Sold prior to the publication of the catalog.

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. 2

IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS VOLUME EIGHTEEN

t has been two years since the prior edition of this publication. A much difficut time for all, a period of incertitude, devastation, and turmoil. In spite of it all, humanity continues forward, moving along, surpassing obstacles and barriers, advancing towards the light at the end of the dark and tortuous tunnel. Bit by bit moments of normalcy comfort us. Beauty appears. Art plays its healing role, its easing of grief with its promise of hope. For most there is a better future ahead. Others are no longer here. We dedicate this catalog to our dearest departed, Professor Juan Martínez. 'El Profe,' as he was affectionately known to the intimate few, was a brother, a term of endearment reserved for the rare and privileged relationship where the human connection goes beyond friendship and affection, and engulfs common dreams and aspirations, ideals and principles. Juan was not only the cultured and polished university educator of thousands of students who attended his classes on Cuban art and other art history subjects during his thirty-seven year career. He was the writer, the curator, and the social reformer. Juan was a cultural warrior of his time.

He was the writer, who left us the seminal book Cuban Art and National Identity, the Vanguardia Painters, 1927-1950, published in 1994 - without a doubt the definitive publication on the topic. Another fundamental bibliographic contribution was Juan's Carlos Enríquez, The Painter of Cuban Ballads, published in 2010. His not yet published Fidelio Ponce, a Cuban Original, completes the trilogy of majestic 20th Century Cuban art publications authored by Juan Martínez. Juan was also the curator who put together unforgettable exhibitions such as, The Origins of Cuban Modern Paintings at Miami Dade College in 1982; Celebrating Mijares, Fifty Years of Creation, at the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture; and Cuban Art and Identity: 1900-1950, at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Juan, the social reformer, did not shy away from essential issues of his time. When the right to exhibit and collect Cuban art was threatened in the 1980's, he wrote the enlightened and critical essay Art as Informational Material, submitted to the U.S. Federal Court. This document and other facts proved decisive in securing the court's ruling that recognized First Amendment constitutional protection to the arts. Thank you, Brother Juan, for everything you taught us and everything you did. Rest in peace, knowing others will continue the journey.

Ramón C ernuda

Cernuda Arte’s Staff (from left to right): Harold Ferrer, Eric González, Nico Hough, Ramón Cernuda, Nercys Cernuda, Jorge Palomino, María Rómulo, Daniel Ferrer 3

Augusto Chartrand (1828 - 1899), Daybreak in the Northern Coast of Matanzas, (Amanecer en la Costa Norte de Matanzas), 1877, oil on canvas, 11 5/8 x 18 1/8 inches

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 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 to 1950, 2001, page 36, revised.

Philippe Chartrand (1825-1889), View of the Almendares River, (Vista del Río Almendares), ca. 1870, oil on wooden plate, 10 inches in diameter

Philippe Chartrand (1825 – 1889), Hut by the River with Ceiba Tree, (Bohío Junto al Río con Ceiba), 1881, oil on canvas, 13 ¼ x 17 ¼ inches Mounted on original 19th century stretcher. 5

Valentín Sanz Carta (1849 – 1898), Landscape with Stream and Rocks, (Paisaje con Riachuelo y Rocas), ca. 1885, oil on canvas, 26 x 36 inches Illustrated in Juan Gil García (1876 – 1932), The Painter of Flowers, Fruits and Landscapes, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL, page 22. Exhibited in Cuban Art in the 20th Century: Cultural Identity and the International Avant Garde, at the Florida State Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL, February 12 to March 27, 2016, illustrated on page 26 of the exhibition catalog. Also exhibited in Cuban Art in the 20th Century: Cultural Identity and the International Avant Garde at the Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL, January 23 to April 23, 2017.

Valentín Sanz Carta (1849–1898) “always painted in contact with nature and true to the norms of the Barbizon School. He possessed a very special gift that allowed him to capture the intimacy of the landscape, forever achieving a Unitarian and poetic composition”, affirms Josefina González Rodríguez in 1947, as published in the book Valentín Sanz Carta en Cuba: Un Itinerario Vital, page 62. González adds [Sanz Carta] “born in the Canary Islands around 1850, studied at the San Fernando Academy in Spain under the tutelage of Belgian artist, Charles Haes. He had traveled all of Europe before arriving in Cuba around 1884. Shortly thereafter, he was awarded the Chair as Professor of Landscape at San Alejandro Academy in Havana. His palette was more tropical than Chartrand’s and his paintbrushes were imbued with Cuban values. He painted with gusto, frequently resorting to the elements of our countryside, the slender palm trees, the graceful and courteous bamboos, exuberant and opulent elephant ears that no one executed like he did… the river he visited to paint every afternoon, its waters upholstered with peculiar and characteristic stains, the patches of blue skies and the rocks where he achieved plastic effects of great beauty. All of his landscapes are very Cuban and his main protagonist was the Almendares River. [Sanz Carta] is without question the best interpreter of landscape in the Cuban Colonial period.” Josefina González Rodríguez, Doctoral thesis, Faculty of Philosophy & Letters, University of Havana, 1947. Quoted from Valentín Sanz Carta en Cuba: Un Itinerario Vital, Jesús G. Pérez & Gertrudis C. Mitjans, pages 62 and 63. 6

Miguel Arias (1841-1915), Hut and Palm with Stream, (Bohío y Palma con Riachuelo), 1908, oil on canvas, 19 ½ x 30 ½ inches

Miguel Arias Bardou (1841-1915) was born in Astorga, León, Spain in 1841. As early as 1885, he worked as a painter and set designer for several theaters in Cuba, including La Caridad Theater in Santa Clara. Later on, he was a set designer for the well known Alhambra Theater in Havana. His work primarily depicted the countryside with peasant scenes immersed in intimacy and tranquility, and in perfect harmony with the island’s landscape. By the end of the nineteenth century, his artworks were exhibited along with the better known and much recognized Cuban colonial artists. In 1892, he presented various canvases at the Salon Pola, located in No. 100 Obispo Street, Old Havana, in a group show that included creations by Miguel Melero, José Arburu Morell, Federico Sulroca, Juana Borrero and Valentín Sanz Carta. With the advent of the Cuban Republic, in 1902, Miguel Arias, whose sympathies were with the Island’s independence, opts to stay in his adopted country and in 1910 he was chosen to be a founding member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters. Miguel Arias’ paintings were shown in the two major group exhibitions presenting colonial and classical Cuban art of the last century: 300 Years of Art in Cuba, at the University of Havana, April of 1940, and Colonial Painting in Cuba, at the National Capitol Building of Havana, March-April of 1950. In 1966, 1971 and again in 1981, his works were included in exhibits at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, which houses three large oil paintings by this artist. The Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences also has in their permanent collection a beautiful oil on canvas, circa 1875 by Miguel Arias entitled Paisaje Cubano, which has been exhibited in several museums in Florida. Ramón Cernuda, One Hundred Years of Cuban Landscape, 1850 to 1950, 2001, page 36, revised.

Aurelio Melero (1870-1929), The Blush of Dawn, (El Arrebol de la Aurora), ca. 1900, oil on canvas, 28 x 40 inches This painting was exhibited in One Hundred Years of Cuban Landscape, 1850 to 1950, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, December 2001 - February 2002, and appears illustrated in the accompanying exhibition catalog page 29.

Eduardo Morales (1862–1938), Cuban Carriage, (El Quitrín), 1913, oil on wood, 7 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches Exhibited in Cuban Art, Academic, Modern, and Contemporary at Circa 06, May 2006, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and illustrated in the exhibition catalog. 8

Leopoldo Romañach (1862- 1951), Marina, (Marina), ca. 1925, oil on canvas, 27 ½ x 40 inches This painting is offered in a 19th Century gilded Italian period frame. This painting is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by Olga López Núñez, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, expert on classical Cuban art.

Leopoldo Romañach is recognized as one of the leading figures in the history of Cuban art, as master artist and important art professor. In 1904 he won a Gold Medal at the Saint Louis Exposition and a Silver Medal at the Exhibit of Buffalo. In 1905 he obtained a Gold Medal at the Charleston Exposition, and in 1912 he garnered the Grand Prize at the Havana Exposition. In 1915 he was given the Medal of Honor at the Exhibit of Panama and in 1929 he received the Grand Prize in the Iberian-American Exhibit in Seville. He was a tenured professor at the prestigious San Alejandro Art Academy in Cuba where he taught various generations of artists. For fifty years he educated some of the foremost figures of Cuban Modern Painting. Among them, Víctor Manuel García, Amelia Peláez, Antonio Gattorno, Fidelio Ponce, Eduardo Abela, Domingo Ramos and others. Marina is a fine example from a significant series painted by the artist. These ocean scenes were a favorite and dear subject matter of the Master, Romañach. They were meditative works realized in plein-air during his travels through the Cuban archipelago. The expressionistic brushstroke and pastel-like color palette, reflects the charm and beauty of the Cuban coast. For Romañach, the sea bathed the coast of his beloved island, the sea puzzled and enchanted him since he was a child, and thus became his favorite subject until the end. Ramón Cernuda 9

Armando Menocal (1863–1942), Portrait of Mother and Daughter, (Retrato de Madre e Hija), 1936, oil on canvas, 49 ¼ x 38 ¼ inches

“Cuban painter born in Havana on July 8, 1863; he died in the same city on September 28, 1942. A descendant from an illustrious Cuban family, he added on to the excellences of a refined artistic temperament and vast culture, a fervent love of country and liberty. Menocal studied painting and drawing at the School of Fine Arts at San Alejandro in Havana under the guidance of Miguel Melero. In 1880, his parents sent him to Spain, and there he expanded his knowledge of the arts… At the National Exposition of Madrid, in 1884, he obtained a Second Place Award for his painting, Castilian Generosity… Once the Cuban Republic was proclaimed, Menocal was reintegrated to his position as the Chair of Landscape at the San Alejandro School… He obtained a Gold Medal at the Exposition of California in 1915. In 1918… he accomplished the decoration of the Presidential Palace of Cuba… He became director of the San Alejandro School in 1927 and was a member of the National Academy of Arts and Letters of Havana. Menocal cultivated various modalities of pictorial art with brilliant success, distinguishing himself as an admirable portraitist and eminent landscape artist." Bernard Lerner, Enciclopedia del Arte en América, volumen cuatro, Bibliografía Omeba, 1968 10

Domingo Ramos (1894 – 1956), Quinta de los Molinos Country Estate, (Quinta de los Molinos), 1941, oil on canvas, 51 ¼ x 67 inches Exhibited in Domingo Ramos: The Soul of Impressionism in Cuba, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, September - October, 2005, and illustrated in the accompanying catalog, unnumbered page.

Domingo Ramos (1894-1956) was born in Güines, in the province of Havana, on November 6, 1894. In 1907, he enrolled in San Alejandro Academy, and in 1918 he received a scholarship from the National Congress to study in Spain at the renowned San Fernando School in Madrid. In 1919, Domingo Ramos exhibited his work in Barcelona, Spain and upon his return to Cuba, he was named Professor of the San Alejandro Academy. In 1943, he was given the Landscape Painting Chair at the Academy. In 1947, he was designated as an Academic Member of the “Royal Society of Art in London, England. He was also a Member of the Royal Academy of Arts and Letters in Havana. Throughout his prolific artistic career, Domingo Ramos had more than twenty one-person shows and participated in many group exhibits. He won awards and medals in Cuba, Europe and New York City, among them from: the National Academy of Arts and Letters in Havana (1916), the Annual Salon of the Fine Arts Circle in Havana (1936 and 1938), the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, Spain (1930), the New York World’s Fair (1939), and the Latin American Exhibit in New York (1942). His works are also found in prestigious national and international collections. His painting, Coloso en la Cumbre, was acquired by Madrid’s Museum of Modern Art. Other examples of his works were included in the collections of Havana’s Country Club, Cuba’s Presidential Palace and National Capitol Building. The National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana also has several works in their permanent collection created by this outstanding painter. Ramón Cernuda 11

Fidelio Ponce De León (1895 - 1949), Landscape with Almendares River, (Paisaje con Río Almendares), ca. 1945, oil on canvas, 17 3/4 x 14 inches Provenance: Mario Amiguet Collection, Coral Gables, Fl. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Fidelio Ponce De León (1895 - 1949), The River, (El Río), ca. 1940, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches Provenance: María Del Carmen Armenteros Zorrilla, and by descent, Emeterio Zorrilla. Exhibited in Fidelio Ponce, 1895 - 1949, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, February 1958, and listed as number 71 in the corresponding museum catalog. Exhibited in Fidelio Ponce and His Times, Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, Fl, October - November 1992, and listed as number 23 in the corresponding museum catalog. 12

Fidelio Ponce De León (1895 - 1949), Self Portrait, (Autorretrato), ca. 1933-34, graphite on paper along with artist's letter, 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches and 10 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches The text of this signed writing by Ponce reads, "The triumph of my companions does not hurt me. What does hurt as if hit by a rough punch dealt by the hand of Hercules is the absurdity of the ruling of such an 'intelligent' jury."- Ponce It accompanies the self portrait.

Fidelio Ponce De León (1895 - 1949), Women, (Mujeres), 1942, oil on masonite, 19 1/2 x 23 inches This painting was exhibited in Ponce and His Times, Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, FL, Oct. – Nov. 1992. Illustrated in color on page 19 and listed as number 8 on page 27 of the corresponding exhibition catalog. This painting is dedicated on the back, “Al Dr. Cruz Planas, Fidelio Ponce de León, Habana, Marzo 26, 1942, ‘Mujeres, óleo’ (To Dr. Cruz Planas, Fidelio Ponce de León, Havana, March 26, 1942). Dr. Buenaventura Cruz Planas was a distinguished medical professional who treated the artist Fidelio Ponce. 13

Antonio Gattorno (1904 – 1980), María with Red Necklace, (María con Collar Rojo), 1937, oil on masonite, 12 x 9 inches Illustrated in the book Gattorno, A Cuban Painter for the World, Sean M. Poole, Arte al Día Internacional, 2004, p. 103. Exhibited at Southeastern Massachussets University, October 1978. Exhibited in Cuban Nostalgia at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, March 3rd, 2005 and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, p. 22, and in the exhibition postcard. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Antonio Gattorno (1904-1980), The Tower, (La Torre), 1945, oil on canvas, 21 x 13 inches Provenance: Frank and Rita Gallant, Massachusetts.

Antonio Gattorno (1904-1980), The Echo, (El Eco), 1945, oil on canvas, 24 1/4 x 18 inches Provenance: Frank and Rita Gallant, Massachusetts. This painting is illustrated in the book Gattorno - A Cuban Painter for the World, Sean M. Poole, 2004, page 143. 15

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Portrait of Young Woman, (Retrato de Joven), ca. 1965, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Kingston, Jamaica. This painting was exhibited at Sotheby's Important Latin American Paintings, New York, May 1985, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, lot 259.

Recognized as the founder of Modernism in Cuba, Víctor Manuel was one of the great masters of 20th century Cuban art. A true innovator and prolific painter who depicted the arresting beauty and particular flavors of Havana, he not only defended freedom of artistic creation and expressed a profound preference to portray serenity and beauty. The artist’s creative output was dedicated to causes that ran contrary to the artistic world in Havana, and his impact on the Latin American art discourse is still felt today. 16

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Gypsy in the Garden, (Gitana en el Jardín), ca. 1950s, oil on canvas, 22 x 18 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Havana, Cuba; Private Collection, Zaragoza, Spain. This painting is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, dated May 1, 2014, signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz and José Veigas Zamora.

One artist who had a tremendous impact on the works of Víctor Manuel was the late master Paul Gauguin, a pioneering modernist who had left Paris to live and paint in Tahiti. Víctor Manuel’s kinship with Gauguin was not merely artistic, but also, ideological—both painters broke from the orthodoxies of the fine art world by depicting subjects from all races and social classes, as well as popular scenes of rural and urban life, themes which were considered transgressive or even scandalous to the haut monde status quo. Víctor, like Gauguin, challenged the narrow conceptions of beauty of a morally conservative society with his choices of subjects and his modernist style.

(continued on page 19) 17

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Flowers and Fruits, (Flores y Frutas), ca. 1940s, oil on canvas, 26 x 20 inches

Provenance: Private collection, Zaragoza, Spain. This painting is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity dated October 26, 2012, signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz and José Veigas. 18

In many of his renditions, the artist wanted to portray mixed-race and common people with worthiness, at a time when fine art and portraiture was the exclusive domain of high society. His humanistic approach marked a major departure from the social mores of Cuba at the time. Although many of his renowned portraits are of young women, Víctor Manuel also painted subjects of advanced age who had been visibly affected by conducting lives of hard labor, prioritizing the subject’s dignity over conventional standards of beauty in defiance of the art world firmament. Some of these tendencies can be seen in his signature painting, Gitana Tropical (Tropical Gypsy) – popularly known as “the American Mona Lisa”– a Guaguin-esque oil on canvas portrait that is part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, and ultimately became the symbol of vanguard art in Cuba. Throughout the 1930’s, Víctor Manuel's position as one of Cuba’s most important living painters was solidified through frequent solo and group shows at the country’s most esteemed venues, such as the Lyceum in Havana.

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Woman with Mango, (Mujer con Mango), ca. 1940s, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 25 3/4 x 19 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Zaragoza, Spain. This painting is illustrated in the book Víctor Manuel by Ramón Vázquez Díaz. Escandón Editores, 2010, page 157. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

During this decade, he received the high national distinction of the Exposición Nacional de Pintura y Escultura award two times, first in 1935 and later in 1938. In 1939, his work was included in the Latin America Exhibition of Fine and Applied Art at the Riverside Museum in New York City, the artist’s first major museum show in the United States.

(continued on page 20) 19

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969) Life in the Town, (La Vida en El Pueblo), ca. 1945, oil on canvas, 22 x 30 inches This painting is illustrated in the book Arte Cubano, La Espiral Ascendente, Roberto Cobas Amate, Selví Artes Gráficas, Spain, 2019, Fundación Mariano Rodríguez, page 279. This painting is accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity dated August 30, 2019, signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz.

By the early 1940s, New York City had overtaken Paris as the global center for the arts, a cultural shift in gravity that made the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) one of the most prestigious arts institutions in the world. In 1943, Víctor Manuel exhibited his work at this venue for the first time, as part of the group show, The Latin-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art. The following year, his work was included in the landmark MoMA show Modern Cuban Painters, curated by the Museum’s first director, Alfred H. Barr. The latter show has been recognized by scholars as a groundbreaking museum exhibition of 20th century Latin American art, and a breakthrough moment which cemented the Cuban Vanguardia as an international arts movement. The show’s catalogue describes Víctor Manuel as a pioneer, whose “courageous enthusiasm helped launch modernism in Cuban art”. The artist would continue high-profile exhibitions, both internationally and in Cuba, in the following years, with shows at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, Guatemala City, Guatemala and in Moscow, Russia, in 1945; the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1946; the National College of Architecture in Havana, Cuba, and Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in 1948; the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France, in 1951; and in the XXVI Venice Bienalle in Venice, Italy, among others, fully establishing Víctor Manuel as an international painter and outstanding master of modernism. (continued on page 22) 20

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Town by the River (Pueblo Junto al Río), ca. 1940s, oil on canvas, 34 1/2 x 25 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Zaragoza, Spain. This painting is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity dated November 5, 2013, signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz and José Veigas. 21

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Portrait of a Young Woman, (Retrato de Joven), ca. 1950s, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, Provenance: Mario Amiguet Collection, Coral Gables, Florida.

In 1959, Víctor Manuel was celebrated with an homage at the Annual Salon, 1959, in Havana, one of the nation’s highest honors for an artist. In 1964, the artist began expressing himself through lithographs, and holding graphics workshops in the Plaza de la Catedral in Havana, whilst still maintaining a strong international exhibition presence abroad until his death in 1969. 22

Víctor Manuel’s posthumous recognitions are considerable. Since his passing, works by the artist have been included in exhibitions at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, Cuba; the Insitituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico; Galerie de Seine, Paris, France; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico; National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria; the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; the Frances Wolfson Art Gallery, Miami-Dade College, Miami, Florida; the Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, Florida; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahasee, Florida, among many others. Important examples of Víctor Manuel’s work can be found in major private and public collections, including the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana and the Museum of Arts and Sciences, Daytona Beach, Florida. Nercys Cernuda and Nico Hough

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Young Lady (Joven), ca. 1955, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 17 1/2 x 13 3/4 inches

Víctor Manuel García (1897 – 1969), Portrait of a Young Lady, (Retrato de Una Joven), ca. 1960's, mixed media on heavy paper 15 1/2 x 12 1/4 inches

Eduardo Abela (1889 – 1965), Girl, (Niña), ca. 1960, oil on wood, 9 x 8 3/4 inches Provenance: Dr. Miguel M. González Collection. Thence by descent to Dr. Michelle González Maldonado, Miami, Florida. This painting was exhibited in Abela, Magic + Fables, Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, Florida, March 1984, and illusrated in the corresponding museum catalog, page 7. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Eduardo Abela (1889 – 1965), Blushing Young Lady, (Muchacha Sonrojada), ca 1957, oil on wood, 7 1/4 x 9 7/8 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Miami Beach, Florida. 24

Eduardo Abela (1889 – 1965), The Horseman, (El Jinete), ca. 1959, oil on wood, 10 x 7 inches Provenance: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, De-accessioned by Museum of Modern Art, New York, to Cernuda Arte. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Original MoMA Inventory Label for The Horseman

Domingo Ravenet (1905 – 1969), Woman, Carnival Figure, (Mujer, Figura de Carnaval ), 1966, oil on canvas, 36 ½ x 30 ½ inches This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity signed by Dr. Mariana Ravenet, daughter of the artist.

"In my current work, women symbolize rhythm..." Domingo Ravenet, Revista Mujeres, May 1967 26

Domingo Ravenet (1905 – 1969), The Banyan Tree, (El Jagüey), 1938, oil on wood, 30 x 24 inches Provenance: Collection Mariano Brull, Havana, Cuba; Cuban National Commission of Intellectual Cooperation, Havana, Cuba; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. De-accessioned by Museum of Modern Art, New York, to Cernuda Arte. This painting was exhibited at Exposición de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo, Capitolio Nacional, Havana, November 1941, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog. Exhibited in The Latin-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York, curated by Lincoln Kirstein, March to July 1943, listed on page 94 of the corresponding exhibition publication. Entered into the San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California, on 2/20/1942, as per Museum label attached to the reverse of the artwork, and exhibited in Contemporary Latin American Art, San Francisco Museum of Art, date unknown. Illustrated in the book RAVENET, Ana María Muñoz Bachs and Mariana Ravenet Ramírez, 2015, Fundación Arte Cubano, Artes Gráficas Palermo, Madrid, Spain, front cover and page 83. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 27

Amelia Peláez (1896–1968), Women on Balconies (Mujeres en Balcones), 1963, mixed media on heavy paper, 20 3/4 x 16 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Zaragoza, Spain. This painting is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity dated September 5, 2017, signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz. 28

Amelia Peláez (1896–1968), Composition (Composición), 1955, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 30 x 22 inches Provenance: Dr. Henrique da Silva Martins, First Secretary at the Portuguese Embassy in Havana, 1958, who acquired it directly from the artist. Exhibited at Briest Poulain Le Fur, Paris, 26 October, 2004, and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalogue, lot number 181. 29

Teodoro Ramos Blanco (1902 – 1972), Old Negro Woman, (Negra Vieja), 1939, wooden sculpture, 11 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches Provenance: InterAmerican Fund, donated to The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY; De-accessioned by Museum of Modern Art, New York, to Cernuda Arte. Exhibited in the Latin American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York, curated by Lincoln Kirstein, March 31 to June 6, 1943, and illustrated in the corresponding museum exhibition book, page 50. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 30

Teodoro Ramos Blanco (1902 – 1972), Female Nude, (Desnudo de Mujer), ca. 1939, wooden sculpture, 24 1/4 x 6 1/2 x 6 inches

Ramos Blanco’s work of “great dignity and simple strength”, signaled to the celebrated American poet and writer, Langston Hughes, “the arrival of a new and interesting personality in the field of American art.” One of the leading artists of the sculptural modern movement in Cuba, Teodoro Ramos Blanco was born in Havana, Cuba. After studying in San Alejandro Art Academy, he completed his studies in Italy in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, he exhibited in Havana at the Círculo de Bellas Artes and at the renowned Club Atenas. During this same year, he presented his work in Italy at the Latin American exhibition of artists and students, Palazzo Venezia, and the Casa de España in Rome. Ramos Blanco’s craft reveals a unique black esthetic that is tightly connected to his African heritage. His sculptures and busts always referenced racial pride. The artist was influenced by the 1920s & 30s Harlem Renaissance in New York City which propelled the exaltation of African American culture in the nation at large, and magnetized black people from other regions. The artist befriended prominent intellectual figures, including Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Charles Spurgeon Johnson, James Porter and Arturo (Arthur) Schomburg. In 1933, Ramos Blanco gained international attention when he was invited to showcase his art in the United States in the Harmon Foundation’s annual “Exhibition of Work by Negro Artists” at the Art Center in East New York. After the 1933 Harmon Exhibition, Ramos Blanco was invited to show his work in other African American art venues: in the American Negro Exposition in Chicago in 1940, and at Howard University. His impressive rendition, Head of Langston Hughes (1932) is part of the Schomburg Center for Research in the Black Culture at the New York Public Library. In 1941, the artist returned to Cuba. In 1943, his work was included in the major show The Latin-American Collection of the Museum of Modern Art at the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, in New York. In 1944, Ramos Blanco became a Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro in Havana. From the 1940’s until the early 1970’s, the artist exhibited frequently throughout the island, with group and solo shows at the nation’s major venues, including the National Museum of Fine Arts, the Lyceum, and the University of Havana, among others. Teodoro Ramos Blanco died in Havana in 1972. His life and career were honored in the 1972 solo retrospective, Homage to Teodoro Ramos Blanco: Sculptor, at the Galería UNEAC in Cuba’s capital city. In 1985, the artist’s works were included in the group show, Art in Washington and its Afro-American Presence: 1940-1970, at the Washington Project for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Nercys Cernuda 31

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Untitled [A Portrait of Helena], (Sin Título [Un Retrato de Helena] ), 1943, oil on heavy paper, laid down on board, 42 x 33 inches Provenance: Dr. G. Barbieri Collection, Como, Italy; Marcelo Ferrari Collection, Treviglio, Italy This painting was exhibited in Wifredo Lam, au l'Eloge du Metissage (A Praise to the Mixed Race), Villa Medici, Rome, Italy. Also exhibited at Palazzo della Permanente, Milano, Italy. Illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 83. Also exhibited at Galleria Bruno Tartaglia, Rome, Italy, exhibition label attached to reverse of frame. The work is illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume I, 1923-1960, Acatos, Project Director Eskil Lam, page 337, no. 43.34. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, issued and signed by Lou-Laurin Lam, widow of the artist, no. 90-109, issued in Paris, France, December 12, 1990. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

In 1943, Wifredo Lam, at forty one years of age, had risen to be considered the most celebrated artist of Cuba and an internationally recognized painter in the European and North American Surrealist Movement. His toils and hardships as a poor young man of mixed race, trying to secure an education through scholarships, gifts, and charity in Havana at the San Alejandro Academy, and later in Madrid under the tutelage of Fernando Sotomayor (then Director of the Prado Museum), had finally been rewarded. Paris extended its red carpet shortly after Lam’s arrival in May of 1938. By March 1941, when the artist and his companion Helena Holzer leave Europe towards Martinique, fleeing from the Nazi takeover, Lam had been elevated to the highest circles of the thenacclaimed French Intelligentsia. In just thirty-four months, the artist had transited from obscurity to stardom, mingling and collaborating with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim, André Breton, Levi Strauss, Pierre Matisse, Dora Maar, Pierre Loeb, Asger Jorn, Roberto Matta, Varian Fry, Aimé Cesaire, Remedios Varo, and others. Lam’s eventual arrival to Havana in early 1942 allowed him to concentrate on his work which he undertook with gusto and vigor. That year alone Lam produced over 122 major paintings, while expanding his prestige and circle of influence among Havana’s artists and intellectuals. Closer to him were Lydia Cabrera, the anthropologist, Fernando Ortiz, the scholar, and Alejo Carpentier, the writer, while meeting with Alfred Barr, then Director of the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, and Ernest Hemingway, the adventurous expatriate. In the year when this painting was executed, 1943, Wifredo Lam produces many of his most exalted creations. The Jungle, Lam’s most distinguished artwork which is part of the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA collection, was finished then, along with Omi Obini, currently the auction record holder for the highest price paid for an artwork by the artist. The Chair, at the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, donated to that institution by Alejo Carpentier, is considered among the top ten paintings ever executed by Lam. Another masterly achievement, Mofumbe, originally exhibited at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, and for decades part of the Hodes Collection, Chicago and Malembo, God of the Crossroads, initially placed at the Shapiro Collection, Chicago, and for years now at the Rudman family collection, are arguably Lam’s most spiritual compositions, certainly inspired by the artist’s frequent visits to Havana’s Santeria rituals and ceremonies. Clearly, 1943 was a most distinguished time for the artist’s career, some would say his best in terms of the quality of his output. It witnessed shows of Lam’s works at the Institute of Modern Art in Boston, at the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York and at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in that same city. By year's end, the artist’s credentials stood out and were firmly established in the United States. Ramón Cernuda 32

Wifredo Lam (1902–1982), Untitled [Femme Cheval in Green Background], (Sin Título [Mujer Caballo en Fondo Verde] ), 1973, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on canvas, 19 x 26 inches Provenance: Galleria Felippini, Milano, Italy; Faure & Rey Enchères, auctioneers, Rambouillet, France, 1986.

Wifredo Lam (1902–1982), Untitled [Femme Cheval and Bird], (Sin Título [Mujer Caballo y Pájaro] ), 1972, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 26 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches Provenance: Faure & Rey Enchères, auctioneers, Rambouillet, France, 1986. 34

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Idol, (Idolo), 1964, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 29 x 21 inches This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist, Wifredo Lam, stamped by La Piccola Galleria, Savona, Italy. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Untitled [The Couple], (Sin Título [La Pareja] ), 1974, oil on canvas, 17 ¾ x 21 ¾ inches Provenance: Lou Laurin Lam Family Collection, Stockholm, Sweden; Private Collection, Sverige, Sweden. Illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1982, Project Director Eskil Lam, Acatos, 2002, page 443, no. 74.20.

Wifredo Lam (1902–1982), Untitled [Figure and Elegua], (Sin Título [Figura y Eleguá] ), 1964, oil on canvas, 27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches This painting is illustrated in the book Wifredo Lam, Max Pol-Fouchet, Paris, First Edition, 1976, page 236, no. 426; and in its second edition, page 256, no. 458. Illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1982, Project Director Eskil Lam, Acatos, France, 2002, page 280, no. 64.22. This painting was exhibited at Wifredo Lam, l'Oiseau du Possible, Oeuvres 1930 à 1978, Galería Boulakia, Paris, France, May 2004, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, pages 80 and 81. This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity signed by Lou Laurin Lam, dated November 5, 2005. 36

Wifredo Lam (1902–1982), Untitled [Personage at Dusk], (Sin Título [Personaje al Anochecer), 1972, oil on canvas, 17 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches Signed and dated on the reverse. Provenance: Galeria D'Arte Ciak, Rome, Italy; Private Collection, Guadalajara, Mexico; Private Collector, Key Biscayne, FL. Exhibited in Wifredo Lam. Around the World in 80 Years, Biasutti & Biasutti, Turin, Italy, October 29, 2009 - January 16, 2010, and illustrated in the accompanying catalog on pages 55 and 92. This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity issued by Galleria D'Arte Ciak, Rome, Italy, dated October 1974. Also accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity signed by Madame Lou Laurin Lam, dated September 21, 2005, no 05-26. 37

Wifredo Lam (1902–1982), Figure, (Figura), 1973, oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 19 3/4 inches This painting is illustrated in Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1980, Project Director: Eskil Lam, Acatos 2002, page 430, catalogued as no. 73.214. Also illustrated in Wifredo Lam, Max-Pol Fouchet, First Edition, 1976, pg. 246, no. 605. Also illustrated in Wifredo Lam, Max-Pol Fouchet, Second Edition, 1989, pg. 266, no. 637. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 38

WIFREDO LAM IN THE 1960s & 1970s In the 1960's, Wifredo Lam, the world traveler, established a home and studio in the Italian coastal province of Albissola Marina, where he spent months away from the Parisian milieu. By this time, Lam had become fully established as a master of the international avant-garde with a sweeping curriculum. The artist had been associated with many significant movements in 20th century art – the cubists, the surrealists, the negritude movement, the abstract expressionists, the Dadaists, and so on – yet his work had resisted trends in the art world. Lam earned his reputation by staying dedicated to his own unique vision, somewhere between the mystical and the physical, the modern and the primitive. Because of this artistic commitment, Lam was able to execute works of a remarkable quality and consistency across decades of output. In these later decades, Lam’s line becomes even more elegant, at times approaching calligraphy. As the internationally known art critic and historian, Edward Lucie-Smith observed in 1970 on the occasion of Lam’s solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils Gallery in London: “Over the years… [Lam]… has matured into an artist of considerable stature - one who very seldom paints a bad or dull picture… Lam is painting better than ever.” During Lam’s time in Italy, his works exhibited extensively throughout Europe, with major solo shows in London, Milan, Geneva, Amsterdam, Zurich, Brussels, and Paris, among other artistic hubs. The artist also maintained a strong artistic presence in the Americas, with important exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Montreal, Mexico City, Sâo Paolo, and Havana, as well as many other major art cities of the West. In 1973, his contributions to the Surrealist movement were recognized with his inclusion in the group show Surrealists of the New World at Galería Aele in Madrid. Also in 1973, he was the focus of the solo exhibition, Wifredo Lam, at the Galleria Angolare in Milan. That same year, he executes Figure (1973), an exquisite example of the mature artist’s mastery. Nico Hough

Wifredo Lam’s studio in Albissola Mare, Italy, mid-1970s. Figure (1973) is visible on the top right, outlined in red. (Wifredo Lam: Catalogue Raisonné of the Painted Work, Volume II, 1961-1980, Project Director: Eskil Lam, Acatos, page 357) 39

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Untitled [Woman and Personages], (Sin Título [Mujer y Personajes] ), 1977, one-of-a-kind terracotta plate, hand painted by the artist, 20 ½ inches in diameter, signed lower-left, dated lower-right Provenance: Ceramiche, San Giorgio, Albisola, Italy. This artwork is illustrated in the book La Storia delle Ceramiche San Giorgio, 1958-2008, Simona Poggi, Stereo Edizoni, 2008, page 225. Exhibited in Cuban Art in the 20th Century: Cultural Identity and the International Avant Garde, at the Florida State Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL, February 12 to March 27, 2016, and illustrated on page 81 of the exhibition catalog. Also exhibited in Cuban Art in the 20th Century: Cultural Identity and the International Avant Garde at the Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL, January 23 to April 23, 2017. Exhibited in Remember to React: 60 Years of Collecting, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL, September 9, 2018 to October 30, 2019. This artwork is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity signed by Madame Lou Laurin Lam, dated June 28, 2008, no. 08-08. 40

Wifredo Lam (1902 – 1982), Untitled [Figure and Bird], (Sin Título [Figura y Pájaro] ), 1977, one-of-a-kind terracota, hand painted by the artist, 16 inches in diameter, signed lower-right, dated lower-right. Exhibited at the Danmark Keramikmuseum, Museum of International Ceramic Art, Denmark, 2007, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, page 96.

Carlos Enríquez (1900 – 1957), Women on the Balcony, (Mujeres en el Balcón), 1944, oil on canvas, 27 x 23 inches Provenance: Private Collector, Georgia; Collection of Dolores Smithies, Sotheby’s executive, New York; Private Collector, Miami Beach. Exhibited in Sotheby’s Latin American Art New York, May 20-21, 1986, illustrated in the corresponding catalog, page 103, no. 118. Illustrated in the book Carlos Enríquez: The Painter of Cuban Ballads, Professor Juan A. Martínez, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL, 2010, page 183. Exhibited in Carlos Enríquez: The Painter of Cuban Ballads, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL, April – May, 2010. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Women on the Balcony (1944) is an iconic oil on canvas by an artist at the height of his power, riding a wave of international recognition and critical accolades. Carlos Enríquez begins the year 1944 with a solo show, óleos, dibujos, y acuarelas: Carlos Enríquez, at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, where his work had been introduced by Diego Rivera. This same year, he also participates in one of the first major exhibitions of Latin American modern art in the United States, the epochal Modern Cuban Painters show at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. The latter exhibit would be among the most important of the artist’s career. Women on the Balcony (1944) depicts one of Carlos Enríquez’ preferred subjects— the female form— with the painter’s characteristic transparencies, sensuality of line and palette. These exaggerated, voluptuous figures had become a hallmark of the artist’s work, and were considered scandalous by the social mores of the time. The dramatic, somewhat naïve expressionism of Women on the Balcony (1944) as well as the subject of mixed-race women, prefigures the spirited modernism of his late 1940’s work. Nico Hough 42

Carlos Enríquez (1900 – 1957), Haitian Woman, (La Haitiana), ca. 1946, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 19 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches Signed “CEnríquez” in lower right. This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Fundación Arte Cubano, signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz, dated February 25, 2020.

“The Trip to Haiti [1945] marked Carlos Enríquez' life as well as his art. In Port-au-Prince he met his third wife, Germaine Lahems, who came from the Haitian mulatto elite. On November 24, 1945, he married her in a small ceremony at [the artist's home-studio,] El Hurón Azul. Soon after his arrival [to Haiti], Enríquez had a well-received one person show of seventeen oils and thirteen watercolors at the Centre d’Art. Enríquez’ Haitian production is best summarized by Cuban art historian Ramón Vázquez, 'the precious but few Haitian works of Enríquez that have been preserved can be divided into three groups: drawings of ethnographic character… sketches for an allegory of Haitian independence and watercolors of everyday life, nudes and landscapes…' The most significant aspect of his extended Haitian visit was a shift in his artistic language and a return to certain subject matters. His attraction to the primitive qualities of Haitian culture and art resulted in the pursuit of vigorous expressionism… he also returned to the representation of the mulatto woman and Afro-Caribbean religious themes.” Juan A. Martínez, Carlos Enríquez, The Painter of Cuban Ballads, Cernuda Arte, 2010, page 85.

Luis Martínez Pedro (1910 – 1989), Figure, (Figura), 1948, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 23 ½ x 17 ½ inches This painting was exhibited at Sotheby's Latin American Art, New York, May 20, 1992, and it appears illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot 115. Illustrated in Linden Lane Magazine, Vol. #40, Spring 2021, on page 15 of the publication. 44

mariano rodríguez (1912 – 1990), The Farm, (La Finca), 1944, oil on wood, 21 ¾ x 25 ¾ inches This painting was exhibited in Mariano, Pinturas, Lyceum, Havana, 1944. Exhibited in Christie's, New York, Latin American Sale, June 2, 2000, and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot 193. The painting is also illustrated in Mariano, Catálogo Razonado, Pintura y Dibujo, 1936-1949, Volume 1, Segunda Edición, page 178, number 44.88.

The year 1944 would be major for Mariano Rodríguez. The artist exhibits a solo show, Mariano, Pinturas at the prestigious Lyceum in Havana (where this work is displayed), and participates in the group show, Le Peintres Modernes Cubaines in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. This same year, his work is included in the seminal exhibition Modern Cuban Painters at the New York MoMA, a historic moment in 20th century international art. Mariano would travel to New York City for the first time in the fall of 1944, a visit credited with expanding his painterly horizons for the decades to come. This would also be the year Mariano helped establish the Orígenes group, a collective of luminaries whose eponymous publication would substantially influence the trajectory of Latin American art and literature. The front cover of this cultural journal’s inaugural issue was illustrated by Mariano. The Farm (1944), executed in this milestone year, is an excellent representation of a rural scene, one of the young artist’s preferred themes. A decidedly Cuban iconography dominates the painting’s foreground, including the cigar in the worker’s hand and the iconic rooster in the lower right. The farm, a place of hard work, is rendered in a palette reminiscent of Cuba’s spirited carnivals with bold, gestural brushstrokes suggesting the guidance of the Paris School. Mariano’s deliberate use of festive color invites a juxtaposition of labor and play, a point further driven by the composition’s central figure, a reveling worker. The Farm (1944) exemplifies Mariano’s tendency to use laborers, (namely farmers, peasants, and fishermen), in his paintings to explore the relationships and contradictions between humanity, nature, and culture. Nico Hough 45

Mariano Rodríguez (1912 – 1990), Woman with Dove, (Mujer con Paloma), 1941, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 14 1/2 x 12 inches This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity, issued and signed by Dr. Dolores Rodríguez, daughter of the artist.

Mariano Rodríguez (1912 – 1990), Nude Woman on the Balcony, (Mujer Desnuda en el Balcón), 1943, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 14 x 10 1/4 inches This painting is illustrated in the book Mariano Rodríguez, Catálogo Razonado, Pintura y Dibujo, 1935-1949, Anexo al Volumen 1, page 76, number 43.117. This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity, signed by Alejandro Rodríguez Alomá, son of the artist, dated October 11, 2016. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), Flowers, (Flores), 1962, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches This painting was exhibited at Retrospectiva Mariano Rodríguez, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba, May 1975, and numbered 280 in the corresponding museum catalog. Also exhibited at Mariano: Uno y Múltiple, Exposición Antológica (1937-1987), National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, 1988, and at Sala de Exposiciones Caja Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1988, listed as number 58 in the corresponding museum catalog. Exhibited at Sotheby's Latin American Art, New York, June 2001, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, lot 166. Illustrated in Mariano, Al Filo de la Realidad, Revolución y Cultura, Havana, December 1, 1963. This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity signed by Dr. Dolores Rodríguez, daughter of the artist. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 47

Mariano Rodríguez (1912 – 1990), Portrait of a Woman, (Retrato de Mujer), 1964, oil on canvas, 39 ¼ x 31 ½ inches Registered in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes inventory, Havana, Cuba, no. P.91.146. Illustrated in Mariano, Catálogo Razonado, Pintura, dibujo y cerámica, 1950-1966, Volumen II, page 327, numbered 64.01. Exhibited in Mariano, Salle d’Exposition du Quai Antoine 1er, Montecarlo, Monaco, 2004. Requested to be exhibited at Mariano: Variations on a Theme, September 7- December 5, 2021, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, Curator Dr. Elizabeth Thompson Goizueta. The exhibition's second venue will be at the Peréz Art Museum Miami, Miami, Florida, in 2022. Illustrated in the corresponding two-museum exhibition catalog, page 174. This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Dr. Dolores Rodríguez, daughter of the artist.

For Mariano Rodríguez, the early 1960s marked a period of self-examination and experimentation. He had returned from India and Europe, where he had firsthand exposure to art that deeply affected his own sensibilities. During this time, the artist produced his Black Paintings, tenebrous and baroque canvases which owed major debt to the works of the Spanish master, Goya. Mariano’s paintings of this era are some of his most valuable and sophisticated works, but by the end of the 1960s, he had largely returned to form with paintings that evoked the sumptuous and tropical, namely his Fruits and Reality series. Portrait of a Woman (1964) is a perfect synthesis of the decade, and can be seen as an inflection point between these two series. Inky blues evoke the mystery of the Black Paintings, while gestural bursts of color prefigure his Fruits and Reality series. The female subject, a constant theme in Mariano’s work, is rendered with a poetic naiveté of line, evoking a tranquility uncommon for this period. This interplay of opposing styles creates a fascinating document of the artist at a creative height. Nico Hough

Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), Rooster and Sunflower, (Gallo con Girasol ), 1979, acrylic on canvas, 39 x 47 inches This painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity signed by Alejandro Rodríguez, son of the artist, numbered A-510.

Rooster and Sunflower (1979) depicts Mariano’s most important symbol—the rooster. Roosters began appearing in the artist’s work starting in the 1940s, and became a career-spanning trope, present in every creative decade of his ouevre. The rooster, with its assertive and sensuous poise, became both an alter-ego for the artist, as well as a shorthand for his beloved Cuba. Alfred H. Barr, art historian and first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, once remarked that Mariano’s roosters were "brash, brilliant in color, they are among his most confidently painted works." As the prolific Mariano absorbed and channeled new influences, the representations of his rooster icon (and by extension, his self-conception), would change accordingly. The rooster in this artwork, triumphant and bold, reflects a late-career return to color, as well as the influence of the New York School and the North American Pop Art movement on his production in the 1970s. Nico Hough

Cundo Bermúdez (1914 – 2008), Flora, the Harvester of Dreams, (Flora, la Recogedora de Sueños), 2007, bronze sculpture, 9 of 9, (life-size version), 68 ¼ x 19 x 11 ¼ inches Exhibited [different number] in Arte América, Miami, FL, 2007. Exhibited [different number] in Cundo Bermúdez, Pasión y Lucidez, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, July, 2014. Exhibited [different number] in Arte Cubano, Subasta Habana, Havana, Lot 20, November 5, 2014, and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, front cover and on page 33.

Cundo Bermúdez with Juan Campos in the artist’s studio, ca. 2006, giving the final touches to the mold of Flora, the Harvester of Dreams. 50

Cundo Bermúdez (1914 – 2008), Madria Tiri, (Madria Tiri), 2005, oil on canvas, 7 feet by 11 feet and 6 inches This painting was unveiled and exhibited at Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL, April 1, 2005. Exhibited in Under a Brilliant Sun: Cundo Bermúdez into the 21st Century at the Freedom Tower, Miami Dade College, September 4 - November 7, 2009, and appears illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 33. Illustrated in the book Under a Brilliant Sun: Cundo Bermúdez into the 21st Century, Miami Dade College, Miami, FL, 2009, pages 19-20 on a two-page foldout.

Artist Cundo Bermúdez (right) and Ramón & Nercys Cernuda with Madria Tiri, on the evening of its unveiling, Cernuda Arte, 2005. 51

Cundo Bermúdez (1914 – 2008), The Offering, (La Ofrenda), 1979, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 30 x 22 inches

Cundo Bermúdez (1914 – 2008), Two Dancers, (Dos Bailadores), 1954, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 27 ¼ x 22 ¾ inches Provenance: Dr. Miguel M. González Collection, Miami, Florida; by descent to Dr. Michelle González Maldonado, Miami, Florida. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Cundo Bermúdez (1914 – 2008), Red Monk, (Monje Rojo), 1948, gouache on paper, 35 ½ x 25 ¼ inches Provenance: Armando Segri Gallery, New York; Francisco Olartecoechea Collection, New York. Exhibited in A Celebration of Cuban Art, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, February 1973. Exhibited in Selections of Cuban Art from the Olartecoechea Collection at the Bacardi Art Gallery, Miami, Florida, and the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, Florida, April 30 – May 19, 1982, and illustrated on the front cover of the accompanying catalog. Exhibited in Revisitas Cubanas, The Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, Florida, October, 1984. Exhibited in Sotheby's Latin American Art Auction, May 18, 1993, and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot 161. Exhibited in Cuban Art & Identity: 1900-1950, Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, Florida, October 19, 2013 - February 2, 2014, curated by Dr. Juan A. Martínez, and illustrated in the accompanying catalog, page 22. Illustrated in the book Cundo Bermúdez, Cuban-American Endowment for the Arts, Inc., V. Báez (editor), 2000, page 94, no. 88.1.

Cundo Bermúdez (1914 – 2008), Portrait of a Lady, (Retrato de Dama), ca. 1988, mixed media on heavy paper 16 ½ x 14 inches Provenance: Mario Amiguet Collection, Coral Gables, Florida. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Christ on the Cross, (Cristo en La Cruz), 1943, ink on heavy paper laid down on board, 14 x 9 ¾ inches Illustrated in the book PORTOCARRERO, Ramón Vázquez Díaz, Fundación Arte Cubano, Artes Gráficas Palermo, Madrid, 2015, page 94.

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Woman in Interior, (Mujer en Interior), 1942, ink on heavy paper laid down on board, 14 x 9 ½ inches Provenance: Madame Odette Lavergne, Cannes, France. Exhibited in Ecole D'Amérique Du Sud, Collection de Madame Odette Lavergne, Hotel Martínez, Cannes, France, November 2009, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 58. A copy of the catalog accompanies the artwork.

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Viñales Valley, Landscape, (Valle de Viñales, Paisaje), 1944, oil on canvas, 31 x 23 ½ inches Provenance: Félix Pita Rodríguez Collection, Havana, Cuba. Exhibited (Paisaje) in René Portocarrero, Exposición Retrospectiva, Museo Nacional, Havana, Cuba, July, 1967, and listed in the corresponding museum catalog, number 45. Illustrated in the book PORTOCARRERO, Ramón Vázquez Díaz, Fundación Arte Cubano, Artes Gráficas Palermo, Madrid 2015, page 126. 55

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Figure in Green Background, (Figura en Fondo Verde), 1960, oil on canvas, 24 x 19 ½ inches Provenance: Mario Amiguet Collection, Coral Gables, FL. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), The Party, (La Fiesta), 1946, pastel on heavy paper, 19 ½ x 12 ¾ inches Provenance: Eduardo Abela Villareal Collection, by descent, Hosanna Abela. Illustrated in the book PORTOCARRERO, Ramón Vázquez Díaz, Fundación Arte Cubano, Artes Gráficas Palermo, Madrid 2015, page 184. Exhibited in Masters of Cuban Paintings, Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, FL, March 1989. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Three Figures, (Tres Figuras), 1952, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 11 x 13 ½ inches Provenance: Private Collection, Boston, Massachussetts

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Screen, (Parabán), 1957, mixed media on wooden panel, 79 x 114 inches 16 hand-painted panels, each signed and dated “Portocarrero 57” Provenance: Dr. Miguel González, Miami FL; and by descent Dr. Michelle González Maldonado, Miami, FL. Sold to prior to publication of this catalog. 57

René Portocarrero (1912–1985), Portrait of Flora, (Retrato de Flora), 1962, oil on canvas laid down on board, 19 ¾ x 16 inches Provenance: Alex Grigato Collection, Mantua, Italy. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

The sublime, imaginary architecture of René Portocarrero’s Cathedral series has become nearly synonymous with the artist himself. Cathedrals first began appearing in Portocarrero’s works in the 1940s, then vanished from his repertoire during a prolific period of semi-abstraction. After his important solo show in Havana’s prestigious Lyceum in 1956, the cathedral returns as a major force in the artist’s ouevre. The expressionistic qualities of these works transcend figurative representation; each iteration of the cathedral series communicates its own character and sentiment, distinguished by color, technique, tone, dimension, and medium. It was precisely one of these cathedrals – the artist executed over a hundred during his long and fruitful career – that was chosen by art critics for the First Prize in the eighth National Salon of Paintings and Sculpture at the Palacio de Bellas Artes of Havana in 1957. Monsignor Angel Gatzelu, a close friend of Portocarrero and fellow member of the Orígenes intelligentsia movement, said then, “in his Cathedrals, Portocarrero offers us an energetic and René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Cathedral, (Catedral ), 1961, capricious imaginary architecture where oil on canvas, 26 3/4 x 20 inches Exhibited at Sotheby's Latin American Art Auction, New York, June 3-4, 1999, plastic forms impregnate and penetrate lot 173, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog. the architectonic and produce an end result that is both vital and harmonic.” (1) Cathedral (1961) shows the artist at his most painterly, nodding to Van Gogh and the impressionists with its vigorous application of impasto and its complex palette. Dream-like in its architectonics, Cathedral (1961) offers the viewer a glimpse into Portocarrero’s personal Havana—tropical and extravagant, classical and bittersweet. These chimeric works, expertly manifested by one of 20th Century Modernism’s masters of the baroque, also carried a powerful political valence. Beginning in 1959, Cuba’s revolutionary government had been expeling clergymen, disallowing believers from serving in government, and nationalizing religious institutions. Portocarrero, himself a practicing Catholic, painted cathedrals as a protest against the state and a reification of his belief in religious freedom as a human right. In September of 1961, five short months after the globally resonant tensions of the Bay of Pigs invasion, government officials began accusing the church of attempting to topple the new Cuban leadership, further escalating divisions. This exquisite painting was executed against this historic backdrop of tumult. Nico Hough

(1) Todo Sobre Portocarrero, Ramón Vázquez, Axel Li, José Veigas, Fundación Arte Cubano, 2014, Sevilla, Spain, page 142 59

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), View of the City of Havana, (Vista de la Ciudad de La Habana), ca. 1965, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on masonite, 23 ¾ x 28 ¾ inches Provenance: Wallace Campbell Collection, Jamaica, who acquired the painting directly from the artist.

Havana was René Portocarrero’s natural habitat. If once - during his childhood years - El Cerro neighborhood defined his universe, the painter’s coming of age marked his unfolding towards the confines of the capital city. We can say that if any Cuban seized Havana and, at the same time, the city claimed the painter its own, that was René Portocarrero. “Here are the hundred and more cities - let us be wary of the figures in the catalog - seized and captured by the Prodigious Magician, Don René Portocarrero. Are all of these perhaps just one? ”, would note Eliseo Diego, friend of the painter and Originista as well, in comments written precisely for the exposition, Landscapes of Havana by René Portocarrero, University of Havana, October 1978, L Gallery. Roberto Fernández Retamar, earlier, in his words for the exhibition, Portocarrero: The Color of Cuba, May 1963, Havana Gallery, had observed, “One city is not made with a compass upon paper: it is made by combining necessity with contingency, caprice with duty: the balcony from where you can view the sea, with the plaza of kisses; the contorted street with four hundred years of rain over a number of stones. This is how Havana has been crafted. And Portocarrero has painted it, bringing along with him its interiors, its stained glass windows, its gates, its cupolas, its skies. Havana has been sung by a poet with the certainty only a poet can express.” Ramón Cernuda

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Havana, (La Habana), 1963, mixed media on canvas, 33 x 44 ¾ inches Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Ramón Vázquez Díaz.

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Ornamented Figure, (Figura Ornamentada), ca. 1968, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 21 x 16 1/2 inches Provenance: Mario Amiguet Collection, Coral Gables, FL. 62

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Ornamented Woman, (Mujer Ornamentada), 1968, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 23 x 14 ¾ inches Provenance: Madame Odette Lavergne Collection, Havana - Paris, who acquired it directly from the artist; Wallace Campbell Collection, Kingston, Jamaica. This painting was exhibited at René Portocarrero in Mexican Collections, Galería Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico, June, 1985. Also exhibited at Christie's Latin American Paintings, New York, November 26, 1985, and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot 83, page 97. Illustrated in the book PORTOCARRERO, Ramón Vázquez Díaz, Fundación Arte Cubano, Artes Gráficas Palermo, Madrid 2015, page 423. Sold prior to publication of this catalog. 63

Felipe Orlando (1911-2001), An Affair between an Accountant and a Poet, (Contubernio entre un Contador Público y una Poetisa), ca. 1963, oil on canvas, 44 x 55 ¾ inches

Felipe Orlando (1911-2001), one of the distinguished members of the second generation of the Cuban avant garde, had a long and fruitful artistic life that spanned over fifty years of creative activity. In half a century, the artist presented over sixty one-person shows and participated in many more group exhibitions. His renderings were displayed in major museums and prestigious venues throughout the Americas and Europe, such as The San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA (1942, 1944, 1945); The National Art Gallery, Washington, D.C. (1945), The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York, NY (1944); The Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (1945) The Pan American Union Museum, Washington D.C. (1946, 1950); The Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon (1945); The Centre d’Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (1945); The Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (1946); the University of Havana, Cuba, and the National Capitol of Cuba, Havana (1940, 1941, 1955); the Knoedler Galleries, New York, NY (1947); The Musée National d’Art Modern, Paris, France (1951); The Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. (1953); The Boston Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston, MA (1953); The National Gallery of Ottawa, Canada (1954); The Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy (1953); Galería Casa de Arte & Galería El Muro, San Juan, Puerto Rico (1969, 1970, 1971); Roland de Aemille Gallery, New York, NY (1957, 1960); De Armas Gallery, Miami, FL (1978); University of California, Los Angeles, CA (1980); among others. 64

Felipe Orlando (1911 – 2001), String Trio, (Trío de Cuerdas), 1963, oil on canvas, 25 ¾ x 57 inches

Felipe Orlando was also a venerated anthropologist and professor, a prolific man of letters who authored three novels, (one of which won the National Prize for Literature "Netzahualcóyolt", in 1973), and a respected public speaker. His artwork has been the subject of several international film and television documentaries. Felipe Orlando’s paintings, most frequently described as “magical” and “mysterious,” underwent many changes over the course of his five decades of creative production. In earlier years, the artist’s output was rooted in a vibrant surrealism which married the fantastical and the quotidian, absorbing the avant garde influence of his personal friends, Georges Braque and Joan Miró. With time, Orlando abandoned most figurative tendencies, dedicating his latter career to a complex, cosmic abstraction. While the artist is perhaps best known for his striking use of color, his other unchanging preoccupation was balance. Throughout every stage of his career, Orlando’s sophisticated compositions achieve the formal equilibrium of a master. Ramón Cernuda & Nico Hough

Felipe Orlando (1911 - 2001), Nostalgia at Sunset, (Nostalgia al Atardecer), ca. 1965, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches

Mario Carreño (1913–1999), The Guateque Party, (El Guateque), ca. 1935, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 20 1/2 x 14 inches This painting was exhibited in Sotheby’s Latin American Art, New York, June 1999, and is illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot 110, page 111. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Mario Carreño (1913–1999), Musicians, (Músicos), 1949, gouache and ink on scratch board, 17 x 21 1/4 inches This painting was exhibited in Sotheby’s Latin American Art, New York, November 2001, and is illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot 83. 66

Mario Carreño (1913–1999), Fruits of the Sea, (Frutos del Mar), 1942, oil on canvas, 30 1/4 X 39 3/4 inches This painting was exhibited in Latin American Still Life, Boca Ratón Museum of Art, Boca Ratón, Fl, September 2005, and is illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 17. This publication accompanies the painting.

Roberto Diago , (1920 – 1955), Woman on the Balcony, (Mujer en el Balcón), ca. 1940, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches Signed by the artist, bottom-right This painting is accompanied by a Photo Certificate of Authenticity, dated 14th of July, 2017, signed by Juan Roberto Diago, grandson of the artist.

Roberto Diago (1920 – 1955), front and back view: Seated Woman, (Mujer Sentada), 1944, mixed media on heavy paper, 14 3/4 x 11 inches a self portrait of the artist is represented on the reverse, dated 27th of October, 1944, Double sided artwork, signed by Josefina Urfé, widow of Roberto Diago, on behalf of the artist. 68

Roberto Diago (1920 – 1955), Head of Elegua, (Cabeza de Eleguá), 1949, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 25 x 18 3/4 inches Provenance: Ignacio Villa, known as "Bola de Nieve", Havana, Cuba, who aquired it directly from the artist. Exhibited at the inaugural Subasta Havana, Cuba, December, 2002, and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, number 12. We are grateful to Juan Roberto Diago, grandson of the artist for having confirmed the authorship and provenance of this artwork. 69

José Mijares (1921 – 2004), Woman with Fan, (Mujer con Abanico), ca. 1952, mixed media on wood, 30 x 24 inches Provenance: Tanyu-Levent Collection, Instanbul, Turkey. Private Collection, Key Biscayne, Fl. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

José Mijares (1921 – 2004), Quiet Time, (Momento Tranquilo), ca. 1950, oil on canvas, 22 x 16 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Miami, Fl, Ac

José Mijares (1921 – 2004), Portrait of a Young Lady, (Retrato de Joven), ca. 1950, oil on board, 20 x 16 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Quebec, Canada.

Agustín Cárdenas (1927 – 2001), Fire Flower, (Flor de Fuego), 1962, bronze sculpture, 2 of 3, 16 3/4 x 4 x 4 inches This artwork was exhibited at Christie's Latin American Art, New York on November 20, 2007 and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot number 259. This sculpture is illustrated in the book La Sculpture de Cárdenas, Jose Pierre, 1971, Bruxelles, Belgium, page 116, number 91.

Agustín Cárdenas (1927 – 2001), Horse, (Caballo), 1989, bronze sculpture, HC 1 of 2 (Artist's Proof), inscribed "HC 1 of 2, Fondería Tesconi Pietrasanta”, 13 x 19 1/4 x 20 inches This artwork, (different number), has been presented in the following exhibitions: Agustín Cárdenas, Marbles, Woods and Bronzes, Galeria Durbán Segnini, Caracas, Venezuela, September 1990, and is illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog. Also exhibited at The Legendary World of Cárdenas, at J.G.M. Galerie, Paris, France, 2012, and is illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, number 51. Also exhibited at Agustín Cárdenas, The Forms of Silence, Center of Art Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba, April – May 2014. Also exhibited at Palenque, Agustín Cárdenas, Jesús González, Lorenzo Padilla, Espace Oscar Niemeyer, Paris, France, September 2014. Also exhibited at Agustín Cárdenas, Aktis Gallery, London, July 2015, and is illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, number 8. This artwork is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity, signed by André Cárdenas, son of the artist.

Agustín Cárdenas (1927 – 2001), Antillean Plant, (Planta Antillana), 1960, bronze sculpture, HC 1 of 3, “Fonderia Tesconi Pietrasanta”, 85 1/2 x 7 x 3 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Paris, France. This artwork (the wooden version that was the mold for the bronze cast) was exhibited at Cárdenas, Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France, 1961, and also exhibited at Galerie R. Feigen, Chicago, Illinois. It appears illustrated in the corresponding two gallery exhibition catalogs. Also illustrated in The Sculptures of Cárdenas, La Connaissance, Bruxelles, 1971, a book by José Pierre, page 117, no. 100. Exhibited (another number) at Agustín Cárdenas, The Forms of Silence, Center of Art Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba, April – May 2014. This artwork is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity, signed by André Cárdenas, son of the artist. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 73

Rafael Soriano (1920 – 2015), Ray of Light, (Rayo de Luz), 1972, oil on canvas, 22 x 28 inches This painting is also signed and titled by the artist, on the reverse. The painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Rafael Soriano Foundation, signed by Hortensia Soriano, daughter of the artist, dated September 29, 2020.

Rafael Soriano (1920 – 2015), Dawn, (Alborada), ca. 1972, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches This painting is also signed and titled by the artist, on the reverse. The painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Rafael Soriano Foundation, signed by Hortensia Soriano, daughter of the artist, dated September 29, 2020. 75

Uver Solís (1923 - 1974) Uver Solís was born in Mantanzas, Cuba, in the fall of 1923. She studied drawing at the School of Education in Havana under the tutelage of the renowned painter Domingo Ravenet. Her work, equal parts modern art and social testimony, reflected Cuban and Afro-Caribbean life in her times through an inimitable modern and naïve style executed in oil, tempera, watercolor and gouaches. In the years since her passing, works by Uver Solís have become exceedingly rare and sought after by collectors. Color takes center stage in the art of Uver Solís, whose production can be broadly understood as expressionist. Solís was an artist who operated without a set of rules, taking liberties with perspective and anatomy in the creation of her decidedly modern aesthetic. While her best known subjects include carnival scenes and fanciful depictions of everyday life, the artist also used her renderings to express the pain of racial division. In 1950, renowned journalist and critic Guy Pérez-Cisneros said of her work: "It will thus leave one of the most accurate social testimonies about the stage that Cuba is experiencing."

Uver Solís (1923 - 1974), Lady Among the Flowers, (Joven entre Flores), 1969, mixed media on heavy paper, 13 ½ x 9 ½ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

In 1945, Uver Solís had her first solo show at the Lyceum in Havana. In 1946, the artist participated in the Modern Cuban Painting exhibition at the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico City. Among the collectors who acquired works by Uver Solís from this show was the renowned Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, who remarked at the time: “If there is a Thelma Streat in the United States, in Cuba there is an Uver Solís, a synthesis of Spain, Africa and Asia.” Works by Solís were included in Havana’s National Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving Salons in Havana during the years 1951, 1953, and 1956, and in the Havana Fine Arts Salons in 1956 and 1951. Uver Solís (1923 - 1974), The Photograph, (La Fotografía), 1962, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 12 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Solís passed away in Cuba in 1974. In 1990, her career was honored with the solo show, Exposición de la Pintora Jovellanense Uver Solís, at the Galería de Arte in Matanzas, Cuba. After the success of this show, the gallery was officially renamed the Uver Solís Gallery. In March of 1992, her career was the subject of a solo retrospective titled, Uver Solís, Oleos, Temperas y Acuarelas at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. In 2016, works by Uver Solís were included in the major two-museum show, Cuban Art in the 20th Century: Cultural Identity and the International Avant Garde, at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL, February 12 - March 27, 2016, and later at the Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL, from January 22, 2017 to April 23, 2017. Nico Hough

Uver Solís (1923 - 1974), The Balcony, (El Balcón), 1971, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 17 ¾ x 14 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Uver Solís (1923 - 1974), Life is a Dream, (La Vida es un Sueño), 1971, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 16 x 12 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Oscar García Rivera (1914 – 1971), High Society Carnival Party, (Fiesta de Carnaval de Alta Sociedad ), ca. 1944, oil on canvas, 24 x 48 inches

Oscar García Rivera (1914 – 1971) was born in Pinar del Río, Cuba 1914. He studied art at the San Alejandro Academy in Havana and graduated from this institution in 1939. In the 1940s, he exhibited at the annual Salons of Beaux Arts in Havana. In 1941 at the XXIII Salon and in 1943 at the XXV Salon he was awarded an Honorary Mention. In 1946, he presented a one person exhibition of his works at the Lyceum in Havana, The United States National Museum, Smithsonian, in Washington D.C. organized a major show of his works in October of 1947, part of which traveled to the Washington Arts Gallery, Miami Beach, 1948. García Rivera chose a pictorial idiom related to the French and Spanish Impressionists, where light, color and loose brushstrokes are utilized to capture the fleeting moment of autochthonous Cuban subject matters. In this thematic choice – genre art – the artist clearly preferred renditions which illustrated everyday life and manners following the path chosen by his predecessor, Víctor Patricio Landaluze in the 19th century, and continued afterwards by Uver Solís in the 1940s to the 70s, and later by the Cuban American Scull sisters in Miami during the 1980s and 90s. Ramón Cernuda

Oscar García Rivera (1914 – 1971), Abyss , (Abismo), ca. 1960, oil on canvas, 20 1/2 x 31 inches

Hermanas Scull, (Haydée Scull, 1931-2007; Sahara Scull, 1931-2008) ,The Havana Cathedral Plaza, (Plaza de la Catedral de La Habana), 1979, mixed media three dimensional collage on canvas/board, 53 ¼ x 88 ½ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

The Hermanas Scull, (also known as the Scull Sisters or Scull Twins), were true folk heroes of the art world. The audacious twin sisters, Haydée and Sahara Scull, collaborated to produce fanciful mixed-media artworks which depicted popular urban scenes of South Florida and pre-Castro Cuba. After emigrating to Miami Beach and establishing a studio in the city’s art deco district, the socialite sisters themselves became part of the local culture, known for dressing in flamboyant, handmade matching outfits, a performance art complement to their assemblage works. The twins were only distinguished by the part of their hair-- Haydée’s styled to the right, and Sahara’s to the left. The Hermanas Scull were born in Havana in December of 1931 to a family of Cuban, Chinese, and Mexican ancestry. Though they came from humble means, the sisters were exposed to art through their grandfather, a well-known painter of church interiors. Eventually, the two would go on to study sculpture and painting at the esteemed San Alejandro Academy, the most important institute of arts education on the island. From the late 1950s until the end of the 1960s, the Hermanas Scull were established artists in Cuba who mostly found patrons at the international embassies in Havana. Haydée left her home country for Miami in 1969, followed by Sahara in 1973. Reunited after their longest ever separation, the two immediately resumed producing work together, inspired by their new home and memories of the one they’d left. The Hermanas Scull dedicated themselves to a collaborative art style, broadly classifiable as three-dimensional painting. In so doing, the Hermanas Scull became the first known collective in Cuban art history. Despite their classical arts training, Haydée and Sahara Scull chose to follow in a tradition of other naïve artists such as Henri Rousseau, Grandma Moses, and Red Grooms. Historically, the Hermanas Scull can be seen in league with other South Florida outsider-art visionaries like Purvis Young and fellow 3-D painter, Mario Sanchez, whose idiosyncratic productions have also earned them cult status among collectors, critics, and institutions. (continued on next page) 79

Hermanas Scull, (Haydée Scull, 1931-2007; Sahara Scull. 1931-2008), Calle Ocho Open House, (Fiesta en Calle Ocho), 1991, mixed media three dimensional collage on canvas, 38 ¼ x 72 inches

Thematically, the twins concentrated almost exclusively on depictions of pre-revolutionary Havana, Miami Beach, and Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, a highly stylized take on what is known as “genre art.” These works were enhanced by the antics of the mischievous Scull twins, who didn’t seem to know where the canvas stopped and transformed every public moment into a choreographed performance and living extension of their work. Hermanas Scull's joyous sculptural scenes, enhanced by elements of theatre, became synonymous with their adopted city. In 1991, the City of Miami commissioned a painting by Hermanas Scull to be given as a gift to Elizabeth, the Queen of England, during Her Majesty’s South Florida visit. Works by Hermanas Scull have also been collected by notable figures such as President Ronald Reagan and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, as well as popular entertainers like Jerry Lewis, Gloria Estefan, and Antonio Banderas. At a height of their renown, the Hermanas Scull were photographed by Annie Liebovitz for her best-selling 1999 book, Women. Artworks by Hermanas Scull have been shown at the Havana Hilton Hotel and Museo de Bellas Artes in Cuba, the Bacardi Art Gallery, Vizcaya Palace and Museum in Miami, Florida, and the Mennello Museum of American Art in Orlando, Florida, among many other artistic and cultural centers. Works by Hermanas Scull can be found in private collections worldwide. Haydée Scull passed away in 2007. Sahara, though deeply saddened, fulfilled her promise to continue producing art, collaborating with her children and grandchildren for a few months before passing away herself. The Hermanas Scull’s intricate recreations of urban life in pre-revolutionary Cuba and late 20th Century Miami are now seen as important historical documents of their respective geographies. 80

Nico Hough

Hermanas Scull, (Haydée Scull, 1931-2007; Sahara Scull. 1931-2008), Plaza of the Angel, (Plaza del Angel), ca 1985, mixed media three dimensional collage on canvas/board, 40 x 60 inches

The Plaza of the Angel in Old Havana houses the earliest church in the capital city, The Church of Espíritu Santo, dating prior to the year 1620. In its early days and for centuries, masses for the free negro believers were held in this temple that was especially dedicated to the spiritual needs of the AfroCubans who lived in and frequented the area. The plaza was also the place where the black population gathered to play their music, dance, and enjoy themselves with the approval of the Bishop and a license extended by the Governor General in 17th century colonial Cuba. In 1772, a Papal bull and a subsequent Royal Certificate issued by King Charles II of Spain, (1773), established the Espíritu Santo as the only "Immune Church" in Cuba. This meant that any persecuted individual could find sanctuary (amparo) in its premises, against the actions of the authorities and of justice. The Church of Espíritu Santo went through a major restoration during the first half of the 20th century thanks to the initiative of Father Angel Gaztelu, "the priest of the Orígenes group," a distinguished poet and a close friend of artists Fidelio Ponce, Portocarrero, and others. Some of the paintings that once belonged to Father Gaztelu's collection are now part of the church's ornamentation.

Ramón Cernuda

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), Habits, (Hábitos), 1975, mixed media on canvas, 39 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches

Gina Pellón graduated from Havana’s San Alejandro Academy in 1954, having exhibited the year prior in the Cuban Salon of the Beau Arts. In order to support herself in the early days of her career, she also worked in Havana and later in Paris as a teacher and caregiver of small children. This contact with infants surely permeated her poetic spirit and insufflated a naiveté in her forms, triggering a preference for loud and vivid pigmentation. The surreal gestures in her compositions are somewhat similar to the art of the very young. Pellón went to Paris in 1959. She decidedly and openly embraced her exile condition in France, where she lived the rest of her life. In Europe, the artist expanded her cultural horizons and delved into important art movements of the times. She mingled with prominent personalities of the Surrealist art world such as, André Breton, Roberto Matta and Wifredo Lam. Their intelligent foresight moved and inspired her. Her outstanding qualities as an artist were also praised by renowned art celebrities such as, José Pierre, Michele Anthonioz, Édouard Jaguer, Édouard Glissant, Alain Bosquet and José Gómez Sicre, to name a few. 82

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), Manipulations Without Borders, (Manipulaciones sin Fronteras), 1986, mixed media on canvas, 74 1/4 x 55 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

It was precisely in Paris where Pellón was later drawn to expressionism. She met and connected with the avantgarde art group CoBrA (named by their founders who were from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam). Pellón eventually developed a close relationship with the leading figures of this international movement: Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, Sander Van Deurzen, and Guillaume Corneille. These artists not only embraced total freedom of color and form, but also, the juxtaposition of abstraction and figuration. Pellón exhibited her work in collective shows along with her colleagues of the CoBrA movement. Her artistic trajectory in Europe was prolific and successful, with her work being showcased in Paris, Lausanne, Brussels, Amsterdam, Toulouse, Silkeborg, (Denmark), Larvik (Norway), Geneva, Barcelona, London, Budapest, Amsterdam, Venice, Miami, New York, Mexico City and Caracas, among others. Altogether, the artist’s oeuvre was featured in more than fifty solo shows and more than one hundred group exhibitions. During the last ten years of the artist’s life, she was represented by Cernuda Arte, who now represents the Gina Pellón Estate. (continued on page 84) 83

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), Silence, (El Silencio), 1981, mixed media on canvas, 63 x 44 inches

The artist received many distinctions and honors for her work, including the prestigious award of Chevalier in the French Order of Arts and Letters. A master of color, Gina Pellón’s style and palette are marked by luminous color and gestural rhythm. Her chosen central theme was the female figure. Prismatic figures of women, faces, groups and gatherings of people stream in her vibrant compositions conveying spontaneity at its best. As a dominant element in her exuberant renditions, one senses a marvelous kind of freshness –particularly, in the way the artist multi-layered the colors and let loose the free-flowing lines that created her iconography. Pellon’s untiring and enthusiastic demeanor was a constant trait that branded her persona and lifetime production. She once stated, “I paint every day… from sunrise to sundown. In this process, I have the need to create, to portray emotions, and once I am about to complete a work, I get the urge to attack another.” Nercys Cernuda 84

"Gina Pellón appears to give free reign to her fascination with faces and their most characteristic features. Although the figure and its face are fragmented and reconstructed in terms of color, the features register an all important obsession with the distinctly female presence. Embracing abstraction to explore the figure and release its pent-up energies within the confines of its own imaginary environment, she is able to create a mood and ambiance that lure the viewer into the painting's very midst. Eyes blink flirtatiously behind their fringed lashes and pursed lips humorously invite comment and conversation. Each figure emerges from its claustrophobic background of slashing color and line as a unique personality and participant in some painterly scheme. The automatic and fluid approach to painting was certainly initiated by her association with the descendents of the Parisian surrealists she encountered upon her arrival in Paris in 1959. However, her uninhibited and energetic attachment to the figurative, radiant colors and spontaneous and free brushwork are features cultivated by the artists of CoBrA. In their tumultuous embrace of both abstraction and figuration, the CoBrA movement had made an impact on Paris in the late 40s and 50s. Advocating the artist's freedom to express himself or herself instinctively, CoBrA sought total liberty in a dynamic and energetic art form that could be either humorous and naïve, or violent and horrible. As the CoBrA artists assaulted the canvas, paint became the material for the mind's preoccupation with elements derived from the drawings of children, prehistoric and folk art, graffiti, etc. The inspiration for their exuberant and imaginative work lives in Gina Pellón's paintings and it is not surprising that she was embraced by the group, their friends and collectors." Carol Damian, PhD "Gina Pellón: Friend of CoBrA", Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art exhibition brochure, September 6 - November 17, 1996 Text reproduced with permission of author.

"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 counts, what constitutes the attraction of Pellón's painting, is the rare combination it evinces of imagination and technical skill." José Gómez-Sicre, "Gina Pellón," Art of Cuba in Exile Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), The Show is About to Begin, (El Espectáculo Va a Comenzar), 1985, mixed media on canvas, 63 ¾ x 44 ½ inches 85

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), Tea Time, (La Hora del Té), 1986, mixed media on canvas, 50 ¾ x 37 ¾ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), My Dye, (Mi Tinte), 2000, mixed media on canvas, 31 ¾ x 25 ½ inches Provenance: Mario Amiguet Collection, Coral Gables, FL.

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), The Last One, (La Ultima), 2000, mixed media on canvas, 31 ¾ x 25 ½ inches Provenance: Mario Amiguet Collection, Coral Gables, FL.

Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), The Rumba Dancers, (Las Rumberas Pasan), 2012, mixed media on canvas, 51 x 38 ¼ inches Provenance: The Estate of Gina Pellón, Miami, FL; Private Collection, Coral Gables, FL.

Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014), Ready for the Dance, (Lista Para el Baile), 2013, mixed media on canvas, 39 x 31 ¼ inches Provenance: Private Collection, São Paolo, Brazil

Revered as a prolific painter, draftsman, sculptor and engraver, Roberto Fabelo (b. 1950) is internationally recognized as one of Latin America’s most important and successful contemporary artists. Over the past four decades of production, Roberto Fabelo’s artwork has been featured in more than 40 solo exhibitions and more than 400 group shows in museums and institutions worldwide. The artist is represented by Cernuda Arte. The bronze and stainless steel sculpture, Romantic Rhinoceros (2017) is a historic entry in Fabelo’s oeuvre, a masterpiece executed by an artist in full command of his craft. At its heart, it is an ode to divine beauty, nuanced by the complex and psychological vision of a world-class craftsman. Nine editions of this sculpture have been cast, and six are in private collections at the time of this publication. In November of 2020, one of these nine sculptures soundly broke the artist’s international auction records at Christie’s New York. Romantic Rhinoceros (2017), like many of Fabelo’s strongest works, channels the surreal and the sublime while maintaining a dialogue with his artistic forebearers - in this case, the early Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. Romantic Rhinoceros (2017) is an exquisite reimagining of The Birth of Venus, one of the most important paintings in art history. As in Botticelli’s Venus, the female figure in Romantic Rhinoceros (2017) stands nude on a scallop shell in a classic contrapposto position, balanced as though weightless. In both cases, the works celebrate the sensuous and gothic potentialities of the human form, sacrificing strict realism for a more profound elegance.

Roberto Fabelo (b. 1950), front view: Romantic Rhinoceros, (Rinocerontes Románticos), 2017, bronze and stainless steel sculpture, signed, 9 of 9, 78 x 24 x 24 inches Exhibited in ROBERTO FABELO (b. 1950): The Theater of Life - Twenty Artworks from the 1990's to Today, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, April - July 2021.

Within Fabelo’s artistic bestiary, the rhinoceros, a totem of substance and stamina, becomes a proxy for masculinity. The feminine, on the other hand, is most often symbolized by the expansive and mysterious domains of oceans and skies, a menagerie of aquatic and sky-bound motifs ranging from seashells and mermaid tails to feathers and beaks. As with many of his works, Romantic Rhinoceros (2017) portrays the masculine rhino, for all of its primitive power, as diminutive against the grace of the feminine. Roberto Fabelo’s work has been exhibited in numerous museums, institutions, and international art fairs, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C.; Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome, Italy; Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA; Contemporary Art Museum, Panama City; Close Up Cuba, Kunsthalle HGN, Duderstadt, Germany; Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Shanghai International Art Fair, China; Le Manoir Cutural Center, Geneva; ARCO Art Fair, Madrid; National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana; Modern Art Museum of New Delhi, India; Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City and KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark. The artist currently resides and works in Havana, Cuba.

Roberto Fabelo (b. 1950), reverse view: Romantic Rhinoceros, (Rinocerontes Románticos), 2017, bronze and stainless steel sculpture, signed, 9 of 9, 78 x 24 x 24 inches

Roberto Fabelo (b. 1950), Head with Angel (Cabeza con Angel ), 1999 oil on canvas 27 x 23 ¾ inches Exhibited in ROBERTO FABELO (b. 1950): The Theater of Life - Twenty Artworks from the 1990's to Today, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, April - July 2021.

Roberto Fabelo (b. 1950) Temptation Exists (La Tentación Existe), 2004, oil on canvas, 62 ½ x 46 inches

Roberto Fabelo (b. 1950), Navigators’ Dream, (Sueño de Navegantes), 2015, bronze sculpture, 4 of 7, 14 x 23 x 21 ½ inches Exhibited (different number) in Entre Lienzos y Esculturas, José Martí Memorial, Havana, Cuba, January 2018, and illustrated on pages 150 and 151 of the accompanying exhibition catalog. Also exhibited in ROBERTO FABELO (b. 1950): The Theater of Life - Twenty Artworks from the 1990's to Today, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, April - July 2021.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), The Dream of the Blue Bird, (El Ensueño del Ave Azul ), 2002, mixed media on canvas, 59 ⅛ x 47 ¼ inches This artwork is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the artist. 92

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Agogo Bell, (Campana Agogo), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 26 x 37 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Caracas, Venezuela. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), The Tree of Life, (El Árbol de la Vida), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 29 ¾ x 39 ¾ inches Provenance: Private Collection, Caracas, Venezuela. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 93

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Sharing [from the series "The Offerings"], (Compartiendo [de la serie “Las Ofrendas”]), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 33 x 32 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Caracas, Venezuela. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), The Mother and Her Child, (La Madre con su Hijo), 2002, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 39 ½ inches Provenance: Private Collection, Caracas, Venezuela. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

The Blue Butterfly’s presence in any gathering is an omen of good fortune, a sign that important visitors are present or will shortly arrive. The butterfly’s protector, a lady in blue, points the way. At the center of this composition appears a representation of the sacred Ceiba Tree, related to the African Baobab tree. The believers know that the deities converge at the Ceiba and rest in its strong branches. The tree’s trunk merges with the God Oggún, whose assignments today are to civilize, motivate and orient humans towards the right path. The story continues with a symbiotic figure to the left, crowned with birds, the animals that convey messages from the Gods to the humans. This three legged character’s attentive and reserved pose attests to the surrounding sacrality. The intensely sunlit atmosphere enhances the solemnity of the moment, while the cowry shells that adorn the various figures confirm that all is good, and that evil is kept in check. The year when The Blue Butterfly was executed, 2002, was special for the artist. After forty years of productivity, Manuel Mendive was finally granted the highest recognition to an artist in Cuba, The National Award of Visual Arts. That same year, Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), The Blue Butterfly, (La Mariposa Azul ), 2002, the National Museum of Cuba acrylic on canvas, 68 x 48 inches presented a one-person exhibition Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity issued by the artist. by Mendive titled “The Waters, Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. The Daily and the Thought”. Mendive dedicated this show to the memory of Wifredo Lam, on the one hundredth anniversary of Lam’s birth, 2002. The Blue Butterfly is a definitive artwork in the Mendivian imagery. It is a central contribution in the artist’s lifetime commitment to the creation of a visual iconography for the spiritual fundamentals of the Yoruba Peoples and their religious descendants, the Santeria believers in the Americas. In Yoruba religion the Patakis, brief oral narratives from which moral, philosophical and theological teachings are extracted, were virtually the only transmittals available for generations of African diaspora slaves to inform the young and uninitiated. This painting is executed in that same spirit. Ramón Cernuda 95

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), I Offer You, (Te Ofrezco), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 23 ½ x 31 ½ inches Provenance: Private Collection, Caracas, Venezuela. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Conversation with Fish, (Conversación con Pez), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 40 x 40 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), The Palm, (La Palma), 2006, mixed media on canvas, 66 ½ x 70 inches Provenance: Sainz-García Collection, Bilbao, Spain.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Bird, (Pájaro), 1996, bronze sculpture, 7 of 7, 23 x 26 x 8 ¾ inches This sculpture [different number] was exhibited in Mendive, Shangó y la Vida, at the Centre de Cultura Sa Nostra, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Summer 2001. Also exhibited at the Sala de Exposiciones a Recova, Gobierno de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spring 2002. Also exhibited at the Centro de Arte Juan Ismael, Puerto del Rosario, Canary Islands, Spring 2002. Also exhibited at the National Museum, Havana, Cuba, Spring 2003, and it appears illustrated in the corresponding four museums exhibition catalog, page 84.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Child, (Niño), 1998, bronze sculpture, 1 of 7, 13 x 4 ½ x 6 inches This sculpture [different number] was exhibited in Mendive, Shangó y la Vida, at the Centre de Cultura Sa Nostra, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Summer 2001. Also exhibited at the Sala de Exposiciones a Recova, Gobierno de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spring 2002. Also exhibited at the Centro de Arte Juan Ismael, Puerto del Rosario, Canary Islands, Spring 2002. Also exhibited at the National Museum, Havana, Cuba, Spring 2003, and it appears illustrated in the corresponding four museums exhibition catalog, page 84. Exhibited [different number] in “… social, intelectuar, y chic” at the Museo Del Ron, Havana, Cuba, March, 2000. Illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 42. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), I Can Dream, (Puedo Soñar), 2009, mixed media on canvas in sculpted iron frame, 94 x 78 inches Exhibited in Manuel Mendive: Aguas Claras, Aguas Turbias, Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, February 23 – May 1, 2016, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, unnumbered page. A facsimilar copy of the publication accompanies the artwork. This work is accompanied by a Photo Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist. 99

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), The Eyes of the Snail, (Los Ojos del Caracol ), 1992, oil on canvas, 46 ¼ x 75 inches Exhibited at the Le Monde De L’art Gallery in Paris, France, June 24 – August 1, 1992, and illustrated in the accompanying exhibition catalog, page 55.

MANUEL MENDIVE IN FRANCE In his nascent years as an artist, Manuel Mendive's creative output was marginalized within his home country of Cuba due to his religious beliefs and sexual preferences. French audiences, on the other hand, were early to recognize the artist’s talent, and provided him with recognition and visibility that would bolster his career abroad. In 1968, a young Mendive was awarded the "Adam Montparnasse" prize at the 1968 exhibition at the XXIV Salon de Mai in Paris. Three years later, he would receive the 1970 Il Festival International de la Peinture prize from the Chateâu Musée in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France. These distinctions prefigured a number of important exhibitions the artist would have in the European country in the following years. Mendive’s first French solo exhibition was held at the Espace Culturel Latino Americain in Paris in the Spring of 1986. In 1987, Mendive’s work was included in the collective Festival Dibujo Contemporáneo at the Grand Palais in Paris, and in 1988, the one-person exhibition Manuel Mendive traveled from the October Gallery in London to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in the French capital city. In 1989, Mendive’s art was showcased at a one-person show at the Galerie Nesle in Paris. His momentum in France would carry over into the next decade. In 1992, Manuel Mendive would have his first of three major exhibitions at the Galerie Le Monde de L’Art, beginning a professional relationship that would last for many years. At that important show, he would exhibit The Eyes of the Snail, 1992, along with a suite of other seminal abstract and narrative works, for the first time. This exhibition would be followed by two more solo shows at Galerie Le Monde de L’Art in 1994 and 1997. In 1994, Mendive received the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres award, the country's highest honor in the arts, from the Mitterand government. In 1999, Mendive choreographed an audacious live performance at the prestigious FIAC International Contemporary Art Fair in Paris, a spectacle which garnered much attention and even minor scandal. This prominent presence in the French artworld provided the artist with crucial support as he cultivated appreciators, collectors, and accolades to establish himself as an international master. Nico Hough 100

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), River Waters, (Aguas de Río), 2013, bronze sculpture, 77 x 37 x 22 inches, 7 of 7, inscribed "Mendive" and numbered 7 of 7. Exhibited (different number) in Things that Cannot Be Seen Any Other Way: The Art of Manuel Mendive, Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida, November, 2013. Currently exhibited (different number) in the open air sculpture garden of the Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida. Also currently exhibited (different number) open air in the Seawall of Old Havana, (El Malecón), Avenue of the Port, near the Alameda de Paula, Havana, Cuba. Illustrated (different number) in the book Mendive, Collage Ediciones, Havana, 2015, page 220. This artwork is accompanied by a Photo Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist.

Manuel Mendive (b. 1944), Fragment of a Landscape, (Fragmento de un Paisaje), 2016, acrylic on canvas, 44 x 56 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Coral Gables, Florida. This artwork is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the artist.

101

Jorge Luis Santos (b. 1973), Yellow Cross, (Cruz Amarilla), 2015, mixed media on canvas, 51 ¼ x 51 ¼ inches Illustrated in the book Jorge Luis Santos, Selvi Artes Gráficas, Valencia, Spain, 2018, pages 348-349.

102

Jorge Luis Santos (b. 1973), Tear [from the series "Two Worlds"], (Lágrima [de la series "Dos Mundos"] ), 2018, mixed media on canvas, 77 ½ x 72 inches Exhibited in Converging Dialogues in Contemporary Art: Cernuda Arte Represented Artists, Art Ovation Hotel, Sarasota, Florida, September 1, 2020 – March 15, 2021. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

103

Rafael Soriano (1920 - 2015), Nymph, (Ninfa), 1978, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches Signed, titled, dated, and dedicated to José Gómez-Sicre on the reverse. Provenance: José Gómez-Sicre Collection, Washington D.C. The painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Rafael Soriano Foundation, signed by Hortensia Soriano, daughter of the artist, dated August 12, 2021. 104

Rafael Soriano (1920 - 2015), Equilibrist, (Equilibrista), 1982, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse. The painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Rafael Soriano Foundation, signed by Hortensia Soriano, daughter of the artist, dated August 12, 2021. 105

Rafael Soriano (1920 - 2015), Luminous Rocks, (Rocas Luminosas), 1988, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse. The painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Rafael Soriano Foundation, signed by Hortensia Soriano, daughter of the artist, dated August 12, 2021.

106

Rafael Soriano (1920 - 2015), Untitled, (Sin Título), early 1990's, pastel on heavy paper, 30 x 40 inches Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse. The painting is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity issued by the Rafael Soriano Foundation, signed by Hortensia Soriano, daughter of the artist, dated August 12, 2021.

"The anxieties and sadness of exile brought in me an awakening. I began to search for something else... And I went from geometric painting to a painting that is spiritual. I believe in God, I believe in the spirit." Rafael Soriano

107

Tomás Sánchez (b. 1948), South of the Calvary, (Al Sur del Calvario), 1994, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches This painting was exhibited in Tomás Sánchez, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, May 2008, and is illustrated in the corresponding catalog, number 11. Also exhibited at Christie's, Latin American Art, New York, November 20, 2012, and is illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot 54. Illustrated in Tomás Sánchez, Edward J. Sullivan and Gabriel García Márquez, Skira Editore, 2003, page 170. Illustrated in Paintings of Tomás Sánchez, Palette Publications, 1996, Coral Gables, Florida, nn. Illustrated in Art: From Cave Paintings to Street Art, Stephen Farthing, Universe Publishing, 2010, New York, pages 510-511.

Tomás Sánchez (b. 1948), Beholder of the River, (Contemplador del Río), 2002, mixed media on paper, 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 inches Provenance: Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York.

108

Tomás Sánchez (b. 1948), Landscape, (Paisaje), 1991, watercolor on heavy paper laid down on board, 5 1/2 x 8 inches This painting is accompanied by a Photo Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the artist.

Tomás Sánchez (b. 1948), Shore, (Orilla), 1980, acrylic on canvas, 25 1/2 x 33 inches, signed on the reverse 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. 109

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Deep Love, (Amor Profundo), 2019, mixed media on canvas, 78 1/2 x 58 3/4 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 110

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), I Persist and Wait for You, (Persisto y Te Aguardo), 2006, mixed media installation on wood, 19 x 10 1/4 inches

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), I Have Forgotten You, (Ya Te Olvidé), 2017-2020, oil on canvas, 9 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches

111

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), I Will Wait for You Until the End, (Yo Te Esperaré Hasta el Fin), 2019-2020, oil on canvas, 78 1/2 x 39 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), Reflections of the Jungle, (Reflejos de la Jungla), 2011, oil on canvas, 10 x 13 3/4 inches Exhibited in Florido: Of Love and Life, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, March - April 2013, and illustrated in the accompanying exhibition catalog, page 26. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

112

Miguel Florido (b.1980), You Arrived Like the Wind, (Llegaste como el Viento), 2020-2021, oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 49 1/4 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Miguel Florido (b. 1980), I'll Never Forget You, (Nunca Te Olvidaré), 2021, oil on canvas, 9 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 113

DEMI (b. 1955), Kites, (Cometas), 1997, acrylic on canvas, 74 x 62 inches Provenance: Collection of the Ladner Family Trust, Boca Raton, FL Exhibited in Demi at The Americas Collection, Coral Gables, directed by Dora Valdés-Fauli, FL, December, 1997. Illustrated in “Inmensa Intimidad,” A. A. Bravo, El Nuevo Herald, Miami, FL, Sunday, December 7, 1997, 1E.

114

DEMI (b. 1955), The Ascension, (La Ascensión), 1996-1997, acrylic on canvas, 75 x 48 inches Provenance: Private Collection, Coral Gables, FL Exhibited in Demi at The Americas Collection, Coral Gables, directed by Dora Valdés-Fauli, FL, Dec. 1997. Illustrated in “Inmensa Intimidad,” A. A. Bravo, El Nuevo Herald, Miami, FL, Sunday, Dec. 7, 1997, 1E and also on 6E. Exhibited in Demi: Paintings of Children, Dreitzer Gallery, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, February - March, 1998 and illustrated in the accompanying exhibition catalog, unnumbered page. Illustrated in The Brandeis Reporter, Volume 15, No. 5, Waltham, MA, February 3, 1998. 115

Demi (b. 1955), First Haircut, (Primer Corte de Pelo), 1987, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 27 ¾ inches Provenance: Collection of the Ladner Family Trust, Boca Raton, FL. Illustrated in the book, DEMI, edited by Oksana Salamatina, SKIRA editore, Milan, Italy, 2018, page 18.

Demi (b. 1955), Boy with Florida Oranges, (Niño con Naranjas de Florida), 1987, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 26 inches Provenance: Collection of the Ladner Family Trust, Boca Raton, FL.

116

Demi (b. 1955), Merry-Go-Round, (Carrusel ), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 46 ½ x 54 inches Provenance: Collection of the Ladner Family Trust, Boca Raton, FL

Demi (b. 1955), The Changing of Hats, (El Cambio de Sombreros), 1991, acrylic on canvas, 32 x 60 inches Provenance: Collection of the Ladner Family Trust, Boca Raton, FL 117

Tomás Esson (b. 1963), Rainshower, (Aguacero), 1987, oil on canvas, 66 3/4 x 70 1/2 inches Provenance: Galería Ramis Barquet, New York. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

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Tomás Esson (b. 1963), Portrait No. 1, (Retrato No. 1), 1994, oil on canvas, 68 x 68 inches Provenance: Galería Ramis Barquet, New York. Illustrated in Important Cuban Artworks Volume Eight, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November 2009, page 127.

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Ismael Gómez Peralta (b. 1967), Elegy to a Dream, (Elegía a un Sueño), 2006, mixed media on wood, 96 x 17 inches

Ismael Gómez Peralta (b. 1967), A Cry at Sundown, (Quebranto al Atardecer), 2002, acrylic on canvas, 51 x 16 inches

Ismael Gómez Peralta (b. 1967), Between Lights and Rhythms, (Entre Luces y Compases), 2007, mixed media on canvas, 21 1/2 x 57 1/2 inches 120

Ismael Gómez Peralta (b. 1967), Oxidized City, (Ciudad Oxidada), 2007-2008, mixed media on canvas, 57 x 73 3/4 inches

Ismael Gómez Peralta (b. 1967), Milagro and Calzada 10 de Octubre, (Milagro y Calzada 10 de Octubre), 2002, oil on canvas, 41 x 60 1/2 inches This painting was exhibited in Ismael Gómez Peralta, Requiem for Havana, September - October 2002, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Fl, and is illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page unnumbered. 121

Humberto Calzada (b. 1944), Yearning, (Añoranza), 1981, acrylic on canvas, diptych, 45 x 60 inches Provenance: The Collection of The Republic National Bank of Miami, Miami, Florida; The Collection of Wells Fargo International Bank, Miami, Florida. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

One of the most prolific and emblematic artists of Cuba’s Historic Exile community, Humberto Calzada was born in Havana in 1944 and moved to Miami in 1960, where he attended the University of Miami and completed a degree in Industrial Engineering (1966) with an MBA in Finance (1968). After his schooling, Calzada worked in the field of engineering while pursuing painting as a personal passion. In 1976, Calzada abandoned the engineering profession for a full-time career in art. The influence of his engineering background would manifest itself in the artist’s precise and structural creative output, and become a striking hallmark of his work. Over the decades, Calzada has generated an aesthetic centered around the theme of colonial architecture, inspired by memories of his native island. The sensuous color palette and meticulous geometry of Colonial Spanish style are present throughout his oeuvre, as are the recurring motifs of stained glass, white tiles, and calm water. Like many Historic Exile artists, Calzada’s work is an expression of nostalgia. The artist draws from idealized recollections to render scenes that are tranquil and flooded with light, combining technical mastery with a surrealist touch to create a dreamlike vision of the tropics. The concise illusionism of his work shares an ancestry with other master draftsmen such as Rene Magritte and M.C. Escher, as well as the architectural painters of Renaissance Europe. Humberto Calzada’s artistic career has been a success since its earliest days. Within his first decade as a full-time painter, he had nine one-person exhibitions in major cities throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Central America, including solo shows at Bacardi Art Gallery and Forma Gallery, two of Miami’s most prestigious venues at the time. In 1991, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach held the artist’s first major museum retrospective, Humberto Calzada: A Retrospective of Work 1975-1990. Fifteen years later, the Lowe Museum of Miami honored Calzada with his second major retrospective, In Dreams Awake, 2006. In 2011, Calzada had a solo exhibition at the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, The Fire Next Time. In 2014, his works were included in two major group shows, Impact & Legacy: 50 Years of the CINTAS Foundation in Miami, and The Miami Generation Revisited at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale. 122

Humberto Calzada (b. 1944), The Terrace, (La Terraza), 1983, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches Provenance: The Collection of The Republic National Bank of Miami, Miami, Florida; The Collection of Wells Fargo International Bank, Miami, Florida. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. Humberto Calzada (b. 1944), The Metaphor of Silence, (La Metáfora del Silencio), 1995, acrylic on canvas, 44 ¾ x 59 ¾ inches

Calzada is the winner of the 1978 acquisition prize from the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington, D.C., the recipient of a painting fellowship from the Florida Fine Arts Council, and twice the recipient of the CINTAS Award for Visual Arts, 1979-80 and 1980-81. His work has been the subject of many important publications, including the book Art of Cuba in Exile (Jóse GomézSicre, Ediciones Universal, 1987), Outside Cuba: Contemporary Cuban Visual Artists, (Rutgers University, 1989), and In Dreams Awake, (Lowe Museum, University of Miami, 2006.)

Provenance: The Collection of The Republic National Bank of Miami, Miami, Florida; The Collection of Wells Fargo International Bank, Miami, Florida.

Works by Humberto Calzada are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.; Art Museum of the Americas (OAS), Washington, DC; Lowe Museum of Art, Miami, FL; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; Frost Museum, Miami, FL; Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL; Museo de Bellas Artes de Santiago, Chile; and the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico, among many others. His work is included in many distinguished private and corporate collections, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Wells Fargo International Bank, Bank of Tokyo, Banco Nacional do Brasil, Republic International Bank, Capitol National Bank, Republic International Bank, and many more, as well as in the U.S. State Department’s embassy collection. Nico Hough 123

Humberto Calzada (b. 1944), Years of Hope, (Años de Esperanza), 1995, acrylic on canvas, 47 ½ x 35 ½ inches Signed, dated, and titled on reverse. Provenance: The Collection of The Republic National Bank of Miami, Miami, Florida; The Collection of Wells Fargo International Bank, Miami, Florida. 124

Humberto Calzada (b. 1944), Town View, (Vista de Pueblo), 1979, acrylic on canvas, 39 ¾ x 36 inches Provenance: The Collection of The Republic National Bank of Miami, Miami, Florida; The Collection of Wells Fargo International Bank, Miami, Florida. This painting was exhibited in Humberto Calzada: In Dreams Awake, A Thirty Year Retrospective, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, December, 2006, and appears illustrated in the accompanying book, no. 24, page 55.

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Dayron González (b. 1982), At the Edge of the Line, (Al Borde de la Línea), 2013, acrylic on canvas, 64 ¼ x 35 ⅜ inches 126

Dayron González (b. 1982), An Instant of Spring, (Instante de Primavera), 2015, oil on canvas, 55 ½ x 55 inches

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A seminal work from Bedia’s early period, If I Call You, You Respond, (1985), is a reflection on faith and vulnerability. The nude male subject is reduced to an outline, evoking fertility art and cave paintings. The imposing figure is presented as submissive, holding a nganga [cauldron] containing an offering to his Gods, conveying the humbling magnitude of the artist’s religious conviction. Affixed to the canvas are three chains. One chain runs vertically, bridging earth and the heavens. Placed horizontally across the work, the two other lengths hang symmetrically, suggesting balance and the masculine. The subject matter, confident line work, and prominent inclusion of text all telegraph the artist’s stylistic trajectory for the coming decades.

José Bedia (b. 1959), If I Call You, You Respond, (Si Yo Te Llamo, Tú Me Respondes), 1985, mixed media on canvas, 98 ½ x 62 ¾ inches Illustrated in the book, José Bedia, Works, 1978-2006, Ramis Barquet, Turner, 2007, New York, page 86. 128

José Bedia is a contemporary multi-media artist born in 1959 in Havana, Cuba, where he studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro and later at the Instituto Superior de Arte. One of the most prominent figures of the famed “Eighties Generation” of Cuban artists, Bedia’s formidable public career began with his contributions to the inaugural Havana Biennial in 1984. In 1989, the artist had his first major international show as part of the group exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France. In 1990, he was chosen to represent Cuba at the Venice Biennale. That same year, Bedia fled from Cuba to Mexico, before relocating to Florida in 1993. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Central and South America, including solo shows at the Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL; the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and the Het Domein Museum in Sittard, Netherlands, among many others. His works are included in some of the world’s pre-eminent private and public collections, such as, the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Smithsonian Museum, Washington D.C.; the Whitney Museum, New York, NY; the Colección Daros, Zurich; the Tate Gallery, London, among others. An excellent draftsman, the exaggerated, impossible anatomies which have become hallmarks of Bedia’s work owe a debt to visionaries of the Afro-Cuban vanguard such as Wifredo Lam and Roberto Diago, as well as to traditional Amerindian art, while his incorporation of text speaks to the influence of graffiti and 20th century North American artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat. Jose Bedia’s neo-primitivistic style, at once urgently modern and ancient in its aesthetic, deals in the symbology of the artist’s Santería faith, the language of the avant garde, and in a synthesis of images and narratives from global indigenous cultures which he has encountered in his research and travels. Equal parts ethnography, storytelling, and fine art, Bedia’s critical renderings tend towards an acerbic examination of colonial attitudes and the forces of modernity.Throughout his body of work, sacraments, deities, creation myths and rituals are juxtaposed against nature, machinery, nationalist symbols, and autobiography to generate complex and philosophical meditations. The artist frequently produces in monumental scale, creating immersive pieces on the borderline of painting and installation. Nico Hough

José Bedia (b. 1959), At Daybreak, (Rayando el Alba), 1999, mixed media on canvas, 35 ¼ x 108 ½ inches Exhibited in José Bedia, Al Menos Una Señal, Galería Spatium, Caracas, Venezuela, October 2005, and illustrated in the exhibition catalog, page 7. 129

Danuel Méndez (b. 1989), The Night With No Moon, (La Noche Sin Luna), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches

Danuel Méndez (b. 1989), Where Freedom Begins, (Donde Comienza la Libertad), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches

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Danuel Méndez (b. 1989), Rare Days, (Días Raros), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches

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Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), Sikán Entering the River, (Sikán Entrando al Río), 1993, collograph, 5 of 6, 28 ½ x 37 inches Awarded [different number] The International Prize at the First International Print Biennial, Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre (MECC), Maastricht, Netherlands, 1993. Illustrated [different number] in Artecubano, Revista de Artes Visuales, no. 1, 1995, p. 1, Havana, Cuba; Illustrated [different number] in El Rojo en la Pluma del Loro, Daniel Chavarría, 2000, front cover; Illustrated [different number] in Casa de las Américas Magazine, no. 229, p.62, Oct-Dec 2002, Havana, Cuba; Illustrated [different number] in Nkame, Belkis Ayón, Catalogue Raisonné, Dr. Katia Ayón, Turner, 2010, page 209, no. 93.22; Illustrated [different number] in Behind the Veil of a Myth, Cristina Vives, p. 26-27, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Belkis Ayón Estate, Estudio Figueroa-Vives, 2018. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Master artist Belkis Ayón was born in Havana in 1967 and showed an aptitude for the arts from a young age, studying and later teaching at the esteemed Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. The most creative period in her brief life coincided with the fall of the Soviet Union and a period of dire poverty on the Cuban isle, when it was difficult for artists to obtain traditional materials. Responding to this scarcity, Ayón dedicated herself to collography, a process involving attaching mediums of distinct texture to a cardboard substrate and placing them through a hand-cranked press. Ayón used paper, paints, vegetable peelings, found objects, and abrasives in her printing plates to produce the other-wordly scenes which gave her renown as a pioneer of the collographic approach. In spite of tragically taking her own life at the young age of 32, Ayón enjoyed artistic and professional success in her time. At 26, she became a professor at the internationally renowned San Alejandro Academy and exhibited at the Venice Biennale. In following years, she served as acting president of the National Union of Artists and Writers of Cuba, as well as head of the printmaking department of el Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. 132

Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), Our Duty, (Nuestro Deber), 1993, collograph, 2 of 6, 37 ½ x 26 ¾ inches Exhibitions [different numbers]: Siempre vuelvo. Grabados de Belkis Ayón, at Centro Provincial de Artes Plásticas y Diseño, Havana, Cuba, 1993 and also at Galleria Colorenero, Milan, Italy, 1994; Unterstütze mich, halte mich hoc him Schmerz. Belkis Ayón / Sosténme en el dolor, Kirche St. Barbara, Breinig, Germany, 1995, and illustrated in the accompanying catalog; Testimonio de la utopía, 7 grabadores Cubanos, Espacio 508 Sul, Brasilia, Brazil, 1995; Kunst aus Kuba, Sammlung Ludwig / Art from Cuba, the Ludwig Collection, Museum Ludwig im Russischen Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2002, reproduced in the accompanying catalog. Illustrated [different number] in the book Nkame, Belkis Ayón, Catalogue Raisonné, Dr. Katia Ayón, Turner, 2010, page 67, full-page, and on page 195, no. 93.03; Illustrated [different number] in Cuba Update, Volume XIX, no. 1, Oct. – Dec. 1999, Centro de Estudios Cubanos, New York, New York, back cover. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Prior to her passing, the Museum of Modern Art in New York had acquired a Belkis Ayón print for their permanent collection, and her work was sought after by collectors in Europe and the United States who recognized her as one of the most important Cuban artists of the decade. In the years since her death, her profile has grown, with exhibitions at the Station Museum in Houston, TX; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; the Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, and others. In addition to the MoMA New York, her work is also included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Recognizing her importance, The New York Times ran a belated obituary for Ayón in 2018, under the header Overlooked No More. Ayón’s figures are steeped in mythology. Her enigmatic narrative scenes center on the lore of a clandestine fraternal order known as the Abakuá. Sometimes regarded as “the Afro-Cuban Freemasons,” the Abakuá is a highly secretive, all-male society originating in the Nigerian region and brought to Cuba’s port cities by African slaves in the 1800s. Ayón became fascinated with this subculture and researched them extensively, first through literature, and later directly with its practitioners. (continues on page 134) 133

Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), Untitled, (Sin Título), 1992, offset lithograph, 11 of 20, 19 ¼ x 27 inches Exhibited in La Ronda Cubana, Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, Holland, 1992. Exhibited [different number] in The 17th International Independent Exhibition of Prints, Kanagawa, Japan, 1992, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog. Exhibited [different number] in El desafío de la permanencia. Exposición antológica de Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), Galería Pedro Esquerré, Matanzas, Cuba. Illustrated in the book Nkame, Belkis Ayón, Catalogue Raisonné, Dr. Katia Ayón, Turner, 2010, p. 191, no. 92.01.

At the core of Abakuá beliefs is the story of Sikán, an African princess who would become an artistic alter ego for Belkis Ayón. According to legend, Princess Sikán discovers the magic of the Abakuá by trapping a sacred fish who tells her powerful secrets of creation. Sikán is sworn to secrecy, but divulges the forbidden knowledge to bring peace to the warring tribes which would later form the Abakuá brotherhood. Princess Sikán is executed for her indiscretion, and though she gains the status of a martyr, women are forever banned from joining the secret society. The artist took great creative liberties with the myth of the Abakuá and the character of Sikán. As a woman of color living in a time of economic scarcity under a repressive regime, Sikán became a vehicle for Belkis Ayón to freely speak critically on censorship, violence, marginalization, patriarchy, social inequities and other structures of power. Ayón used the imposed silence of the Princess Sikán fable as a metaphor to navigate thorny issues while evading official reproach from a government that frowned upon discussing such sensitive topics. “Sikán is a transgressor,” Ayón wrote, “and as such I see her, and I see myself.” Nico Hough

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Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), To Live, (Vivir), 1998, mixed media on canvas, 40 ¾ x 29 ½ inches This work was exhibited in Prix Amédée Maratier 1999, Galerie Etats d'Art, Paris, France, and illustrated in the corresponding catalog, page 8. Also exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago: 20 Years of Creation, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, Nov. 2019–Jan. 2020. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 135

Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Free as God, (Libre como Dios), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 56 ¼ x 31 ½ inches This work was exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago: My History is Your History, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, June 2001. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Live Today, Die Tomorrow, (Vive Hoy, Mañana Morirás), ca 1998, mixed media on canvas, 59 ¼ x 79 inches This work was exhibited in Prix Amédée Maratier, 1999, Galerie Etats d'Art, Paris, France. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

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Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), You in Me, (Tú en Mí ), 2001, mixed media on canvas, 51 x 39 inches This work was exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago: My History is Your History, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, June 2001. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Variations of Oggún [from the series "Me and My Things"], (Variaciones de Oggún [de la serie "Yo y Mis Cosas"]), 2013, mixed media and oil on metal, 78 ½ x 59 inches This work was exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago: 20 Years of Creation, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November 2019 – January 2020. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

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Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Born to Live No.2, (Nacido Para Vivir No.2), 2020, mixed media and collage on canvas, 49 ¼ x 35 ½ inches

Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Dog, (Perro), 1999, mixed media on canvas, 23 ¾ x 31 ½ inches This work was illustrated in the book Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present, Dr. Alejandro de la Fuente, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2017, page 67. Exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago: 20 Years of Creation, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November 2019 – January 2020.

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Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), I Look at You Always, (Te Miro Siempre), 2019, mixed media and collage on canvas, 31 ½ x 23 ½ inches

Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Shantytown, (Casita de Solar), 2020, mixed media on canvas, 19 ½ x 27 ¼ inches 139

In 2019, Juan Roberto Diago created several installations in the conceptual likeness of shantytowns in Cuba, each one an homage to an actual impoverished neighborhood on the island - Belén, El Fanguito, Los Positos, La Timba, Los Sitios, and others. Like much of the physical architecture of the neighborhoods they depict, these works are built from found and discarded materials, an authentic and meta-textual technique the artist has employed throughout his career. These unique installations were constructed specifically for the exhibition, Juan Roberto Diago: 20 Years of Creation, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL, November 2019 – January 2020. Each work is accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the artist. The Shantytown installations continue a long-running series of works exploring the politics and aesthetics of life in the hovels, applying a critical lens to poverty and inequity in the Third World. Other examples from the Shantytown series have been exhibited in important art institutions around the world, including the John F. Kennedy Cultural Center in Washington D.C, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Havana, and the Brownstone Foundation in Paris. The artist has been represented by Cernuda Arte within the United States since the year 2000.

Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Shantytown Belén, Havana, (Hacinamiento Belén, La Habana), 2019, 19 handmade, one-of-a-kind houses, constructed with discarded wood and other recovered materials, measurements vary. This artwork was exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago: 20 Years of Creation, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November 2019 – January 2020. Accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the artist.

Nico Hough

A view of the Shantytown Los Pocitos, Havana, Cuba. Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Shantytown Los Pocitos, Havana, (Hacinamiento Los Pocitos, La Habana), 2019, 13 handmade, one-of-a-kind houses, constructed with discarded wood and other recovered materials, measurements vary. This artwork was exhibited in Juan Roberto Diago:: 20 Years of Creation, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November 2019 – January 2020. Accompanied by a Photo-Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the artist.

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Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971), Untitled [from the series "The Power of Presence"], (Sin Título [de la serie "El Poder de la Presencia"] ), 2005, mixed media on metal and wood, 46 ¾ x 31 x 3 inches This artwork is illustrated in the book Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present, Dr. Alejandro de la Fuente, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2017, page 98. 141

Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Banyan Forest III, (Bosque de Higuera de Bengala III ), 2015, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches This painting was exhibited in Converging Dialogues in Contemporary Art, Art Ovation Hotel, Sarasota, Florida September 2020 - March 2021, Dr. Francine Birbragher, curator.

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Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Banyan Forest II, (Bosque de Higuera de Bengala II ), 2015, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches This painting was exhibited in Converging Dialogues in Contemporary Art, Art Ovation Hotel, Sarasota, Florida September 2020 - March 2021, Dr. Francine Birbragher, curator.

Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Banyan Forest I, (Bosque de Higuera de Bengala I ), 2015, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches This painting was exhibited in Converging Dialogues in Contemporary Art, Art Ovation Hotel, Sarasota, Florida September 2020 - March 2021, Dr. Francine Birbragher, curator. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 143

Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Extended Fauve Forest I, (Bosque Fauve Extendido I ), 2004, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Extended Fauve Forest II, (Bosque Fauve Extendido II ), 2004, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches

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Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Grand Edge of the Knife Hill, (Gran Relieve del Mogote Filo de Cuchillo), 2018, oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches Exhibited in Lilian García-Roig: Made in Cuba, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November - December 2018, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, back cover. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 145

Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Bucolic Viñales Valley Scene with Sunset and Dry Plain, (Escena Bucólica del Valle de Viñales con Atardecer y Secadero), 2018, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches Exhibited in Lilian García-Roig: Made in Cuba, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November - December 2018, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, front cover.

Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Distant Grand Hill Range, (Formación de Mogotes a la Distancia), 2018, oil on canvas, 36 x 60 inches Exhibited in Lilian García-Roig: Made in Cuba, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November - December 2018, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 9. 146

Lilian García-Roig (b. 1966), Ascension, (Ascensión), 2018, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches Exhibited in Lilian García-Roig: Made in Cuba, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November - December 2018, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalog, page 11. 147

Flora Fong (b. 1949), Coffee Maker , (Cafetera), 2007, mixed media on canvas, 39 x 31 1/2 inches

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Flora Fong (b. 1949), Between Heaven and Earth, (Entre Cielo y Tierra), 2001, oil on canvas, 47 x 66 3/4 inches

Flora Fong (b. 1949), Love Me, Love Me Not , (Me Quiere, No Me Quiere), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 51 x 38 inches

Flora Fong (b. 1949), Your Force is With Me, (Tu Fuerza Me Acompaña), 2009, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 32 inches 149

Joel Besmar (b. 1968), The Voice of Silence, (La Voz del Silencio), 2010, oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 28 3/4 inches

Joel Besmar (b. 1968), Siren Songs, (Cantos de Sirena), 2019, oil on canvas, 35 x 39 1/4 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 150

Joel Besmar (b. 1968), The Wall, (El Muro), 2013, oil on canvas, 39 1/4 x 59 inches

Joel Besmar (b. 1968), The Art of Reading, (El Arte de Leer), 2019, oil on canvas, 55 x 51 1/4 inches 151

Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), Rococo Dream, (Sueño Rococó ), 2019, oil on canvas, 60 x 48 inches

Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), Stable, (Estable), 2020, oil on canvas, 48 x 84 inches 152

Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), Opus vs Fatum, (Work vs. Fate), 2020, oil on canvas 60 x 37 1/2 inches

Sandro De La Rosa (b. 1972), Dream, Not So Quiet, (Sueño, No Tan a lo Pairo), 2020, oil on canvas 60 x 48 inches

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Clara Morera has dedicated her career to cultivating mythology. Born in Cuba in 1944, the artist has spent decades refining and reinventing a body of work which challenges simple or essentialist understandings of the world. Her mixed media compositions, which incorporate textiles, painting, illustration, photography, collage, assemblage, and carpentry, among other techniques and mediums, express a singular and expansive vision where different beliefs collide and reconcile. Through her artistic production, Morera is receptive to varied influences and intertwining cultural legacies, while firmly rejecting the idea that any might exceed another in importance. Instead, she looks to the cultural syncretism of the Caribbean as a blue-print for combining concepts, philosophies, and traditions in her own work. Key among her references are African and Afro-Cuban beliefs, Catholic sacred texts, popular culture and folklore, esoteric beliefs such as the Tarot and divination, and themes of social justice. These concepts are refracted through her experience to produce sophisticated narrative works, charged with artistic influences that range from the dark whimsy of Hieronymous Bosch, to the transgressive contemporary pastiches of Janice Lowry and Robert Rauschenberg, and the esoteric, magical realism of Wifredo Lam and Marc Chagall. Morera has exhibited in several public collections, including the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana; the Cuban Cultural House in Prague; the Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C.; The Rye Art Center, Queens Museum, and Bronx Art Museum in New York; Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco; the African American Museum in Philadelphia; the Lowe Museum at the University of Miami; the Museum of St. Petersburg in Russia, and many others. She has been in exhibitions in Cuba, United States, Canada, Russia, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland, and her artwork has been published in several international publications, such as Revue Noire (Paris) and Latin America (Moscow). The artist currently lives in the United States and actively participates in the contemporary art scene. She has been represented by Cernuda Arte since 2006.

Clara Morera (b. 1944), Ascension, (Ascensión) 2007, mixed media on wood, 47 ¼ x 28 ½ inches Provenance: This work was acquired directly from the artist. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog. 154

Originally from the Northern province of Matanzas, admittedly the Vatican of Santería on the island, Clara Morera arrived to Havana in 1962 and quickly became involved in the city’s cultural scene. It was in the capital city where she first fell in with independent artists looking to challenge Cuba’s literary and artistic establishments, which were viewed as academic or elitist. Though she studied at the National School of Visual Arts and at San Alejandro Academy with a focus in painting, drawing, tapestry, assemblage art, soft sculpture and multimedia installations, her process makes conscious effort to unlearn those lessons and create as an autodidact.

Clara Morera (b. 1944), Revelations 13:4 Who is Like the Beast?, (Apocalipsis 13:4 ¿Quién como la Bestia?), 2020, mixed media assemblage on wood, 54 x 71 inches

Among the artistic milieu in Havana, she began to associate with the artists and intellectuals demanding visibility and acknowledgement for the Afro-Cuban community. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Morera was a member of the Grupo Antillano, a group of sixteen artists from various disciplines, including Manuel Mendive, Ever Fonseca, Esteban Ayala Ferrer, and Manuel Couceiro Prado, that sought to highlight the contributions of African and Afro-Caribbean culture in the formation of Cuban art and society. Because of their advocacy for this cause, figures of the Grupo Antillano were seen as outsiders and unrecognized by cultural authorities. While artists of the Grupo Antillano were institutionally marginalized at the time, the group has since become well-known and venerated. In 2012, a major group exhibition of works by Grupo Antillano artists curated by Professor Alejandro de la Fuente, titled Drapetomanía: Grupo Antillano and the Art of Afro-Cuba, celebrated the contributions of the collective. The exhibition opened in Cuba, and later traveled to the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, California; Harvard University’s Center for African and African American Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the 8th Floor Gallery in New York, New York.

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Clara Morera (b. 1944), Siren, (Sirena), 2020, mixed media on canvas, 74 1/4 x 27 inches

Clara Morera (b. 1944), The Fifth Angel, (El Quinto Angel), 2020, mixed media on canvas, 63 ½ x 35 1/2 inches

Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Beyond spiritual and cultural tradition, Morera’s work is also preoccupied with gender and femininity. Like the modernist master Amelia Peláez before her, Morera often appeals to traditionally “feminine” mediums and motifs – textiles, embroidery, arts and crafts— as well as female figures, to convey her message.

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A major symbol of femininity in Morera’s oeuvre is the mermaid, as in the 2020 work Siren. In the Western canon, the mermaid represents temptation and duality, an individual in conflict with her environment. Within Christianity more specifically, the mermaid has been used as a symbol to represent the faithless in search of salvation. Mermaids are also present in the Yoruba and African diasporic belief systems which inform the artist’s output, where they are symbols of destruction and creation. In every case, the symbol is undergirded with a defiant femininity. Each of these readings are reflected in the artist’s adoption of the icon. Perhaps no subject better exemplifies Morera’s creative vision than the vulture, another important image in her work. In the Western mind writ large, these scavenger birds bear sinister associations and are frequently linked to notions of death and decay. Morera’s work reimagines the vulture as a Sacred Bird which protects the down-trodden, advancing a belief from the Kongo cultural tradition which sees the vulture as a totem of compassion. Morera’s rehabilitation of the vulture as an icon of life rather than death reflects her larger artistic project of challenging categorizations. Her juxtaposition of the vulture with various belief systems, as in the 2020 work, Revelations 13:4 Who is like the Beast?, a title drawn from the Christian Book of Revelation, further complicates and subverts the imagery. The Book of Revelation serves as inspiration for Clara Morera’s series, 2020, the Year of the Apocalypse.

Clara Morera (b. 1944), Heaven and Earth, (Cielo y Tierra), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 57 ¾ x 34 ½ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

This suite of powerful works honestly examines the feeling of disaster that permeated the year 2020, with regards to the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus, widespread wildfires, and a chaotic civil environment. Many artists responded to these crises with optimism, (whether real or fabricated), and the cultured world itself largely forced a smile to keep the party going. Morera, on the other hand, chose to channel Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, and the only one dedicated to Armageddon.

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In The Fifth Angel, the artist renders Abaddon, the Destroyer, whose trumpet signals the end of days. There is No Salvation, the Year of the Apocalypse, makes reference to biblical fires scorching the earth, a commentary on environmental anxieties. The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, depicts a rider upon a pale horse, surrounded by scorpions and soaring above a ceremonial dagger, a symbol of passion and power. These bold works flirt with doom, but never succumb to it.

Clara Morera (b. 1944), The Mayimbe, (La Mayimbe), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 56 1/2 x 35 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

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The artist’s cultured and rebellious works have earned the support and recognition of many notable academics, intellectuals, and collectors. Included among them are author and Harvard University Professor Alejandro de la Fuente Ph.D., curator of the traveling group exhibitions Queloides: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art (Centro de Cultura Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Cuba; the Mattress Factory Museum, PA; and the 8th Floor Gallery, NY; 2010-11) and Drapetomania: Grupo Antillano and the Art of Afro-Cuba (Galería de Arte Universal, Cuba; The 8th Floor Gallery, NY; Museum of the African Diaspora, CA; Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African American Art, Harvard University, MA; African American Museum, PA; 201216), and author of the corresponding publications; Dr. Gail Gelburd, Professor of Art History at Eastern Connecticut State University and curator of the traveling exhibition Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban Soul (The Newark Museum, NJ; Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, LA; Lyman Allyn Art Museum, CT; 2009-11), and author of the corresponding publication; artist Edouard Duval Carrié, Magdalena Campos-Pons, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Art, and Ada Ferrer, NYU Professor of History, co-curators of the traveling exhibition Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom, (Haitian Cultural Center, FL; New York University, NY; Vanderbilt University, TN; 2017-20); and Donald and Shelley Rubin, founders of the Rubin Museum of Art and the 8th Floor Gallery in Manhattan.

Clara Morera (b. 1944), There is No Salvation, The Year of The Apocalypse, (No Hay Salvación, El Año del Apocalipsis), 2020, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 31 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Clara Morera (b. 1944), The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, (El Cuarto Jinete del Apocalipsis), 2020, mixed media on canvas, 50 x 40 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

The artist has also received admiration from her fellow artists, such as the renowned poet Aimé Cesaire, who wrote of Morera in 1969: “I love Clara Morera’s painting, which is violent and innovative, lyrical and mysterious. It clearly shows African cosmogonies, where she alternates the vitality and the presence of the early times.” Nico Hough 159

Clara Morera (b. 1944), The Four Angels of the Apocalypse, (Los Cuatro Angeles del Apocalipsis), 2020, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 39 ½ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

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Clara Morera (b. 1944), Elegua, Pretty Boy, (Elegua, Niño Bonito), ca. 2008, mixed media on wood, 23 ½ x 15 inches

Clara Morera (b. 1944), Holy Bird, (Santo Pájaro), ca. 2011, mixed media on canvas and wood, 48 x 60 inches 161

Giosvany Echevarría (b. 1971), Customary Beauty, (Belleza Habitual ), 2015, oil on canvas, 15 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches

Giosvany Echevarría (b. 1971), Serene Dawn, (Sereno Amanecer), 2021, oil on canvas, 33 1/4 x 62 inches 162

Giosvany Echevarría (b. 1971), In the Calm of the Early Morning, (En la Calma de la Temprana Mañana), 2013, oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches

Giosvany Echevarría (b. 1971), A Light in the Storm, (Una Luz en la Tempestad ), 2021, oil on canvas, 33 1/4 x 62 inches 163

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), Electoral Circus, (El Circo Electoral), 2020, oil on canvas, 59 ¼ x 79 inches

Vicente Hernández was born in 1971 in Batabanó, Cuba. In 1994, Hernández received a degree in art education from the Instituto Superior de Batabanó and worked for two years as a professor in this university’s Department of Fine Arts. The artist has garnered several national awards and honorable mentions. He has also illustrated more than ten books published in the island. The artist has exhibited his work in many countries, including the United States, Spain, Germany, Holland, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Argentina, Dominican Republic and Cuba, among others. He currently resides with his family in Cuba. Vicente Hernández has been represented exclusively by Cernuda Arte since 2001. The artist wields his brushes from within the country to vividly depict the plight of the Cuban youth in their search for a better life of opportunities and freedoms. His paintings, crafted with the vocabulary of Magic Realism, expose the absurdity of reality in Cuba and reinforce the intensity of hope of its people. A true contrarian who dares to defy. Vicente Hernández’ paintings, grand in narrative and vibrancy, reveal a convoluted universe in which surreal interwoven elements and artifacts of multifarious nature move about freely in navigable seas and skies. Inspired by his native surroundings in Batabanó (a fisherman’s town south of Havana), and Havana, his current habitat, the artist approaches his main plastic discourse - massive migrations of people - from a contemporary perspective where skill is always blended with social or historical reality. 164

Everything else is extrapolated from the fantastic imagination of the painter. Batabanó, the artist’s hometown, is in essence a paradigm of any one locality in the Caribbean where time has stood still. As it happens in many provinces, the everyday life of its people is ruled by imagination and faith, not by physical laws or logic. In this same manner, the painter’s portrayal of his mythicized town is one where wondrous, extraordinary or chaotic occurrences develop often. His pictorial narratives and atmospheres recall those envisioned by literary giants of Magic Realism such as, Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges and Alejo Carpentier. Irrational and disquieting events are common grounds in Vicente Hernandez’s compositions. The same can be said of uncertainty… it permeates everything he depicts. As the artist has reflected: “The basic components of daily sustenance are absent from this southern town. Even the fisherman, in his routine, returns to the water only to learn, surprisingly, that the fish have also left…” In a distinct personal language, Vicente Hernández renders thought-provoking images, with highly detailed settings that are invaded by curious distortions of reality. His art is reminiscent of noteworthy painters who have marked history. Nercys Cernuda

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), The Supper, (La Cena), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 39 1/4 × 63 inches Illustrated in the book Vicente Hernández, 2016, Ediciones S/G, Toni Piñera, page 75. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

165

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), Choir of Voters, (Coro de Votantes), 2019, oil on canvas, 39 ¼ x 9 ¾ inches

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), Making Coffee, (Haciendo Café), 2019, oil on canvas, 39 x 9 ½ inches

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), Chaos Unleashed (El Caos Desatado), 2020, oil on canvas, 16 x 31 ¼ inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

166

"A genuine surrealism, a poetic inspiration, guide the artist's brush as the wind ushers the sails of a ship. So surprisingly rare is the subject matter and so revealing of his personality the finished canvas, that it is appropriate to think that a laurel wreath, well-deserved, will adorn the painter's brow. It is an exceptional privilege for he who succeeds in breaking, in an instant, the space mediating between the silence and the word, the mandate of the soul and the blind hand." Eusebio Leal Spengler, Historian of the City of Havana, as published in the catalog Vicente Hernández: The Marvelous World of Bujamey, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL, June-August 2002

Vicente Hernández (b.1971), The Unanimous Flight, (Vuelo de los Unánimes), 2019, oil on canvas, 32 x 26 ¾ inches

Vicente Hernández (b.1971), Unanimous Accordion, (Acordeón Unánime), 2018, oil on canvas, 23 ¼ x 23 ¼ inches Exhibited in Vicente Hernández: To Leave or Not To Live, That is the Question, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, August – October, 2019.

167

Vicente Hernández (b.1971), Tobacco Island, (La Isla del Tabaco), 2010, mixed media on canvas, 32 x 78 ¾ inches Exhibited in Three From Cuba: The Art of Vicente, Sandro, and Florido– From the Fantastic to the Sublime, Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, Ocala, Florida, February – April 2012, illustrated in the exhibition catalog, page 18. Also exhibited in To Leave or Not To Live, That is the Question, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL, August – October 2019.

Vicente Hernández (b.1971), We Need Liberty! (¡Necesitamos Libertad!), 2020, oil on canvas, 22 ½ x 14 ¾ inches

168

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), My PC, (Mi PC), 2011, mixed media on canvas, 39 ½ x 51 ¼ inches Exhibited in Three From Cuba,The Art of Vicente, Sandro, and Florido – From the Fantastic to the Sublime, Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, Ocala, Florida, February – April 2012, and illustrated in the museum catalog, page 21. Illustrated in the book Vicente Hernández, 2016, Ediciones S/G, Toni Piñera, pages 106 and 107. Illustrated in the literary magazine December, Volume 30.2, Fall/Winter 2019, Missouri Arts Council, front cover.

"Mi PC depicts in a more evident manner what the circuitous universe of vehicular machines and bustling humans is hiding: most of his work is based on the recycling of anachronistic artifacts prominently featured in the foreground. Here, an old Underwood typewriter and a Russian T.V. set will be the bridge between the past - standing still in time- and the technologial future of a cybernetic age. They are transformed into a computer thanks to the desire for modernity and boundless inventiveness with which Cubans face their everyday existence." Joaquín Bajadoz, as published in the catalog Three From Cuba, The Art of Vicente, Sandro, and Florido – From the Fantastic to the Sublime, Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida, Ocala, Florida, 2012

169

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), Liberty II, (Libertad II), 2021, oil on canvas, 41 x 31 ½ inches The artist's Liberty series speaks to the importance of a free press and of free expression, especially in light of the events of the "Movimiento San Isidro". 170

Vicente Hernández (b. 1971), The Ark, The Tower and Mount Ararat, (El Arco, la Torre y el Monte Ararat), 2019, oil on canvas, 59 x 75 inches

Mount Ararat is a dormant volcano in East Turkey, mentioned in The Book of Genesis as the resting place of Noah’s Ark. According to the text, it was the first point to be revealed when the Great Flood receded. This religious site once rested on the imperial border of Russian, Persian, and Ottoman Empires, and currently occupies a disputed border of four conflicting territories. For centuries, nations have warred over possession of the mountain. In the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, a culturally unified people began building a tower to Heaven, hoping to be saved from a second Great Flood. Per Genesis, God punished them by giving them all separate languages, causing communication to break down. The creation of these borders kept the people from attaining the sublime, and instead doomed them to conflict and misunderstanding. In the true spirit of magical realism, The Ark, the Tower and Mount Ararat (2019), situates these historic and celestial forces in the artist's quiet Cuban hometown of Batabanó. In so doing, Hernández creates a powerful critique, using the Tower and Mount Ararat as an allegory for the failure of collective action and the chaotic isolation that he has witnessed in his lifetime. Atop the amalgamated structure of Mount Ararat and the Tower of Babel, the artist has rendered the smoldering likeness of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, an internationally iconic location which suffered a structurally damaging fire the year this painting was executed.

Nico Hough 171

Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Weaving the Bonanza, (Tejiendo la Bonanza), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 31 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Gathering My Nostalgias, (Hilvanando Mis Nostalgias), 2019 acrylic on canvas, 15 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches 172

Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Facing New Winds, (A la Luz de Nuevos Vientos), 2019 acrylic on canvas, 20 1/2 x 16 1/4 inches

Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Renaissance, (Renacimiento), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 39 1/2 x 31 1/2 inches Sold prior to the publication of this catalog

Irina Elén González (b. 1978), Tropical Angelus, (Angelus Tropical), 2013, acrylic on canvas, 63 x 47 1/4 inches

173

RENÉ PORTOCARRERO'S CARNIVALS René Portocarrero frenetically produced over two hundred artworks on paper for the series entitled, Carnivals, completed in only two short years, 1970 and 1971. His inspiration was the yearly Cuban festivities, (Los Carnavales), which allowed participants to wear masks and oftentimes hide their identities in the midst of music, dance and bacchanalian enjoyment. This series, Carnivals, executed with casein pigments over Canson heavy papers of a variety of colors, was kept virtually intact by Portocarrero in his studio until 1979, when he finally exposed them at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. One hundred and seventy-two works were revealed to depict the salient traits of the yearly island celebrations, where wildness, indulgences, frenetic pirouettes and unbridled permissiveness reigned. As was stated by Portocarrero, “The series of the Carnivals is the one that I most love and prefer among my paintings. All my [other] pictures are dispersed in the world, living their own lives… but I like to conserve my Carnivals… for me, to paint is the realization of my life. When I don't paint, I am out of orbit, I don’t exist."

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Two Carnival Figures, (Dos Figuras de Carnaval), 1970, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 19 1/2 x 25 5/8 inches 174

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Dancers, [from the "Carnival" series], (Bailadores [de la Serie "Carnavales"]), 1970, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 19 ½ x 25 ¾ inches

René Portocarrero (1912 – 1985), Family Dancing, [from the "Carnival" series], (Familia Bailando [de la Serie "Carnavales"]), 1970, mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board, 19 ½ x 25 ¾ inches 175

Agustín Fernández (1928 – 2006), Banana Bunch, (Racimo de Plátanos), 1954, oil on canvas, 36 x 33 ¾ inches Also signed and dated on the reverse. Provenance: Omar Cuan Collection, Miami, Fl; Republic National Bank Collection, Miami, FL; Wells Fargo International Bank, Miami, Florida. Exhibited in Latin American Art Auction, Miami, FL, January 12, 1997, and illustrated in the corresponding auction catalog, lot number 72. 176

Enrique Gay-García (1928 – 2015), Head [Fangs], (Cabeza [Colmillos]), 1973, bronze sculpture on unpolished marble base, artist’s proof, 14 ½ x 6 x 15 inches [without base], 22 ½ x 6 x 15 inches [including base] Provenance: Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Arturo Munder, Miami, Florida; José Gómez-Sicre Collection, Washington D.C.; Museum of Modern Art of Latin America Collection, Organization of American States (OEA), Washington, D.C. Exhibited in Contemporary Latin American Art: The Esso Collection of the Lowe Art Museum and Latin American Artists of the Southeastern U.S., Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, 1978, and illustrated in the accompanying catalog, page 85. Exhibited in Outside Cuba: Contemporary Cuban Visual Artists, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1989. Illustrated in Museum of Modern Art of Latin America: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Organization of American States, Washington D.C., 1985, p. 175. Illustrated in Art of Cuba in Exile, José Gómez-Sicre, Editora Munder, Miami, FL, 1987, p. 123. Illustrated in Outside Cuba: Contemporary Cuban Visual Artists, Rutgers University, 1989, p. 146.

Prolific painter, sculptor, and professor, Enrique Gay-García (1928-2015), began his formal studies at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana in 1950. The artist later enrolled at the Polytechnic Institute in Mexico in 1957, at the Institute of Art in Venice, and at the University of Perugia, Italy in 1963. In the late 1970s, he permanently relocated to Miami, Florida. Enrique Gay-García, alongside other luminaries such as, Agustín Cárdenas, Francisco Antigua, and Roberto Estopiñán, was among the first Cuban artists to fully embrace sculpture. His contributions to modern sculpture are well-documented, and he was supported and patronized by some of the era's most important critics and collectors in the field. Head [Fangs], 1973, one of Gay-Garcia's best known sculptural works, has a provenance that attests to the artist's significance. Works by Gay-García were selected for the VI Bienal de São Paulo (1961) and the VII Bienal de São Paulo (1963). In 1978, his works were included in the show Hispanic-American Artists of the United States at the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America, Washington D.C., as well as in Contemporary Latin American Art: The Esso Collection of the Lowe Art Museum at the Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL. In 1987, the artist's works were included in shows at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; the Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL; and the National Library of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. Works by Gay-Garcia can be found in the permanent collections of the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL; the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana; the Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL; and the Vermont Academy, VT. Among the many accolades garnered, he was the recipient of the prestigious CINTAS Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship in 1983. The artist died in Miami in 2015. Following his passing, the artist's legacy was honored with the solo exhibition, Enrique Gay-García: Textures, Shapes and Colors, at Miami Dade College in Doral, FL. Nico Hough 177

Jorge Camacho (1934 – 2011), The Zinc Son, (El Hijo de Zinc), 1968, oil on canvas, 50 ¾ x 38 inches Provenance: Galerie Maya, Brussels, Belgium, 1968. Exhibited in Le Ton Haut, Galerie Mathias Fels et Cie, Paris, France, May 1969, and listed as #20 Le Fils a Zinc in the accompanying exhibition catalog. 178

INDEX Abela, Eduardo (1889 – 1965) 24 (2), 25

González, Irina Elén (b. 1978) 172 (3), 173 (2)

Arias, Miguel (1841 – 1915) 7

Hernández, Vicente (b. 1971) 164, 165, 166 (3),

Ayón, Belkis (1967 – 1999) 132, 133, 134

167 (2), 168 (2), 169, 170, 171

Bedia, José (b. 1959) 128, 129

Lam, Wifredo (1902 – 1982) 2, 33, 34 (2), 35 (2), 36, 37,

Bermúdez, Cundo (1914 – 2008) 50, 51, 52 (2), 53 (2)

38, 40, 41

Besmar, Joel (b. 1968) 150 (2), 151 (2)

Martínez Pedro, Luis (1910 – 1989) 44

Calzada, Humberto (b. 1944) 122, 123 (2), 124, 125

Melero, Aurelio (1870 – 1929) 8

Camacho, Jorge (1934 – 2011) 178

Méndez, Danuel (b. 1989) 130 (2), 131

Cárdenas, Agustín (1927 – 2001) 72 (2), 73

Mendive, Manuel (b. 1944) 92, 93 (2), 94 (2), 95,

Carreño, Mario (1913 – 1999) 66 (2), 67

96 (2), 97, 98 (2), 99, 100, 101 (2)

Chartrand, Augusto (1828 – 1899) 4

Menocal, Armando (1863 – 1942) 10

Chartrand, Philippe (1825 – 1889) 5 (2)

Mijares, José M. (1921 – 2004) 70 (2), 71

De La Rosa, Sandro (b. 1972) 152 (2), 153 (2)

Morales, Eduardo (1862 – 1938) 8

Demi (b. 1955) 114, 115, 116 (2), 117 (2)

Morera, Clara (b. 1944) 154, 155, 156 (2), 157, 158,

Diago, Roberto (1920 – 1955) 68 (2), 69

159 (2), 160, 161 (2)

Diago, Juan Roberto (b. 1971) 135, 136 (2), 137 (2), 138

Orlando, Felipe (1911 – 2001) 64, 65 (2)

(2), 139 (2), 140 (2), 141

Peláez, Amelia (1896 – 1968) 28, 29, Back Cover

Echevarría, Giosvany (b. 1971) 162 (2), 163 (2)

Pellón, Gina (1926 – 2014) 82, 83, 84, 85, 86 (3), 87 (2)

Enríquez, Carlos (1900 – 1957) Cover, 42, 43

Ponce De León, Fidelio (1895 – 1949) 12 (2), 13 (2)

Esson, Tomás (b. 1963) 118, 119

Portocarreo, René (1912 – 1985) 54 (2), 55, 56 (2), 57 (2),

Fabelo, Roberto (b. 1960) 88, 89, 90 (2), 91

58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 174, 175 (2)

Fernández, Agustín (1928 – 2006) 176

Ramos, Domingo (1894 – 1956) 11

Florido, Miguel (b. 1980) 110, 111 (2), 112 (2), 113 (2)

Ramos Blanco, Teodoro (1902 – 1972) 30, 31

Fong, Flora (b. 1949) 148, 149 (3)

Ravenet, Domingo (1905 – 1969) 26, 27

García, Víctor Manuel (1897 – 1969) 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,

Rodríguez, Mariano (1912 – 1990) 45, 46 (2), 47, 48, 49

21, 22, 23 (2)

Romañach, Leopoldo (1862 – 1951) 9

García-Roig, Lilian (b. 1966) 142, 143 (2), 144 (2), 145,

Sánchez, Tomás (b. 1948) 108 (2), 109 (2)

146 (2), 147

Santos, Jorge Luis (b. 1973) 102, 103

García Rivera, Oscar (1914 – 1971) 78 (2)

Sanz Carta, Valentín (1849 – 1898) 6

Gattorno, Antonio (1904 – 1980) 14 (2), 15

Scull, Hermanas 79, 80, 81

Gay García, Enrique (1928 – 2015) 177

Solís, Uver (1923 – 1974) 76 (2), 77 (2)

Gómez Peralta, Ismael (b. 1957) 120 (3), 121 (2)

Soriano, Rafael (1920 – 2015) 74, 75, 104, 105, 106, 107

González, Dayron (b. 1982) 126, 127

Catalog Coordinator: Eric González • Photography: Jorge Palomino, Daniel Ferrer & Eric González Layouts: Nico Hough & Daniel Ferrer • Proofreading: Nercys Cernuda • Printing: Bellak Color 179

Amelia Peláez (1896 – 1968), Still Life, (Naturaleza Muerta),1954, mixed media on board laid down on canvas, 30 x 40 inches Provenance: PepsiCo Corporate Collection, New York. Agustín Otero Collection, Leonardville, Maryland. Exhibited at the Miami Metropolitan Museum, Coral Gables, Fl, May 1977. Exhibited in Christie’s Latin American Art Auction, New York, November 1984, and illustrated in the corresponding exhibition catalogue, lot number 307. Exhibited in Amelia Peláez, A Retrospective, 1896 – 1968, Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture and listed in the exhibition catalogue, page 108, number 37. Sold prior to the publication of this catalog.

Cernuda Arte 180

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