Carmen Herrera,important Cuban artist

Carmen Herrera, Who Sold Her First Painting Aged 89

Carmen Herrera at work on a painting. 
Photo by Jason Schmidt. Image: Courtesy of Lisson Gallery, London.

If the life story of Carmen Herrera was written as fiction, many people wouldn't believe it.

As Deborah Sontag wrote in a front page story for the New York Times Art & Design section in 2009: "In a word, Ms. Herrera, a nonagenarian homebound painter with arthritis, is hot."

The artist had her first sale at the age of 89. In her 90s, her work became part of the permanent collections of MoMA, the Hirshhorn, and Tate Modern. After 60 years of honing and practicing her craft, creating brilliantly-colored and ever more minimal and pure geometric abstractions, Herrera is finally receiving her due in critical, institutional and collecting circles alike (see Imi Knoebel, Marianne Vitale, and Carmen Herrera Among Robust Sales at Armory Show 2014 and Sales Heat Up at Frieze New York).

The Cuban-born, Manhattan-based artist marks her first century this May 31. “Life is wonderful and funny," Herrera told W Magazine. “And then you get to be 100."

This spring, Alison Klayman directed a brief but fascinating new documentary about Herrera's life and her recent rise to fame in the art world. The film, titled, The 100 Years Picture Show—starring Carmen Herrera, premiered at this year's Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto.

Carmen Herrera Blanco y Verde (1959) is featured in the Whitney Museum show "America Is Hard to See." © the artist. Photo: Courtesy Lisson Gallery, London.

Herrera's diptych Blanco y Verde (1959) is now on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art's debut exhibition in its new Meatpacking location, titled, "America is Hard to See." Her paintings, if you look at them carefully, can almost seem like cuts in space," curator Dana Miller says in an audio guide for the show.

The artist, who had previously studied architecture, has long been fascinated by spatial arrangements. For the upcoming London edition of Frieze this October, the Lisson Gallery in London, which represents her, is planning a solo show of her large-scale paintings at the fair.

In a 2010 interview before a previous exhibition at Lisson, Herrera told Hermoine Hoby at the Observer, "When you're known you want to do the same thing again to please people. And, as nobody wanted what I did, I was pleasing myself, and that's the answer."

The artnet Price Database lists 15 of her works at auction, the most expensive of which is one sold for $170,500, at a November 2012 auction at Christie's New York.

Carmen Herrera Untitled (2013). © The artist. 
Photo: Courtesy of Lisson Gallery, London.

The artist, who was born in Havana in 1915, moved to the US in 1939 with her husband Jesse Loewenthal, a poet and longtime Stuyvesant High School teacher. After spending a few years in Paris following World War II—where Herrera told the Times she found her own "pictorial vocabulary," and exhibited alongside artists including Josef Albers, Jean Arp, Sonia Delauney, and others, the couple returned to New York in 1954. For decades, Herrera has occupied the same loft, which also serves as her studio, near Union Square.

Over the years Herrera has been friends with artists ranging from Cuban star Wifredo Lam, to Yves Klein, and Barnett Newman (see New Collectors Fuel Demand and Double Estimates at Latin American Art Sales and Frida Kahlo Export Market Booming Despite Export Restrictions). She also knew Jean Genet, whom she calls "a sweet man."

A still from the documentary The 100 Years Picture Show shows Herrera in Paris (circa late 1940s) .
Photo: Alison Klayman.

The documentary includes intimate scenes of Herrera and her assistants at work, conversations with Herrera and her close friends about her life and work, and talks with art experts including Walker Art Center director Olga Viso and curator Dana Miller.

"She gets up every morning and makes art. It's a compulsion. It's what sustains her," Miller says.

Herrera, who is wry and charming, quotes an old saying: "If you wait for the bus, it will come. I waited 98 years for the bus to come."

She adds with a laugh: "Nobody cared what I did…It was a hard thing to get people to accept it. Now they've accepted it. That's okay with me."

Carmen Herrera. 
Photo: Courtesy Alison Klayman.

Source: Artnet news



















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Cuban Republican Period

                

                  Diversity, Identity, and Renovation 

Overall, art education and cultural dissemination flourished during the Republican period. Since the founding of the republic in 1902,artist interpreted, exemplified, and demonstrate all things Cuban, and along with and other intellectuals, concerned themselves above all else with the forging of a national identity. The pictorial historical painting, and still life continued their development during this period works portrayed a society whose everyday urban and rule life seemed to be in a continual process of defining itself. 

This definition fluctuated within its diversity while it established its identity and assimilated, step by step, its own renovation. Hence, although some of the art works continued to exhibit traces of realism and romanticism, for the most part, artists also adapted and translated the concepts they had learned abroad to their distinct reality. the subjects and themes also began to reflect the genuine state of affairs of the time. 

During the 1920, various artists inspired by international trends toward modernism, started a national cultural renovation movement that came to be known as the Cuban avant-garde. It unleashed a debate, along the line of the one that began in France during the nineteenth century, and which dealt with the virtues of academic traditional style art versus those of the modernist movement. 

As in France, Cuban artist had to accept or reject modernist movement, and , in a sense , "choose sides" in the debate. Hence, it was during this process, that many painting began to reflect changes in the style and composition as well as a marked  decrease in the rendering of conventional forms. Increasingly, the brush strokes became looser and more pronounced, and their color schemes and use of light more audacious. these changes also occurred as each artist was able to freely choose his or her themes and the style in which to depict them.


The landscape painting genre reflected stylistic and compositional changes during the Republican era. Artists continued to follow the traditions established by their predecessors from the colonial period, and produced in the open air landscape works. However, these works also increasingly contained complementary and realistic details that were more intrinsically Cuban, Examples of this trend apparent in the collection's landscape works from Jose Juaquin Tejada Revilla, Juan Emilio Hernandez Giro, Antonio Rodriguez Morey, Hipolito Canal Ripoll, and Maria Ariza y Delance.

These artists were captivated by Cuba's rural landscapes as well as by the endless amount of field, ponds, brooks, rivers,valleys, and mountain ranges which provided their inspiration.The artists often included the typical royal palms, ceiba trees, and sometimes the bohio (rural dwelling). which they used to express the distinctive characteristics of the Cuban countryside.

The landscape works of other artists exhibited a sharper turn toward modernity as artists employed looser brush strokes and visible texture in open compositions with emphasis on the changing qualities of light, and on elaborate perspectives.

 Examples of these trends are the amplified brush strokes and white color stains inspired by the Italian macchiaioli and seen in castiglioncello by Jose Antonio Bencomo Mena as well as in the brilliant color palettes employed in the works of Victoria Nanson Gonzalez de Gutierrez, Universo Picazo Carrera, and Tiburcio LorenzoSanchez, Lastly, other artists produced works exhibiting landscape reflections on water surfaces that appeared as secondary objects within the landscape, but that also attested to the way artistic trends were moving away from realistic depiction. Such is the case in the Collection's works by Roberto Vazquez y Fernandez and Domingo Ramos Enriquez as well as in the intimate river scene depicted by Augusto Garcia Menocal y Cordova in Rio Saugua. Emilio Rivero Merlin also moved away from the realistic depiction in his work Bacuranao Beach , a seascape filled with bright, intense color and light and exhibiting a much more modern expression.

Another relevant change in the use of artistic style is found in the Collection's history painting genre works. The paintings that depict Cuban National heroes by Armando Garcia Menocal y Miguel Diaz Salinero, Mirta Diaz Betancourt, were executed using a more academic and realistic style. However, other history painting works from the collection reflect changes that were brought about by modernist trends. These works abandon the large formats traditionally found in Cuban historic compositions and, instead, are rendered in smaller formats, employing, softer palettes and gentle use of light to convey only glimpses of scenes. 

These paintings are no less dramatic because of this new style. Artists achieve the desired emotional effect, influencing the observer's reality in a way that clearly demonstrates that copious details are no longer necessary to understand the historic moment. Examples of this style are found in the works of Oscar Garcia Rivera y Gutierrez, Enrique Caravia y Montenegro, Antonio Sanchez Araujo, Manuel Mesa Hermida, and Juan Emilio Hernandez Giro and Enrique Crucet y Willermes as well as in Pastor Argudin Pedroso's Portrait of  Maximo Gomez.







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Cuban Republican Period

The End of the Cuba war of independence (1895-1898) brought about the island's transition from colony to republic. Needless to say, the founding of the new nation had a profound effect on the way art studies and art expression evolved over the following years. The new republic had, among its many challengers, the need to create a distinctive national identity. This entailed establishing symbols meant to foster feeling of patriotism and national pride as well as founding educational and cultural institution that would not only support the proliferation of arts and literature, but that would also contribute to the idea of unique and intrinsically Cuban society.

Many Cuban artists surpassed their roles as visual interpreters and pedagogues. They went on to play a significant role in the development of both educational and cultural institutions. One of the most important institution founded during the republican period was national academy of Art and Letters. Created in 1910, its extensive mission was to educate and publish works that would enhance knowledge about the theory and history of fine art as well as compile artistic and literary works, promote cultural events, and contribute to the restoration and conservation of public monuments , various Republican period artists  such as, Miguel Arias Bordoy, Esteban Valderrama, Aurelio Melero, y Fernandez de Castro, were members of the academy's board of trustees.

San Alejandro Academy Common Room

One of the most notable individual contributor to art culture in Cuba was Leopoldo Romañach who is affectionately regarded as the "Father of Cuban Painting". He taught at the academy for more than fifty years as chair of the colorist department and influenced generations of artists. His non-dogmatic teachings gave him a major supportive role in the artistic renovation that evolved into the Cuban avant -garde movement. Avant-garde artist Amelia Pelaez said of him " Sufficiently generous and good will, he did not stand in the way of his best student's natural inclination."

  

Great Masters of Cuban Landscape Paintings

Esteban Sebastian Chartrand Dubois (1840-1884)

Chartrand develops his scene which exhibits the romantic style that is prevalent in his paintings. The rural scenes produces feelings of peace. Chartrand employs the light as a romantic means to produce emotion in his conception of the landscape. He also achieves, like no other, the rendering of nature as a state of mind, and with lyrical and poetic undertones, relates a pleasant journey during which the participants enjoy this magnificent place. 

Esteban Chartrand studied painting and drawing in the United States and France as did his two brothers Philipe Chartrand and Augusto Chartrand . He was the youngest of all three brothers. In France, he studied with painter Theodore Rousseau(1812-1867) and developed a specialty in painting landscapes in the open air both during the sunset hours and at dawn.

 His works were influenced by a landscape painting style rooted in French romanticism and established by the Barbizon school,. They were also influenced by landscape painting movement developed in the United States by the Hudson River School. Esteban Chartrand conceived his work with idealism and with certain sentimental and passionate undertones. His painting contain dramatic characteristics that are apparent in his enchanced fronds and his poetic use of light. In the 1870 , His painting were exhibited in New York . In 1881 He presented six landscapes  at the Matanzas Universal Exposition that were widely complemented by critics.


Philippe Chartrand Dubois (1825-1889)

 Philippe Chartrand,Cuban (1825- 1889)
Year: Circa 1800
Medium: Oil on Wood
Size: 10 x 13 in (Framed 16 ½ x 19 ½ in)
. www.liveauctioneers.com

The figures seen disproportionate in relation to their surrounding , perhaps because the artist's purpose is to magnify the landscape. His works,exhibit influences from the French Barbizon School. The landscapes paintings of all three brothers bear similarities that can be attributed to their common educational backgrounds and collective artistic influences. they shared a mutual fascination for depicting the Ariadne region. Hence, their paintings, besides exhibiting great artistic distinctiveness, are also a unique historical portrayal of the region, given that Ariadne perished in the fire that frequently ravaged the sugarcane fields during Cuba's independence wars.


Augusto Chartrand Dubois (1828-1899)

The artist employs in his work a romantic style to portray a scene. Although the painting depicts a familiar panorama, Chartrand's composition is rendered idealistically, given that he executed the color scheme almost perfectly. Augusto Chartrand was born in Charleston, North Caroline while his parents were visiting relatives in the United States. He studied painting and drawing in the United States and France, as did his two brothers Philippe and Esteban Chartrand . His painting exhibit influences from the French Barbizon School and from the United States Hudson River School artistic movement. He lived in the Matanzas province at the Chartrand family residence in the Ariadne sugar mill, where distinguished foreigners often visited. One such notable visit occurred in 1853, when United States Vise President William Rufus King (1786-1853) arrived at Ariadne in the hopes that warmer climate would improve his tuberculosis. King worsened and was unable to attend his official inauguration. This prompted the United States Congress to adopt a resolution allowing him to take the oath of office at Ariadne on March 24, 1853, King became the only United States executive branch elected official in history to take his oath of office on foreing soil. He subsequently died in Selma, Alabama on April 19.


Valentin Sanz Carta (1849-1898)

In his work depicts the typical light of the Cuban countryside with exceptional clarity. He produces a fluorescent splendor that reflects on the texture of each plant depicted. Using a realistic style derived from painting in the open air , the artist was inspired by this solitary, narrow turn in a Cuban countryside river. He succeeded in creating a peaceful scene in which the foliage reflects on still water. The lush green leaves of the plants above the pool appear brighter and more prominent as they also absorb the glistening blue tones of the bright sky. this resulted in a balanced work that highlights the awe-inspiring beauty of Cuban landscape.

 Valentin Sanz Carta  was born Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, in 1849, and arrived in Cuba in 1882.He had already studied in Tenerife, Cadiz, and at the San Francisco Academy in Madrid where he had been a disciple of Carlos Haes (1829-1898) and Federico Madrazo . 

In 1886, the San Alejandro Academy held a competition to select the chair of the Landscape and Perspective Department. Sanz Carta prevailed over five, older and more experienced contestants. Among them were renown Landscape artists. Sanz Carta took over as chair of the department in 1887 and defiantly protested when the Academy's Director Miguel Melero Rodriguez denied him the authorization to conduct classes outside the school. After an arduos debate, he managed to establish classes that enabled students to draw en plein air. The brilliance of Sanz Carta can be appreciated in his work. However, his contribution to his students as a landscape painting professor enhanced his significance , making him one of the most important Cuban landscape painters of the late nineteenth century.

Jose Joaquin Tejada Revilla (1867-1943)

Jose Joaquin Tejada,Cuban(1867–1934)
Year:Circa 1800
Medium: Oil on Wood
Size: 10 ½ x 8 ½ in (Framed 16 3/8 x 14 ¼ in). www.liveauctioneers.com

In his works portrays a typical countryside scene from the Cuban countryside using soft, subtle tones. The artist bestowed great attention to detail while executing his works , whose focal point is a bohio, a typical and quite recognizable Cuban rural dwelling. Tejada stayed true to his academic principles in his use of the bohío as a formal element. The colors employed by the artist in his work such as the blue he used for depicting the sky, the soft grey of the mountains, and the bright green ,all point to Cuban countryside landscape, Tejada achieved great balance in the composition rendering a realistic interpretation of the foliage by the use of subtle tones.The clearly delineated winding path makes its toward the bohío.  Tejada served for many years as a professor and as director of Santiago de Cuba Academy of Fine Arts. The academy renamed in his honor in 1945, remains as the Jose Tejada Academy of Fine Arts. Tejada influenced many artists from the province of Oriente who benefited from his excellent instruction and artistic experience. He was a great contributor to the island cultural legacy.

Antonio Rodriguez Morey (1872-1967)

Antonio Rodríguez Morey, Cuban (1874 – 1967)
Year: Circa 1900
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 16 x 19 in (Framed 25 1/8 x 28 ½ in). www.liveauctioneers.com

In Yumury Valley, Antonio Rodriguez Morey demonstrate the mastery he acquired from painting by directly observing the landscape, and by making use of various greens, manages to create a unique interpretation of this spectacular Cuban valley. Rolling pastures, royal palms, and small forest enrich the depth and iridescent created by the shades. The artist also vividly captured the shadows that appear over the valley. The Yumuri Valley is know as one of the most spectaculars valleys in Cuba and for centuries, it has been a source of inspiration for many artists. Bathed by the Yumuri and Bacunayagua rivers, and covering an area amounting to approximately 10 000 hectares, the Valley is hidden from sight by the northern mountains of the Matanzas province in Cuba. Rodriguez Morey was one of the first artists to express the true scene of the Cuban Landscapes. After studding abroad, he returned to Cuba in 1905, and began an exceptional career as a renowned landscape artist. 

His paintings always exhibited the influences he acquired from studying the European landscape artists. The  great critic and Cuban writer Jorge Mañach referring to Morey said:" He often portrays the intense and splendid vision of our fields and it is admirable how he has been able to surprise in his best canvases, the dense, exhausting, and lush exuberance of the palm leaf and the tropical valley". Rodriguez Morey's contribution to Cuban visual arts is truly extraordinary, since he also helped to educate an entire generation of artists that benefited from his mastery and professional expertise as a landscape artist.

source: "Great Master of Cuban Art" book

Cuban Artists ( Costumbrism and Rural Life)

Victor Patricio Landaluze (1830-1889)

Víctor Patricio de Landaluze (1830 – 1889)
Year:Circa 1800
Medium:Oil on Board
14 x 10 5/8 in (Framed 20 3/8 x 17 3/8 in) www.liveauctioneers.com

He was born in Bilbao,Spain and arrived in Cuba circa 1849 on military assignment. In 1852,he become the assistant to Captain General Francisco de Lersundi. However, his artistic reputation preceded him and he became the sought-after portraits of the Havana aristocracy. Landaluze illustrated several books including Cubans Illustrating Themselves (1852), The Royal Album (1855), a compilation of all of the provincial coats of arms of the Kingdom territories,dedicated to the Queen of Spain, and Types and  custom from the Island of Cuba (1881). Loyal to his anti-separatist views , he attempted to ridicule the emergent Creole nationalist class by using parodies such as the famous Creole caricature,Liborio, through which he established the choteo (mocking) as an instrument of expression. Thus,unintentionally, he established the roots of political satire in Cuba national art, becoming the most renowned Cuban  everyday life painter of the nineteenth century.

Federico Sulroca Spencer (1860-1931

The artist used loose brush strokes and vivid, clean tonalities portraying the Cuban countryside with a certain sense of bright optimism. The artist does not  reveal the farmer's face . Instead , employs a style reminiscent to that of French painter Jean Francois Millet , who also omitted the faces of the farmers that he portrayed carrying out daily tasks. The artist use a similar technique to ennoble the work of the laborers. His Painting "El Guajiro" became a symbol of Cuban identity and a resource used to express the nationalist feeling that emerged after 1902 with the establishment of the new Republic. He contributed as  the Academy professor  to the development of various Cuban artist such as Wifredo Lam , and influenced these artist with his unique and multifaceted style.

Eduardo Morales (1869-1938)

 Eduardo Morales, Cuban (1869 - 1938)
Year:Circa 1900
Medium:Oil on Canvas
Size: 10 x 11 ½ in (Framed 15 ½ x 17 ½ in). www.liveauctioneers.com

The artist employs in his painting great attention to detail, however, he also shifts away from using strict academic principles to exhibit a very individual use of perspective. Eduardo Morales studied at the San Alejandro Academy, and at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid. When he returned to Cuba, he joined the independence Liberation Army  where he developed a close friendship with artist Armando Garcia Menocal. During the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1896), Morales reached the rank of Coronel and fought alongside General Antonio Maceo (1845-1896). His painting provide important historical documentation since they reflect a typical and realistic view of the Cuban landscape and of everyday in the countryside .

Manuel Vega Lopez (1892-1954)

During the years of the Cuban Republic (1902-1958), the construction of both public and private buildings caused a rise in the demand for decorative paintings to enhance their interior decor.Manuel Vega developed his talents in areas such as portraits and everyday life paintings. Vega began his studies in San Alejandro in 1908. He was a student of Leopoldo Romañach and the high level of execution exhibited in many of his large format paintings show the influence of his teacher, in 1912, he moved to Paris, where he lived until the beginning of the World War I. He then traveled to Italy with the scholarship awarded by the Havana City Hall. He returned to Cuba in 1919 and, he joined to the Academy , where he also served as director between 1935-1939, carrying out important and long lasting educational policies.

Armando Garcia Menocal (1863-1942)

In 1880, he was sent by his parents to Spain , where he amplified his mastery of art under the noted Valencian painter , Francisco Jover Casanova, in whose atelier he was associate with ilustrious figures of Spanish art and letters.

After ten years absence he returned to Cuban in 1890 with a wealth of experience and knowledge, where he devoted himself to the interpretation of the Cuban landscape .An illustrious lady, Rosalia Abreu , commissioned him to decorate her mansion in Palatino, "Las Delicias", for which he executed several mythological panels and paintings of the invasion, among the latter, one of the Battle of Coliseo, of which he was a personal witness. In 1906 he created the canvas , "The Death of Maceo", which is hung on the stairway of the Havana City  Hall building, for which he was paid $5000. This painting was sent to the San Francisco Exposition in 1915, where it was awarded a Gold Medal.

In 1918 , by order of his cousin, Mario G. Menocal, president of Cuban Republic , he decorated the presidential palace , for which he conceived the execution of the painting of the painting of " The Battle and Capture of  Guaimaro". In executing these work there collaborated with him his fellow-professors from "San Alejandro Academy" , Rodriguez Morey , Valerrama, and Mariano Miguel, as well as his nephew and pupil , Augusto G.  Menocal .

He practiced with brilliant success in various field of the art of painting,his canvas in civic and government building, as well as his extensive freestanding works are renowned. They are included among Cuba's cultural treasures , as are his portraits,landscape and historical paintings. 

Antonio Rodriguez Morey (1872-1967)

 Antonio Rodríguez Morey, Cuban (1874 – 1967)
Year: Circa 1900
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 16 x 19 in (Framed 25 1/8 x 28 ½ in).www.liveauctioneers.com

Using a style clearly influenced by European romanticism, the artist developed a scene that masterfully transmits the peacefulness that characterizes the island's natural environment. He was Director of The Museum National of Cuba  . In 1895 he fixed his resident in Rome, entering the Free School of Fine Arts and working in the ateliers of Spanish painters Jose Gallegos and Enrique Serra, and in that Italian artist Petit and Corrodi , whom he aided in their work, sharing their artistic labors with the teaching, in the position of professor of drawing and painting of the institute for young ladies of the Damas del Sacro Cuoro of Rome.

Antonio Rodriguez returned to Cuba in 1905,the artist encountered a new nation on its way to forging its national identity, an ethos he embraced by masterfully depicting a truly classic Cuban landscape . With distinct style , he also managed to capture, for the same time the shades of green that characterized the island's countryside. His painting has been exhibited  in the most important Cities of Europe and America.

Enrique Garcia Cabrera (1893-1949)

He emphasized element in his work that bring to mind a romantic historical scene with touches of the decorative art deco style that had become increasingly popular in Cuba during the 1940. In his classic decorative tradition, Garcia Cabrera distinguishes himself as an artist who prefers to employ in his work elegantly dressed figures reminiscent of Parisian royal court members from past centuries. The figures dance or rest happily. The.The  artist includes classical architectural elements that contribute to the idyllic ambiance. Decorative painting is characterized by the rendering of only that which appear as truly beautiful and excludes every thing that is impassive. The palette of decorative painting is therefore free to include brilliant colors and radiant light that is appropriate of melodramatic setting. Garcia Cabrera produced works based on historical, musical, and decorative themes. His decorative art works were usually rendered in large format such as "Celebration of 1850",commissioned for the Ambassador's Salon at the Cuban Presidential Palace .

Augusto G Menocal  Y Cordova (1899-1973)

Augusto Menocal,Cuban (1899-1974)
Year: Circa 1900
Medium: Oil on Board
Size: 12 ¾ x 8 ½ in (Framed 21 x 15 ¾ in)www.liveauctioneers.com

Artist of great quality, painter of individual style. In his work  the artist details the architecture of the courtyard realistically rendering the roofs and columns . He graduated as an architect from the University of Havana and studied at the San Alejandro Academy ,where was professor between 1920-1926 . A brilliant artist, he created large-sized paintings with historical themes. While he was still a young man, he worked with his uncle, painter Armando Garcia Menocal on the design of the Cuban Presidential Palace. Years later, he created "Columbus Disembarks " in 1943, for the Palace's interior.

Source: Grandes Maestros and La pintura y la Escultura cubana books