(Mario Carreñno, Where the Light Begins) is the
title of the show comprising 30 pieces, including
oils and drawings – conceived between 1937 and 1957,
a period known as his Cuban years, which constitute
the poetic core of all his work – plus other works
completed in the United States.
A painter with many, varied
resources, he is additionally recognized for the
impressive number of pieces he completed, more than
4,000 over the course of his career.
In the customary press conference
offered by the MNBA to announce its programs, shows,
conferences and concerts, Roberto Cobas, curator for
the Museum’s Cuban Vanguard collection, and the
Carreño exhibit, described the artist as "one of the
most important painters of the historic Cuban
vanguard… a crucial figure in Latin American
painting of the 20th century… moreover considered
one of the most notable visual artists in Chile,
where he lived from 1957 until his death in 1999, at
the age of 86."
After graduating from Havana’s San
Alejandro Academy in 1925, having studied drawing
and painting, Mario Carreño held his first personal
exposition, composed of large charcoal drawings and
pastels, in 1930 at the Sala Meras y Rico.
Experts in his work always point out
that the career of Mario Carreño is inexorably
linked to historical events.
As if following an epic timeline, in
1932 he was obliged to emigrate from Cuba to Spain,
as a consequence of the Gerardo Machado dictatorship,
establishing himself in Madrid, where he studied,
worked in graphics and met Rafael Alberti, Federico
García Lorca and Pablo Neruda.
An insatiable traveler, he went to
Mexico in 1936 to join the muralist movement there,
which exerted a notable influence on a significant
portion of his work and where he interacted with
Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo
and Frida Kahlo.
His work, along with that of Fidelio
Ponce and Wifredo Lam, was exhibited in 1944 at the
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. During a
stay in the United States, in 1950, he was
influenced by the abstract painters Pollack, Albers,
Moholy-Nagy and Mondrian.
In 1948, he made his first trip to
Chile, returning to Havana to participate in the Art
Biennial of Sao Paulo with René Portocarrero
(1912-1985), Luis Martínez Pedro (1910-1989), Cundo
Bermúdez (1914-2008) and Amelia Peláez (1896-1968).
He established his residence in
Chile beginning in 1956, working as a professor at
various universities and in 1969 was awarded Chilean
naturalization. In 1982, he received the National
Prize for Art, in recognition of his artistic
accomplishments in that country.
He returned to Cuba in 1993 to
attend the exposition Mario Carreño. Los años
cubanos, organized by the MNBA on the occasion
of his 80th birthday.
Last year, the Museum presented a
valuable book, Mario Carreño. Selected Works /
Obras Selectas (1936-1957), by the
curator, collector, incisive researcher and
passionate scholar of Cuban art, Jesús Fernández
Torna.
The author explains in his
introduction that the book "has as its fundamental
objective the dissemination of the different
creative periods into which the pictorial work of
this great creator during his Cuban years can be
divided; that is to say, from 1928 through 1957,
when he decides to definitively establish himself in
Chile and begins another valuable period in his
artistic work."
Fernando Rodríguez Sosa, a
collaborator in our culture pages, literary critic
and the writer of the book’s prologue, considers the
tome "a monumental work within literary creation of
this type in Cuba."
Fernández Torna chronologically
ordered Carreño’s so-called Cuban years (1936-1957)
and wrote two sections entitled Biografía:
apuntes sobre la vida y la obra de un genio viajero
and Cronología (1913-1999).
The luxurious offering contains an
important appendix, the inventory of all Carreño
pieces held by the MNBA in its Cuban Art collection.
The new exhibit, Mario Carreño,
donde empieza la luz, commemorating the
centenary of the artist’s birth, is a unique
opportunity to view some of his work which
fascinates with its power of suggestion.
