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Lot Essay
It was El gallo pintado (1941), a colorful rooster of vibrant feathers and defiant stance, that propelled the sudden interest in the art of Mariano Rodríguez when it was sold in 1993. After more than half a century of tireless work in cities such as Havana, New Delhi, Prague, and Santiago de Chile, his work became by the early 1990s, synonymous with the great achievements of Cuban art. Today, there is hardly any need to reiterate the importance of Mariano's work within the context of the second vanguard in Cuban art.
Mujer, the title given to this painting when it was last offered at auction in May of 1994, is truly the Portrait of Libi, and there exists at least two preparatory drawings that served as sketches for the final composition. The work, painted in Havana in 1938, a few months after Mariano's return from Mexico, is evidence of what some critics have called the artist's "Mexican style". Here, his work makes reference to the color palette and compositional arrangement of the Mexican painter Manuel Rodríguez Lozano (1895-1971), Mariano's teacher for a number of months between 1936 and 1937.
Mariano reaches an equilibrium in this painting by compensating the interlaced hands at the left of the composition with the seater's gaze. Perhaps this work is best described by the words of Dannys Montes de Oca: For Mariano, portraits and self-portraits are nothing else but gazes. Gazes at men and women, to the art of painting and to life itself.
José Veigas
We are grateful to Prof. José Veigas and Mr. Alejandro Rodríguez for their assistance in cataloguing and confirming the authenticity of this lot.
This painting is sold with a certificate of authenticity signed by Dolores and Alejandro Rodríguez, April 13, 2002 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist being prepared by José Veigas.
Mujer, the title given to this painting when it was last offered at auction in May of 1994, is truly the Portrait of Libi, and there exists at least two preparatory drawings that served as sketches for the final composition. The work, painted in Havana in 1938, a few months after Mariano's return from Mexico, is evidence of what some critics have called the artist's "Mexican style". Here, his work makes reference to the color palette and compositional arrangement of the Mexican painter Manuel Rodríguez Lozano (1895-1971), Mariano's teacher for a number of months between 1936 and 1937.
Mariano reaches an equilibrium in this painting by compensating the interlaced hands at the left of the composition with the seater's gaze. Perhaps this work is best described by the words of Dannys Montes de Oca: For Mariano, portraits and self-portraits are nothing else but gazes. Gazes at men and women, to the art of painting and to life itself.
José Veigas
We are grateful to Prof. José Veigas and Mr. Alejandro Rodríguez for their assistance in cataloguing and confirming the authenticity of this lot.
This painting is sold with a certificate of authenticity signed by Dolores and Alejandro Rodríguez, April 13, 2002 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist being prepared by José Veigas.