Madrid Spain.- On April 7, 1985, the painter René Portocarrero, one of the most representative personalities of Cuban art, died in Havana.
Portocarrero was born on February 24, 1912 in the Havana municipality of El Cerro and at only 11 years old he exhibited a landscape in Fine Arts. He later enrolled Elementary Drawing at the San Alejandro National School of Art, but his academic studies were short-lived, as he decided to continue on his own.
Very young, he worked together with the renowned painter Mariano Rodríguez in the Free Studio for Painters and Sculptors, which was directed by the cartoonist Eduardo Abela.
Portocarrero, belonging to the second generation of Cuban artists influenced by the European avant-gardes of the 20th century, developed a pictorial work in which themes related to Afro-Cuban religion, peasants, popular culture and the city of Havana predominated. He also had great influence from Mexican painting.
In the 1940s, he taught free drawing in the Havana Prison, in whose chapel he painted the San Francisco de Paúl mural.
In 1944 he exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In this same year, in the Hall of Sciences of the University of Havana, he made a great personal exhibition, with 140 works. He participated twice in the Sao Paulo Biennial and in Venice.
Also with literary gifts, Portocarrero was closely related to the Orígenes group, and its homonymous magazine, directed by José Lezama Lima, with whom he had a great friendship and for whom he illustrated several publications.
He made more than 20 personal and 60 collective exhibitions and received numerous awards, among which are the National Prize for Painting and the Order of Culture of Poland, as well as being named Honorary Counselor Member of the International Association of Plastic Artists of UNESCO. .
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +1 (786) 316-2072, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
