Roberto Fabelo

ROBERTO FABELO (Camagüey, Cuba, 1950).
"Fantastic trip to Monaco", 2005.
Ink on paper.
Signed, dated and dedicated in the lower right corner.
Bibliography: "9 contemporary Cuban painters", under the high patronage of H.S.H. Crown Prince Albert of Monaco, Principality of Monaco, July 20 - August 28, 2005, related work reproduced in color in the catalog, p. 93.
Measurements: 21 x 29,5 cm.

Considered one of Cuba's most versatile and renowned artists, Roberto Fabelo displays in his art a splendid duality between the animal world and the human figure. Surrealistic in nature, Fabelo's art is completely identifiable: women, fauns, bird-men or centaurs are some of the beings that star in his paintings, halfway between the dream world and reality, which combine beautiful elements intrinsic to nature -such as shells, scales, bird and insect wings or bird heads- with scaly mermaid tails and other fantastic animals.

Roberto Fabelo is a painter, draftsman, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. His childhood was spent in his hometown, where he was constantly drawing on different papers found anywhere. His passion for drawing -or "graphomania", as he calls it- originated at that time, and what began as a playful action gradually turned into a vice when he realized that any support was good to let his imagination flow. He belonged to the first generation of ENA graduates in the seventies (once described as the "generation of certain hope") and to that of ISA in the eighties, moments in which he acquired notable visibility in the artistic scene. Since then she has developed a fruitful professional career that encompasses practically all manifestations of the visual arts. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the International Association of Plastic Artists (AIAP). In 1996 he was selected UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of Plastic Arts in Paris, France; and since 2002 his Self-Portrait is part of the permanent collection of the Galleria Degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy, one of the oldest and most famous art collections in the world. He has been awarded the National Prize of Plastic Arts, 2004, as well as the Distinction for National Culture, both granted by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cuba. Fabelo has also been awarded the Abel Santamaría Medal, the Alejo Carpentier Medal and the Juan Marinello Order by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. He has also received the Commemorative Plaque for the 480th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Villa de San Cristobal de La Habana and the Plaque of the City of the Community of Andalusia, Spain. In 2007 the Rectory of the Higher Institute of Art of Havana granted him the special category of consulting professor. He also holds the Diploma of Artistic Merit from the Higher Institute of Art of Havana. Among the more than twenty awards received throughout his career are the Acquisition Prize III Triennial of Contemporary Art in New Delhi, India, 1978; the Drawing Prize at Intergraphik, Berlin, Germany; the Prize at the IX Drawing Exhibition, Rijeka, Yugoslavia; and the International Drawing Prize at the First Havana Biennial, all in 1984. In 1993 Fabelo received the First Prize at the XI International Drawing Biennial in Cleveland, Great Britain; and in 1996 the First Prize at the I Iberoamerican Watercolor Biennial, Viña del Mar, Chile.