Loló Soldevilla

LOLÓ SOLDEVILLA; Dolores Soldevilla Nieto (Pinar del Río, Cuba 1901-Havana, 1971).
Untitled, 1956.
Mixed media (wood elements in high relief) on panel.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Attached certificate issued by Martha Flora Carranza, granddaughter of the artist.
Measurements: 56 x 92 cm; 64 x 100,5 cm (frame)

Loló Soldevilla's production in the 1950s is situated in the nucleus of Cuban geometric abstraction, a moment in which her visual language reached a remarkable coherence within Latin American constructive currents.

Made in 1956, the piece reflects his interest in the relationship between form, color and structure through a composition based on a rhythmic system of geometric elements -circles, rings and rectangular modules- arranged with a clear constructive sense on the plane. The organization of these elements generates a dynamic visual reading, articulated through the repetition and variation of forms. The presence of elements in high relief introduces a spatial dimension that breaks with the traditional two-dimensionality of the pictorial support, bringing the work closer to an exploration between painting and object. This approach places his work in dialogue with concrete art, constructivism and the first approaches to kinetics, consolidating his own language within the geometric abstraction of his time.

An essential figure of Latin American modernity, Soldevilla was co-founder of the group Los Diez Pintores Concretos (The Ten Concrete Painters). After settling in Paris in 1949 and training at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and in the workshop of Dewasne and Pillet, she integrated the international abstract currents with her own sensibility. Culturally and politically committed, she combined her artistic practice with teaching at the University of Havana after 1959. Her work is preserved today in the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba and in outstanding international collections.