Sandu Darie

SANDÚ DARIE LAVER (Roman, Romania, 1908 - Havana, Cuba, 1991).
Untitled.
Acrylic and wood on canvas adhered to playwood.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Attached certificate issued by Pedro de Oraá.
Measurements: 160 x 40 cm.

The red, the yellow, the blue and the black on white trace in this painting an intimate cartography. Primary colors and elementary geometric shapes are allied to create an imaginary pictographic language. Sandu Darie's avant-garde works are unclassifiable in that they attempt to eliminate the boundaries between art and craft. Despite Mondrian's influence, Darie's pieces complexify the integration of planes, imprinting on them a peculiar rhythm, beyond the formal minimalism proposed by Mondrian. The Romanian-born creator renews the codes of neoplasticism, establishing himself as a leading figure of neo-constructivism. Darie was also concerned with breaking with traditional painting and focusing on the concrete and physical reality of art, as well as achieving the participation of the spectator through light, color and form, by means of a play of perspectives and displacements.

A multidisciplinary artist, he worked in different fields of the artistic field, among which sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics, scenographic design and theatrical costume design stand out. He began his academic training in Paris in 1926 in the university field of law. However, his interest in art and the artistic atmosphere of Paros introduced Saurdu Darie to the world of art in a self-taught way. During this period the artist combined his training in France with his participation in progressive magazines and newspapers in Romania and France, in which he made humorous drawings, and in 1940 he joined the French army as a volunteer, arriving a year later in Cuba. On the island he began to make humorous drawings, which reached a great reputation, making him a reference artist since 1942. Since 1949, the year of his first exhibition in New York, he began his artistic relationship with Gyula Kosice, founder of the group "Arte Madí", thus becoming part of the exhibitions of this group and the publication of articles in the group's magazine. Between 1958 and 1961 he was a member of the renowned group of artists "Diez Pintores Concretos", and in 1964 he made, together with Enrique Pineda Barnet, the documentary "Cosmorama. Spatial Poem No. 1", an experimental study of forms and structures in movement, during the 70's his production followed a line of projects for urban architectural environments using kinetic art as a language. In 1982 he was juror of the Salón Paisaje'82, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana and in 1988 juror of the III Salón de Premiados, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. Sandú Daire Laver, is one of the most outstanding figures of Cuban art. He is one of the main precursors of Abstraction in both its lyrical and geometric aspects. Being an example of his experience on geometric abstraction this plastic work, which by its formal and structural characteristics could be executed during the 50's. Besides being one of the greatest representatives of kinetic art. Among his numerous recognitions, it is necessary to emphasize the Honorary Mention of the VIIII Salón de Pintura y Escultura del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana in 1956 and his appointment as Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of The Hague (Holland) in 1975, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, and numerous private collections around the world, as well as institutions such as the Casa de las Américas in La Hanana (Cuba) and the MoMA in New York, among others.