Mariano Rodriguez

MARIANO RODRIGUEZ (Havana, Cuba, 1912-1990).
"Doors", 1986.
Acrylic on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower central part.
Exhibitions:
- "La Fiesta del amor", Habana Gallery, Havana, May 20, 1987,
reproduced in the catalog.
-Mariano", Casa de las Americas, Havana, 1998.
The buyer will receive a certificate of authenticity from Dolores and Alejandro Rodriguez, number 255, dated May 20, 1987.
Rodriguez, number 255, dated February 13, 2003.
Measurements: 100.5 x 80 cm.

By the mid-1980s, Mariano Rodriguez had refined his language to a degree of symbolic abstraction, where form is the bearer of sensory and cultural experience. "Doors" is an example of this process: the painting is almost meditative, on the verge of figurative disappearance, but densely charged with allusions to the real world (to light, to tropical architecture, to the color of Havana's patios) and to the very act of looking. We could say, therefore, that these windows are not only physical thresholds, but also perceptual and emotional thresholds.

The title, "Doors", provides us with a reading key that orients the gaze in the midst of an apparent visual ambiguity. What might appear to be a purely abstract construction reveals, when named, the suggestion of a window: the leaded or mullions of the glass panes are arranged as straight vertical and horizontal lines, tracing a silent geometry that divides the plane into regular modules. The lower part, defined as a ceramic sill, introduces a concrete reference within the abstract game, alluding to a type of popular and domestic ornamentation deeply rooted in Cuban material culture. It is an echo of the everyday, of the lived Caribbean, transfigured here in an essentialized plastic language.

A self-taught painter, Mariano Rodriguez began at a very early age in the art world. In 1930 he began his artistic career and, in 1936, he traveled to Mexico, where he became impregnated with his first artistic influences. Rodriguez then began to use colors reminiscent of the tropical environment: green, earth and ocher colors with which he defined figures with strong features, seeming to extend beyond the two-dimensional limit of the painting. Already in the 40's, he began an expressionist period, inspired mainly by Picasso and Matisse. It was at that time, from 1941, that he began his series of "roosters". He also dedicated other series around peasants, women, landscapes and still life. Later, he showed another turn in his artistic career, using darker colors and moving away from figuration. Between 1962 and 1963, he told through his paintings, the contemporary history of Cuba, particularly the Revolution. His themes are varied, but his work shows a predilection for the feminine universe, with a strong sexual connotation. Mariano Rodríguez died in 1990 in Havana.