Mariano Rodriguez

MARIANO RODRÍGUEZ (Havana, Cuba, 1912-1990).
"Seated woman", ca. 1946.
Tempera on paper.
Inventoried work R.74.505 (Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Cuba).
Bifliography.
Certificate.
Measurements: 101,5 x 65,5 cm.

The work in bidding, made in 1946 by Mariano Rodriguez, synthesizes with mastery the keys of the style of the Cuban master. In the 1940s, his production is characterized by a very personal expressionism within Cuban modernism, with an intense and symbolic use of color, thick brushstrokes and a dense pictorial matter that privileges emotional strength over realism; His themes -especially roosters, women, still lifes and elements of popular life- become symbols of vitality, identity and Cuban culture, integrating influences of post-impressionism, fauvism and European expressionism reinterpreted from a Caribbean and profoundly national sensibility.

A self-taught painter, Mariano Rodriguez began his artistic career at a very early age. 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.