Loló Soldevilla

LOLÓ SOLDEVILLA; Dolores Soldevilla Nieto (Pinar del Río, Cuba 1901-Havana, 1971).
Untitled, 1958.
Mixed media (wood and jute elements) on masonite.
Signed and dated on the back.
Provenance: Epifanio González Leyva collection.
Attached certificate issued by Martha Flora Carranza, granddaughter of the artist.
Measurements: 80 x 121 x 2 cm.

This is a key piece of mid-20th century Cuban art. In this work, Loló Soldevilla develops with full maturity the principles of Geometric Abstraction and concrete art, articulating a composition based on repetition, rhythm and the tension between stability and dynamism. Made with cubes and circles of wood in relief on a support of masonite and jute, the structure generates a carefully balanced internal movement, where the contrast between whites, blacks and grays enhances the play of shadows and visually activates the surface.

The piece evidences the assimilation of the European avant-garde -especially constructivism and Parisian concrete abstraction- from a personal point of view. The mathematical organization of the elements is neither cold nor mechanical: each form participates in a visual architecture that suggests order, harmony and contained energy. The three-dimensionality also introduces a spatial dimension that brings the work closer to kinetic art, one of the languages with which the artist had an early dialogue.

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.