Antonio Vidal Fernández

ANTONIO VIDAL FERNÁNDEZ (Havana, 1928–2013).
Untitled. 1973
Mixed media: oil and collage of burlap, jute, textiles, and newspaper clippings on canvas mounted on Masonite.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Certificate of authenticity issued by the artist is included.
Measurements: 96 x 67.5 cm; 99 x 70.5 cm (frame)

Created in 1973, this work dates from a period of full artistic maturity for Antonio Vidal, when the material experiments he had begun in previous decades had evolved into a wholly personal artistic language. Following his participation in Los Once and his contribution to the renewal of Cuban abstraction since the 1950s, Vidal delved deeper into a style of painting in which the surface ceased to be a passive support and became an essential part of the visual composition.

The composition is organized through an irregular grid of rectangular fields in reds, ochres, blacks, and greens, articulated through overlays, seams, and stark textural hallmarks. Burlap, jute, textile fragments, and newspaper clippings are integrated into the painting as structural elements, creating reliefs and discontinuities that intensify its tactile quality. In the upper right corner, a circle also appears—a recurring motif within Vidal’s abstract vocabulary—which introduces a geometric counterpoint to the material density of the whole. The work thus reveals one of the most characteristic tensions in his body of work: the balance between rigorous compositional organization and the expressive freedom of the materials.

Antonio Vidal Fernández was a key figure in Cuban abstract art during the second half of the 20th century. He was a member of the group Los Once from 1953 to 1955, and in 1962 he helped found the Experimental Printmaking Workshop in Havana, while also carrying out significant teaching work at the National School of Art. In 1999, he received the Cuban National Prize for the Visual Arts. His work is part of the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, and in 2017, a broad selection of his work was presented posthumously at documenta 14, at the Neue Galerie in Kassel.