Alfredo Sosabravo. A Great Artist with Star Quality

May 25, 2020

Painting. It was impossible for COVID-19 to have caught the illustrious Alfredo Sosabravo in any other way than immersed in what he loves, especially since the 1997 National Prize for Plastic Arts has no intention of stopping giving shape to the exhibition with which he plans to celebrate his 90th birthday next October.

So, as usual, he goes out every morning to the beautiful garden of his house in Miramar where it seems he found that nature from the surroundings of Sagua la Grande, which he was able to enjoy in the open air, at full capacity, when he was a ten-year-old boy.

He, who lived for so long in cramped rooms and apartments in the capital, has for two decades finally found the garden of his dreams which, along with the "corner" of flowers, fills him with energy, with light, with that color that bursts in intensities and which he later captures vividly in his imaginative canvases.

"After my usual morning walk through those magical spaces of the house, I enter the studio, paint for two or three hours, and then return to the garden, before getting back to work... That is my greatest happiness. I have traveled to many beautiful countries, but nothing compares to my garden, to my Cuba," says the also Master of Youth, as the members of the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS) decided to title him, when they granted him their highest distinction.

"I was born in Sagua la Grande, in the very center of a city that I always remember as beautiful. But when I turned ten my parents divorced: while my dad came to La Habana to try to make his way (he set up a fruit stand in Luyanó), my mom, with my three younger brothers, went to Santa Clara.

I ended up going to Diana, a place that was on the way to Calabazar, to my uncle's house, where I stayed for a whole year. That was possibly the happiest period of my life," Sosabravo confesses when he sets out to tell Juventud Rebelde how his main passion began.

"My uncle worked at the finca América which you reached by the train line, since there was no road. Everything was magical for a city boy who was enchanted by nature. For me, going on vacation there was always a party. One of my favorite moments happened when the train passed and threw out the newspapers. It did it every day, but I eagerly waited for Saturdays and Sundays to treat myself to Tarzan, Prince Valiant, Little Orphan Annie... I was a fanatic of the comic strips that came in the newspapers. That was, without a doubt, my first contact with the plastic arts...

"My innocence was such that I believed that farm belonged to my uncle. I realized I was wrong when one day the real owner appeared to do an accounting balance. He was the administrator, but it made no difference to me: I lived in complete freedom, happy, which ended when my father brought me to La Habana, because he needed someone to help him at the stand...

"At 11 years old, that boy would get up at four in the morning to run errands at the Mercado Único de Cuatro Caminos. And by seven he had to be ready for when the first customers appeared.

"Look, my dad remarried and my mom came to La Habana with my three brothers to settle in a room on Neptuno and Galiano. Although in Luyanó there was a whole house, located behind the stand, I preferred to go with them. When I had been working in a furniture store for some time, because I never studied again, I was left with my fourth grade education. I have been self-taught in every sense...

"The owner of the furniture store was a Galician with a very strong character, but I was so useful to him (I cleaned, organized the furniture, ran errands, collected payments...) that this good-natured but gruff man held me in high regard. When I wanted to leave to join my mom and my brothers, he even offered to raise my salary. However, I got on a route 2 bus with four shirts on a hanger and moved."

The Lam exhibition at Parque Central made such an impression on the young man that he decided to test his destiny.

—Had the Wifredo Lam exhibition at Parque Central already happened by that date?

—We have to go back, because it was a transcendental moment. What you're telling me happened in 1950. It's clear that those comic strips from my childhood had lit a spark of art that was then almost imperceptible. I remember that at 18, 20 years old, I got an enormous desire to connect with art. I enrolled in piano at the Amadeo Roldán school and passed the first course as number one in Theory... and last in Solfeo (smiles), and decided to quit.

"Then I took up writing. Back then the cultural section of the Diario de la Marina published stories sent by readers, and I was lucky with The Iron Road and The Cousins in the Rain, however, later when I read them I found them so "corny" (smiles)... I think the best one appeared with a little drawing of mine in the newspaper Revolución, on January 17 or 19, 1959, but the truth is the stories were terrible for someone who wanted to be like Hemingway, Dostoievski...

"Even though at that time I still lived in Luyanó, I was always chasing after cultural activities. I won't forget that to bring art to the people, they set up a wooden booth in Parque Central where they exhibited works by artists like Manuel Couceiro and Wifredo Lam. The latter made a tremendous impression on me. I admit I didn't understand anything, but the paintings fascinated me... He was there, next to Raúl Roa, but I didn't even dare approach...»

—When did you finally meet your fellow countryman?

—I came to know Lam admitted and ill at Frank País, he must have been around 80. One day his wife, the Swedish Lou Laurin, came to the ceramics workshop to talk to me and to René Palenzuela, my right and left hand for many years now, to see how we were making a mural in front of the hospital based on a drawing by that genius. That's when I told her that I was also from Sagua la Grande.

"Later, on a second visit, I brought her a Revolución y Cultura magazine, whose cover showed a ceramic plaque of mine and which included an article about my work. When we met for the third time, she let me know, through her assistant and secretary, the Chilean Adela Gallo, that she had read it and found it encouraging to discover that, in some way, I had been the driving force behind my career. I felt very flattered. The mural never materialized, but it served to introduce me to him personally."
The Great Discovery

—How did you then find your true path, that of the plastic arts?

—You would have to go back to that wooden booth where I was so impressed. Since I wanted to find myself and wasn't doing badly at the furniture store, I went to El Arte, on Galiano, where I bought myself oil (nothing of acrylic or watercolor), canvas, an easel like the ones landscape painters used, brushes...

—It seems you decided to try big...

—Yes, yes, I bought very good quality materials; if that was going to be the way, I didn't want failures (smiles)... However, the easel was useless to me, because my half-brother had already grown up and to prevent him from reaching my paintings, I would secure the canvases with some tacks on the wall and paint perched on the bed. That's where my first work was born, Homage to Lam, which I destroyed because it seemed horrible to me... I should have kept it, because times and styles have changed so much that now it would be conceptual (smiles).

"My second painting took inspiration from my window, to which I invented a vase. This looked more fleeting to me and I gave it to a friend. Since there were only doubts, I thought the most advisable thing was to study, an idea I rejected because I had to work to help my family (San Alejandro classes took up the whole day).

"In 1955 I found out about a school attached to San Alejandro on Reina Street, where they offered night courses in life modeling, clay modeling and geometry, taught by Florencio Gelabert. I was trying to acquire technical knowledge and discover if there was any opportunity for me in that world, and it seems there was. I must say, modestly, that in those two courses I got excellent grades and was even given the right to study directly at San Alejandro, with which I overcame my first goal: gaining confidence."

A Great Artist with Star Power (+ Photos and Video)

In more than 60 years, the National Prize for Plastic Arts says he has worked tirelessly in pursuit of a dream: to be a famous Cuban painter. "I am still far from achieving it, but in the attempt I have been immensely happy," he confides to JR

In times of COVID-19, Sosabravo works intensely on the exhibition with which he plans to celebrate his 90th birthday next October.

Painting. It was impossible for COVID-19 to have caught the illustrious Alfredo Sosabravo in any other way than immersed in what he loves, especially since the 1997 National Prize for Plastic Arts has no intention of stopping giving shape to the exhibition with which he plans to celebrate his 90th birthday next October. So, as usual, he goes out every morning to the beautiful garden of his house in Miramar where it seems he found that nature from the surroundings of Sagua la Grande, which he was able to enjoy in the open air, at full capacity, when he was a ten-year-old boy.

He, who lived for so long in cramped rooms and apartments in the capital, has for two decades finally found the garden of his dreams which, along with the "corner" of flowers, fills him with energy, with light, with that color that bursts in intensities and which he later captures vividly in his imaginative canvases. "After my usual morning walk through those magical spaces of the house, I enter the studio, paint for two or three hours, and then return to the garden, before getting back to work... That is my greatest happiness. I have traveled to many beautiful countries, but nothing compares to my garden, to my Cuba," says the also Master of Youth, as the members of the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS) decided to title him, when they granted him their highest distinction.

"I was born in Sagua la Grande, in the very center of a city that I always remember as beautiful. But when I turned ten my parents divorced: while my dad came to La Habana to try to make his way (he set up a fruit stand in Luyanó), my mom, with my three younger brothers, went to Santa Clara. I ended up going to Diana, a place that was on the way to Calabazar, to my uncle's house, where I stayed for a whole year. That was possibly the happiest period of my life," Sosabravo confesses when he sets out to tell Juventud Rebelde how his main passion began.

"My uncle worked at the finca América which you reached by the train line, since there was no road. Everything was magical for a city boy who was enchanted by nature. For me, going on vacation there was always a party. One of my favorite moments happened when the train passed and threw out the newspapers. It did it every day, but I eagerly waited for Saturdays and Sundays to treat myself to Tarzan, Prince Valiant, Little Orphan Annie... I was a fanatic of the comic strips that came in the newspapers. That was, without a doubt, my first contact with the plastic arts...

"My innocence was such that I believed that farm belonged to my uncle. I realized I was wrong when one day the real owner appeared to do an accounting balance. He was the administrator, but it made no difference to me: I lived in complete freedom, happy, which ended when my father brought me to La Habana, because he needed someone to help him at the stand...

"At 11 years old, that boy would get up at four in the morning to run errands at the Mercado Único de Cuatro Caminos. And by seven he had to be ready for when the first customers appeared.

"Look, my dad remarried and my mom came to La Habana with my three brothers to settle in a room on Neptuno and Galiano. Although in Luyanó there was a whole house, located behind the stand, I preferred to go with them. When I had been working in a furniture store for some time, because I never studied again, I was left with my fourth grade education. I have been self-taught in every sense...

"The owner of the furniture store was a Galician with a very strong character, but I was so useful to him (I cleaned, organized the furniture, ran errands, collected payments...) that this good-natured but gruff man held me in high regard. When I wanted to leave to join my mom and my brothers, he even offered to raise my salary. However, I got on a route 2 bus with four shirts on a hanger and moved."

The Lam exhibition at Parque Central made such an impression on the young man that he decided to test his destiny.

—Had the Wifredo Lam exhibition at Parque Central already happened by that date?

—We have to go back, because it was a transcendental moment. What you're telling me happened in 1950. It's clear that those comic strips from my childhood had lit a spark of art that was then almost imperceptible. I remember that at 18, 20 years old, I got an enormous desire to connect with art. I enrolled in piano at the Amadeo Roldán school and passed the first course as number one in Theory... and last in Solfeo (smiles), and decided to quit.

"Then I took up writing. Back then the cultural section of the Diario de la Marina published stories sent by readers, and I was lucky with The Iron Road and The Cousins in the Rain, however, later when I read them I found them so "corny" (smiles)... I think the best one appeared with a little drawing of mine in the newspaper Revolución, on January 17 or 19, 1959, but the truth is the stories were terrible for someone who wanted to be like Hemingway, Dostoievski...

"Even though at that time I still lived in Luyanó, I was always chasing after cultural activities. I won't forget that to bring art to the people, they set up a wooden booth in Parque Central where they exhibited works by artists like Manuel Couceiro and Wifredo Lam. The latter made a tremendous impression on me. I admit I didn't understand anything, but the paintings fascinated me... He was there, next to Raúl Roa, but I didn't even dare approach...»

—When did you finally meet your fellow countryman?

—I came to know Lam admitted and ill at Frank País, he must have been around 80. One day his wife, the Swedish Lou Laurin, came to the ceramics workshop to talk to me and to René Palenzuela, my right and left hand for many years now, to see how we were making a mural in front of the hospital based on a drawing by that genius. That's when I told her that I was also from Sagua la Grande.

"Later, on a second visit, I brought her a Revolución y Cultura magazine, whose cover showed a ceramic plaque of mine and which included an article about my work. When we met for the third time, she let me know, through her assistant and secretary, the Chilean Adela Gallo, that she had read it and found it encouraging to discover that, in some way, I had been the driving force behind my career. I felt very flattered. The mural never materialized, but it served to introduce me to him personally."
The Great Discovery

—How did you then find your true path, that of the plastic arts?

—You would have to go back to that wooden booth where I was so impressed. Since I wanted to find myself and wasn't doing badly at the furniture store, I went to El Arte, on Galiano, where I bought myself oil (nothing of acrylic or watercolor), canvas, an easel like the ones landscape painters used, brushes...

—It seems you decided to try big...

—Yes, yes, I bought very good quality materials; if that was going to be the way, I didn't want failures (smiles)... However, the easel was useless to me, because my half-brother had already grown up and to prevent him from reaching my paintings, I would secure the canvases with some tacks on the wall and paint perched on the bed. That's where my first work was born, Homage to Lam, which I destroyed because it seemed horrible to me... I should have kept it, because times and styles have changed so much that now it would be conceptual (smiles).

"My second painting took inspiration from my window, to which I invented a vase. This looked more fleeting to me and I gave it to a friend. Since there were only doubts, I thought the most advisable thing was to study, an idea I rejected because I had to work to help my family (San Alejandro classes took up the whole day).

"In 1955 I found out about a school attached to San Alejandro on Reina Street, where they offered night courses in life modeling, clay modeling and geometry, taught by Florencio Gelabert. I was trying to acquire technical knowledge and discover if there was any opportunity for me in that world, and it seems there was. I must say, modestly, that in those two courses I got excellent grades and was even given the right to study directly at San Alejandro, with which I overcame my first goal: gaining confidence."

When in 1992 this great artist returned to painting with more force, he went back to the collage technique, but pursuing a new style.

"It was equally stimulating that after graduating in 1957, artists of the caliber of Antonia Eiriz, Raúl Martínez and Ángel Acosta León, who had just graduated from San Alejandro, looked at me as a young colleague. I remember filling myself with courage and painting that same year a number of medium-sized oils that I showed, in 1958, at the Sala Atelier, in front of the America cinema, motivated by a friend, who was the set designer for the work that was going to be performed. He encouraged me and I accepted. That's how my first exhibition was born.

"Also in 1958 it happened that Acosta León, in agreement with Couceiro, who had been put in charge of directing the gallery at the La Rampa cinema, invited me to hold another exhibition, made up of ten of his paintings and ten of mine. Graduated with honors from San Alejandro, Ángel had a more defined style, while I was still finding myself. My proposal was more heterogeneous; he only did self-portraits that had little that was conventional about them. The show was very successful. Honestly, the press covered us and that attention, of course, boosted our careers.

"I must say that Ángel Acosta León, sadly deceased in 1964, helped me a lot, gave me numerous pieces of advice. Also, I confess, he got upset with me. Let me tell you: in 1960, the Ministry of Culture and the National Museum of Fine Arts announced a call for the First Printmaking Salon with revolutionary themes and he called me to participate, but I had to remind him that I had never studied that technique. Then he explained to me how to make a woodcut. Following his recommendations, I grabbed a piece of plywood and another of cedar and submitted two works, while he, who had encouraged me, did not send anything to the contest.

"The plywood one was not accepted, but the other even won an acquisition prize, that is, it was bought by the museum. In that way I entered through the front door of printmaking, because my work appeared alongside those of Carmelo González, Lesbia Vent Dumois, Armando Posee: the most prominent figures in that discipline in Cuba. And although I had 30 years under my belt, they all started looking at me as the child prodigy, and teaching me...

"I swear I couldn't see a piece of wood in front of me, because I immediately started working on it... I started winning prizes, because I specialized in it. And Acosta got upset, because he felt I was wasting my talent: "Now you're a woodworm, all you do is chip away at wood, you don't even paint anymore," he scolded me, and, well, he got offended with me when he felt I was abandoning painting to dedicate myself to a "trade"... It's that printmaking had me fascinated...

"However, he forgave me right away. One day he left a note under my door where he wrote: "They're starting to pay for prints now." He knew that I would "disconnect" from the cultural world, which is why I wouldn't hear about anything. For that reason I missed painting, for example, in the Salon of May mural. No one called me and I didn't propose myself, I didn't dare. I ask for nothing, I can't be any other way. If for the last 15 years I've been working with Murano glass it's because they called me...»

«I have been self-taught in every sense," assures the illustrious son of Sagua la Grande.

Before setting out to paint, this creator typically goes out to his patio or garden to fill himself with that color that bursts in intensities and which he later captures vividly in his imaginative canvases.
Other Fascinations

—There was a time when you practically dedicated yourself only to printmaking and ceramics...

—Acosta León was right: I pretty much abandoned painting, until I took it up again in the 90s.

—Within the plastic arts you have been a very versatile artist...

—I can only tell you that all these disciplines came to me without me going out looking for them. That's what happened with the craft workshop: sitting in Parque Central thinking about what steps I should take after the closure of the Telegraph Hotel where I worked, a friend passed by, Tomás Marais, painter and printmaker, and told me: "I'm in a place that the Revolution opened called Cubartesanía: a house in Cubanacán where they've opened a workshop." "But, crafts? What are you doing there?" I asked him. "I've discovered that through woodcuts I can make postcards, color almanacs, that turn out very elegant." And that attracted me a lot, because I had never worked linked with the plastic arts before.

"The next day I showed up with my little engravings and when I showed them to the director he told me it wasn't necessary, that he knew me perfectly. I started receiving a salary that was almost a fortune compared to my salary at the Telegraph, and doing just what fascinated me: art! My friend had gotten me out of a jam without realizing it.

"After two years I ran into Armando Posee, who told me: "they just appointed me director of Plastic Arts of something they call the School of Art Instructors, at the Comodoro Hotel." He was saying it to propose that I be a drawing and printmaking teacher. Can you imagine? Another personal triumph for someone who had barely studied. And I did well! Later I returned to the workshop, only now it was dedicated to commercial ceramics, but I didn't reject that other opportunity to learn.

"I observed that those threads gave me a texture that I took advantage of: I had found a mark, a seal," Sosabravo recognizes.

"It occurred to me that if I asked the potter for the pieces raw and engraved them they could turn out more interesting. What happened? That for the exhibition I had scheduled for November 1967 at Galería Habana, I decided to bring not only the paintings that are part of the Fine Arts collection, but also about 30 artistic ceramics that I created especially for the occasion. That exhibition opened a new path in Cuba, because nothing like that had ever been done before. After that successful experience, a new line was also inaugurated in the factory.

"These paintings of mine from 1967 are the result of discovering that I could do collage. At first I was afraid that the matter I was painting on would crack over the years. I've never liked what is ephemeral, and first I thought of gluing some fabrics to give relief. Then I thought that if I sewed them, in addition to gluing them, they wouldn't come off. At the same time I observed that those threads gave me a texture that I took advantage of: I had found a mark, a seal.

"When in 1992 I returned to painting with more force, I went back to the collage technique, but pursuing a new style. Since I was traveling a lot through Europe then, the idea came to me to buy fabrics with striking designs in markets and shops and incorporate them into the painting, and then paint the rest of the painting in oil, making sure the harmony wasn't lost. This forced me to use very radiant colors which, in passing, I was trying to resolve that comment that a Catalan in Barcelona once made to me when he asked: "kid, why is it that you people, the people of the Caribbean, where there is so much light and so much sun, paint like Europeans?" It's clear that his logical reasoning had left me thinking."

In Italy this artist has worked and organized exhibitions of striking ceramics.

—How did the Murano glass come about?

—Around 1992 I started traveling to Italy, first to work precisely with ceramics, near Savona. Later I prepared an exhibition of this same discipline in the vicinity of Venice. What happened was that someone from one of the famous glassblowing factories on the island of Murano (there are 25) told me that my designs could work very well in this other material, and he was right: ever since I've been turning them in, and a master glassblower and five assistants materialize them.

"With bronzes, also in Italy, the same thing has happened to me. A friend invited me to go to a workshop in Verona "which has always interested famous artists," and not only was I fascinated, but I've been collaborating for over a decade... From one project another has come out; from one exhibition, another: Naples, Genoa... all the way to the Museum of Rome... My greatest satisfaction is, I repeat, that destiny has taken charge of developing my career."

—It's because you were born with star power...

—I would say rather that I was born "star-struck" and became a star (smiles).

—If you had to define yourself as an artist, after a career that is definitely consolidated...

—In that stage from ten to 20 years old I loved reading the Información newspaper, which published an enormous page with black and white photos of all the famous painters: Carlos Enríquez, Víctor Manuel, Amelia Peláez, Lam himself, Portocarrero, Cundo Bermúdez… Back then I didn't even know very well what my destiny could be, but I imagined myself turned into a famous Cuban painter. In more than 60 years I have worked tirelessly in pursuit of that dream. I am still far from achieving it, but in the attempt I have been immensely happy.