Armando García Menocal

Cuban painter and independence advocate. He represented true and superior academic realism and in his painting reflected aspects of essential Cubanness. His representation of the island landscape and various historical events of the independence process and its main figures has granted him a prominent place in the visual arts of the country.

He was born in La Habana (some sources indicate the year 1861). From the age of nine he showed inclination toward art and at 13 he entered the Academy of San Alejandro, all of which prompted his mother to send him to Spain to complete his studies when he was only 17 years old. Once there, he settled in Madrid, met artist Francisco Jover Casanova, professor at the Academy of San Fernando, with whom he would forge a friendship and in whose workshop he trained as an apprentice. The historicist current in the Spanish visual arts scene exercised a notable influence on young Menocal, as historical portraiture was considered, at that time, a sine qua non condition of a true painter.

After 4 years appreciating the ingenuity of the main masters displayed in the Museo del Prado, he created the piece "Generosidad castellana", awarded the Second Prize at the Madrid Exhibition in 1876. This painting was acquired by a wealthy Argentine after an exchange that Menocal made with Federico de Madrazo, then director of the aforementioned Museum, where he left the work "La despedida del guerrero", preserved today in the School of Medicine in Madrid.

He was also a student of Francisco Domingo Marques, fraternized with Joaquín Sorolla and frequented various artistic and literary circles to discuss topics of general interest, so that he had acquired extensive culture by the end of this formative stage.

Once in Cuba, fascinated by the powerful tropical light, he captured his vision of the Island landscape in a series of works in which the exuberant Cuban nature admirably displayed its characteristic brilliance. Likewise, he cultivated with chromatic intensity the genre of portraiture, especially of numerous public figures, such as the bishop of La Habana, which earned him the immediate applause of the public and the recognition of critics, including poets Julián del Casal and Bonifacio Byrne. From that period is his monumental painting "Embarque de Colón por Bobadilla", exhibited in the Hall of the then Teatro Tacón and, shortly after, in the International Exhibition of San Francisco, not without causing a stir in the high colonial circles by presenting the Admiral in chains. In 1893, a work of his, "El derecho feudal", was distinguished with the First Prize in the contest organized during the Aires da miña terra exhibition.

When the war of independence broke out in 1895, he did not hesitate to enlist in the ranks of the insurgents to fight in the countryside under the command of Máximo Gómez, but he did not abandon painting; rather, he put it in service of the revolutionary cause, as he executed several pen portraits of the most important architects of the liberation process (he had already made one of José Martí in 1891, based on a photo delivered by the Apostle's mother), later reproduced thanks to the engraving technique. Many of those portraits were sold in emigration with the objective of raising money for the battlefield, where the artist achieved the rank of Commander of the Liberation Army.

He returned to La Habana after the end of the conflagration and was granted the professorship of landscape at the Academy of San Alejandro, upon the death of the holder of that discipline at that time, also painter of the colony Valentín Sanz Carta. On the other hand, the patriot Rosalía Abreu commissioned him to decorate her mansion, in which Menocal carried out several mural paintings, incorporating mythological motifs, which demonstrated once again his skill in drawing and color handling. Moreover, he composed some of the historical pieces around the independence struggle: "La Invasión", "La Batalla de Coliseo" and "La muerte de Antonio Maceo" (1908), the latter commissioned by the Municipality of La Habana, characterized by its dramatic force and the well-achieved integration of human figures in the rural landscape.

He won by competition the creation of the decorative panels of the Aula Magna of the University of La Habana, as well as the decoration of the Presidential Palace in 1912, specifically the ceiling of the Reception Hall, and he painted the impressive historical painting "La Toma de Guáimaro".

He participated with several portraits in the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1900 and obtained there an Honorable Mention. He was awarded the Gold Medal at the National Exhibition held at the Quinta de los Molinos in 1911, with 11 landscapes of Cuban theme, apart from the portrait of José Miguel Gómez, then president of the Republic. His attendance at the Annual Salons of the Association of Painters and Sculptors and the Circle of Fine Arts was uninterrupted.

In 1915 he was awarded the First Prize for his work "Amanecer" in the first edition of the Painting Competition, convoked by the National Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he was a founder and member, as well as president of the Painting Section. In 1927 he went on to direct the Academy of San Alejandro, where he used to narrate to his students anecdotes from the independence campaign. He also ventured into poetry with some sonnets, such as the one dedicated to extolling the figure of Maceo and his heroism during the Invasion of the West.

Another controversial work was "Leda y el cisne", of evident mythological inspiration, exhibited in the art supply establishment El Pincel, on the main Calle del Obispo. The subject of the nude scandalized for its manifest "immorality"; consequently, the authorities decided to remove the painting before a public unable to appreciate it.

Also worth mentioning are the well-known canvases "Retrato de Lily Hidalgo", "La Jura de Santa Gadea" —preserved in the town hall of the Valencian municipality of Alfafar, Spain.

Menocal's painting, ascribed to the so-called academic realism, encompassed the main genres, subjects and canonical procedures of his time: portraiture, landscape, historical theme, still life, mythology, decoration and others. Although he was criticized many times for his academicism, his art could only respond to the spirit of his circumstances, both properly historical and artistic; hence his repulsion toward modern sensibility. Consequently, his brushstroke was characterized not only by luminous coloring, but also by the mimetic capacity to capture the details of the object and the care of the different compositional elements. His exemplary mastery of drawing and the fundamental rules of proportion and harmony, influenced widely in the formation of countless artists.

His patriotic convictions made him one of the painters who contributed most forcefully to the creation of a properly Cuban visual language, by authentically representing scenes identifying the national being, especially at a moment of change in historical sensibility, when Cuba ceased to be a Spanish colony and became embroiled in a deficient democratic process. He ratified this by expressing: "I would like the art of painting among us to assert its national character even more."

Armando Menocal died on September 28, 1942 (some sources indicate the month of December) in his native city. His most emblematic works are preserved in several Cuban cultural institutions, among them the National Museum of Fine Arts.

Source: EnCaribe.org