Carlos Enríquez Gómez

Considered one of the greatest Cuban plastic artists of the first half of the past century, Carlos Enríquez was undoubtedly a rebel of the brush.

Born in the town of Zulueta, in the former province of Las Villas, he distinguished himself like no one else of his time in bringing to canvas the beauty of the female body, for which reason he was criticized and repressed by a conspicuous and hypocritical bourgeoisie.

He completed his primary education in his native city and in Havana. He graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1920. Sent by his family to the United States, he studied commerce at the Pearce School in Trenton. A painter of great natural qualities, Carlos Enríquez received only one academic training, in a brief course at the Pennsylvania Academy, returning to Cuba in 1925 accompanied by Alice Neel, whom he married.

Two years after his return, two of his female nudes were removed from the New Art Exhibition under the accusation of "exaggerated realism," a repression that was repeated shortly thereafter and pushed him to leave for abroad again.

Carlos Enríquez is considered one of the most important Cuban plastic artists of the first half of the twentieth century, celebrated for his rebellion against academicism which led him to be part of a group of young iconoclastic painters – in 1925 – who created a new style within the Cuban artistic movement.

The sensuality of the female body, the image of heroes and bandits, the memory of patriots, the transparency, the wind that runs through the mountains of his native Zulueta, he captures them with brush and palette in a genuine way.

He studied Commerce and worked as an accountant at the Lonja del Comercio in Havana (1925), although he took a summer drawing course in Pennsylvania, United States in 1924. Already in 1927, after participating in the II Salon of Fine Arts, in the New Art Exhibition and collaborating with publications, he went to the United States to dedicate himself completely to painting.

1930 marked his return to Havana, to the Lyceum gallery (1934) with an exhibition so controversial and scandalous for the time due to its political content and the treatment of the nude for its "exaggerated realism" – a period known as Spanish with dreamlike nuances – that was suspended; Carlos Enríquez departed for Europe: France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain to come into contact with the avant-garde and delve into the concepts and values of Surrealism and its predecessors.

This European encounter "stripped him of all his potential for scandal" according to Alejo Carpentier and defined his style; for critics, the period in which he painted his best works, among them: Bacteriological Spring, Crime in the Air with Civil Guard and his Virgin of Copper – in this work he addresses mestizaje, religious syncretism between Yoruba black religion and Christianity –.

In 1935 he wins at the National Salon of Painting and Sculpture with his oil painting Manuel García which marks his period called "Guajiro Ballads" for his predilection for rural themes, the countryside men called guajiros: his work The King of the Fields of Cuba, is awarded at the National Exhibition of Painters and Sculptors of 1935.

He publishes articles in magazines and newspapers. He paints in 1938 one of his best-known works: The Abduction of the Mulattas, inspired by The Abduction of the Sabines and with it wins the II National Exhibition of Painters and Sculptors in Havana.

Also from this period are: The Bathers of the Lagoon, Happy Peasants, Two Rivers and Combat, images that place him at the forefront of Cuban modernism. Some of these works were conceived in his enigmatic studio on the periphery of the Cuban capital: Hurón Azul.

Between 1939 and 1946 he exhibits in the United States, Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala, Argentina and Cuba with great intensity; he gives lectures, writes articles, designs stage sets: ballet Before Dawn; he illustrates books: Whole Son by Nicolás Guillén; he is awarded again at the third National Exhibition in 1946. He wrote novels: Tilín García, The Return of Chencho and The Guaicanama Fair.

He died on the day he was supposed to inaugurate an exhibition of his work at Editorial Lex, which was inaugurated a month later as a posthumous tribute.