Domingo Ravenet Esquerdo

Outstanding painter, sculptor, engraver, illustrator and cultural promoter. Member of the first Cuban artistic avant-garde.

He was born in Valencia, Spain. His family, Cuban-Spanish, which treasured among its pride a beautiful relationship with José Martí, settled permanently in Cuba when he was only a few months old.

Ravenet became interested in painting at an early age, which he began to practice empirically. He presented a canvas titled Paisaje de Trinidad at the Painting Competition of the National Academy of Arts and Letters in 1922. In 1924 he enrolled at the San Alejandro Academy, and between that year and 1926, he continued exhibiting in the Salons of the Association of Painters and Sculptors.

Ravenet, like the rest of the young people of his generation, understood the limitations that art encountered in Cuba, trapped in the academic achievements of the Turn of the Century, which governed the teaching of plastic arts. In 1926 he abandoned the academy classrooms, and while beginning as an apprentice in the rotogravure workshops of the Diario de la Marina, he did not abandon his earnest search for modernity: he was one of the promoters and participants in the Exhibition of New Art (May, 1927) sponsored by the Revista de Avance; which marks the break of the new generation of artists with preceding art.

The inevitable trip to Europe occurred in 1927, where he coincided with Carlos Enríquez, Víctor Manuel and other Cuban artists and intellectuals. He soon presented his works in the City of Light along with Andrés Nogueira and Alberto Sabas, in January 1928. He studied painting at La Grande Chaumíère and at the Louvre Museum. In Paris he worked, and in parallel with his collaborations with the Revista de Avance –which he sent frequently– he became linked to the weekly Monde of anti-fascist orientation, directed by Henry Barbusse. In Spain, another obligatory European square, he carried out specialized studies at the Prado Museum, and presented other exhibitions in León and in Madrid.

He returned to Cuba in 1933, after a brief stay in the United States, where he received training at the National Gallery of New York.

In the political ups and downs that followed the fall of Gerardo Machado, he was arrested in 1934 along with Camila Henríquez Ureña and Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, accused of communism for receiving American writer Waldo Frank. At that time Juan Marinello obtained a position for him at the Normal School of Santa Clara, where, while working as a drawing and French teacher, he became connected to what would be one of his passions: teaching.

He became actively involved in the process of creating a national art: he organized personal exhibitions at the Lyceum and at the University, participated in the first National Salon of Painting and Sculpture of 1935. The following year he exhibited with Víctor Manuel, Amelia Peláez and Carlos Enríquez at the Lyceum and at the Circle of Friends of French Culture.

On this path of maturation and without abandoning teaching, Ravenet conceived the first modern Cuban frescoes, which –in an act of collective creation– the avant-garde painted in 1937 on the walls of the Normal School for Teachers of Santa Clara. Invited by Ravenet, René Portocarrero, Jorge Arche, Eduardo Abela, Ernesto González Puig, Mariano Rodríguez, Amelia Peláez and sculptor Eduardo Lozano participated in this undertaking.

That year also saw the curatorship of an exhibition as innovative as The Woman Through Art –with a scenic script by Guy Pérez Cisneros–, where live models represented works by great universal masters: Sandro Botticelli, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, El Greco or the sculptors of Antiquity; in a staging through which the evolution of art was shown, in what can be considered the first performance held in Cuba.

He was one of the principal animators, along with Juan José Sicre, Lorenzo Romero Arciaga and Antonio Gattorno, of the Free Studio of Painting and Sculpture, which was created in 1937 under the direction of Eduardo Abela.

Ravenet was one of the founders of the National Institute of Plastic and Pictorial Arts (November 1938) of the Department of Education. He did not abandon his pedagogical concerns and at the First Congress of Art held in Santiago de Cuba in 1939, he presented the topic "The Contribution of the Plastic Arts to the New Directions of the School," which complemented his participation in the event with several paintings that are part of the roster of the great national exhibition organized for this purpose. It was a period of transformation, where the European assimilations showed their fruits: he was gradually moving away from the orbit of Víctor Manuel (El jagüey, 1938), his brushstroke thickened and the colors of his palette gradually abandoned the twilight light of Paris.

The year 1940 was key in Ravenet's work, main organizer –along with a group of young intellectuals who supported him, members of the National Institute of Plastic Arts– of three major art exhibitions at the University of Havana: European Schools, for which he obtained loans from important private collectors; Art in Cuba, Its Evolution in the Work of Some Artists, which brought together an exhibition of twelve modern artists; and the most important of all, 300 Years of Art in Cuba, a great review of the national artistic past, from which came the first Cuban art documentary on record. All these exhibitions were accompanied by the publication of luxury catalogs for the time, which are without doubt the first texts on the history of Cuban art.

During the decade, Ravenet stood out as a pioneer of major cultural enterprises. He curated exhibitions and painted murals in public and private buildings. He received and executed important commissions in monumental and environmental sculpture, an venture that made him a landmark of this modality in numerous cities of the country, in Haiti, Florida and Panama.

He took Cuban art to the Cuban Legation in Moscow and to the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico. He illustrated books, such as the Black Poetry Notebook by Emilio Ballagas, and published his own texts on art teaching: Methodology of Drawing and Modeling and The Graphic Element as a Means of Expression Through Time. During the years 1946 to 1947, he was also the artistic director of the magazine Cuba and the USSR.

Ravenet's plastic work moved during the 1950s toward abstraction, and manifested itself in sculpture as the initiator in Cuba of work with forged and cast metal rods, which constitute a true tribute to the aesthetic value of pure form. In the sculpture he created for the building of the former Court of Accounts (Integration, 1953) he used an alloy of bronze and copper that gave continuity to his experimental work with cast iron. At the same time, he worked in sculptural and artistic ceramics in the workshop of Manuel Rodríguez de la Cruz in Santiago de las Vegas, where he shared experiences with Amelia Peláez, María Elena Jubrías and other ceramicists. In his painting, the transition to abstraction occurs more slowly, preserving certain hints of figuration, along with vegetative and organic forms that coexist in the composition with bold color play, thick impasto, textures.

Already on the path of abstract expressionism, in 1959 he became involved in the transformations that occurred in Cuban culture following the revolutionary triumph. Member of UNEAC, he gave lectures aimed at emerging young artists, directed exhibitions such as the international exhibition of Traditional Costumes organized by UNESCO at the Capitol, created designs for carnival floats, and exhibited frequently his plastic investigations in the field of abstraction, where he had begun to use new materials to achieve novel textures.

Respected as one of the most genuine intellectuals that Cuba had in the 1960s, he participated in numerous initiatives that gathered around Cuban art, outstanding personalities from the international arena. Thus, he was one of the artists invited by Wifredo Lam to participate in the Collective Mural of the May Salon, which was held at the Cuba Pavilion in 1967.

Death surprised him on September 14, 1969, in Matanzas, brush in hand, while he was just beginning the project of writing his memoirs.

Throughout his life he was a member of the following cultural and professional associations:

1924 - Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba
1937 - Free Studio of Painting and Sculpture
1938 - Member of the Reorganization Committee of the Normal Schools, by appointment of the Section of Fine Arts of the Department of Education
1938 - Member of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Plastic and Pictorial Arts of the Department of Education
1940 - Member of the Collaborative Committee of the Section of Cultural Attractions of the National Tourism Corporation
1941 - Member of the Subcommission of Arts and Letters of the National Commission for Intellectual Cooperation of Cuba
1943 - Member of the Jury of the Inter-Partners Competition of the Photographic Club of Cuba
1944 - Elected Member of the Executive Board of the National Commission for Intellectual Cooperation.
1944 - Appointed Member of the Commission on Monuments, Buildings and Historic and Artistic Sites of Havana, of the Office of the Historian of Havana. In Havana
1946 - Member of the Qualifying Jury for the awards in the Poster Competition called for the National Livestock Exhibition (with Jorge Mañach, Guy Pérez Cisneros, Gastón Baquero and Honorato Colete)
1946 – 1947- Artistic Director of the Magazine Cuba and the USSR, published by the Cuban Soviet Cultural Exchange Institute
1948 - Artistic Director of the Normalist Theater of the Normal School for Teachers of Havana
1949- Member of the Cuban National Commission of UNESCO
1953- Member of the Society Our Time
1961 - National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). Founding Member.
Death



Exhibitions

Personal Exhibitions
1928- Exhibition of Ravenet's dry points. El Escorial Gallery, Neptuno 92, Havana.
1932, January 7- Exhibition of paintings, sketches and drawings in the basement of the Café Central, Plaza de la Libertad. City Council of León, Spain.
1932, April 10-23 - Exhibition of paintings in the Salon of the Herald of Madrid, Spain.
1934- Exhibition of paintings at the University of Havana, Cuba. Presented by Emilio Ballagas.
1934- Exhibition of paintings at the Lyceum of Havana, Cuba. Presented by Juan Marinello.
1935- Exhibition of paintings at the Circle of Friends of French Culture, Havana, Cuba.
1939- Exhibition of paintings at the University of Havana, Cuba.
1944- Exhibition of Oils and Watercolors at the Lyceum of Havana, Cuba. Presented by Guy Pérez Cisneros.
1950, March 31- Unveiling ceremony of "The Birth of the Antilles", bronze sculpture cast at the Ministry of Public Works and destined for the Cuba Pavilion built in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1953- Exhibition of Sculptures, Ceramics and Metals at the Art Gallery of La Rampa, Havana, Cuba. Presented by Guy Pérez Cisneros.
1956, March 2-4- Exhibition "Ravenet. Exhibitions of Painting, Sculpture and Ceramics" at the Palace of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. Remarks by Guy Pérez Cisneros.
1965, December- Painting exhibition "Nature and Revolution". Palace of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. 45 oils and emulsions.
1966- Exhibition of paintings in the halls of José Martí International Airport, Havana, Cuba.
1967- Exhibition of paintings in the lobby of the Central Building of the Central Planning Board (JUCEPLAN). Havana, Cuba.
1968- Exhibition of paintings; 45 oils and 20 drawings. Havana Gallery. Presentation by José Antonio Portuondo.
1968, December 17 - Exhibition Ravenet. Oils and Drawings. Library of 100 and 51, Marianao. City of Havana.

Collective Exhibitions Abroad
1928, January 15 - Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures and Engravings by Andrés Nogueira, Domingo Ravenet and Alberto Sabas. Paris – Latin America Association. Paris (under the patronage of the Ambassador of Cuba in France, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes). Presented by Ramón Gómez de la Serna.
1939 - Exhibition of Contemporary Latin American Art. Riverside Museum of New York. United States.
1939- Exhibition of Modern Cuban Art. Los Angeles, California.
1941- Exhibition of Contemporary Pan-American Art. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1944, June - Collection of Paintings of the Cuban Legation in Moscow. Organized by the General Directorate of Cultural Relations of the Ministry of State.
1946- Cuban Painting in Mexico. Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico.
1949- International Exhibition of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1956- Exhibition of Cuban Ceramics. Museum of Modern Art of Houston, Texas.
1956- Exhibition of Cuban Ceramics. Gropues Cooperative, Boston, United States.
2000- Exhibition Origins and the Cuban Avant-Garde. Museum of Modern Art. Mexico City.

Collective Exhibitions in Cuba
1926- National Salon of the Association of Painters and Sculptors. Prado 44, Havana.
1927, May - Exhibition of New Art, sponsored by the Revista de Avance. Association of Painters and Sculptors, Havana. Organized by Eduardo Abela.
1929- Exhibition of Engravings. Lyceum of Havana.
1933- Exhibition of Cuban Painting. Lyceum of Havana.
1935- National Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture. Department of Culture of Cuba.
1936, August 8- Exhibition of paintings by Víctor Manuel, Amelia Peláez, Carlos Enríquez and Domingo Ravenet. Lyceum of Havana. Presented by Luis A. Baralt.
1936, January 30- Exhibition of Modern Painting. Carlos Enríquez, Amelia Peláez and Domingo Ravenet. Circle of Friends of French Culture, City of Havana. Presentation by Bens Arrate.
1937, February- Exhibition of Current Cuban Painting. Organized by the Municipal Tourism Department. Lyceum of Havana. Presented by Rafael Suárez Solís.
1937, March - April - First Exhibition of Modern Art. Center of Employees. Organized by the Havana Municipality.
1938, June 18- National Exhibition of Painting. Castillo de la Fuerza, Havana.
1939, January - Exhibition of works sent by the Permanent Room of Painting and Sculpture. First National Congress of Cuban Art. Santiago de Cuba. (Work: Ligeia)
1939, January 7- Exhibition of Plastic Arts. First National Congress of Cuban Art. Santiago de Cuba. (Works: Portrait and Portrait)
1939, January - Exhibition of works sent by the Circle of Fine Arts of the City of Havana. First National Congress of Cuban Art. Santiago de Cuba. (Works: Landscape, watercolor and Portrait of Raquel, oil)
1939- Exhibition of painting and sculpture "Cuban Modern Art Gallery", Organized by Mary Unshlm at the Hotel Nacional, Havana
1940, April- Exhibition 300 Years of Art in Cuba. University of Havana.
1940, December- Exhibition of Rita Longa, Aquiles Maza and Domingo Ravenet in the complex of architecture, sculpture and painting in the Maza-Fernández Veiga residence, Miramar, Havana.
1940, February- Exhibition The Art in Cuba, its evolution in the work of some artists. University of Havana.
1941, November - Exhibition of Contemporary Cuban Art. National Capitol, City of Havana.
1941, April - Havana as Seen by the Best Cuban Artists. In: Store windows of El Encanto, for its 53rd anniversary.
1943, June- An exhibition of Modern Cuban Painting and Sculpture. Organized by José Gómez Sucre. Hispanic-Cuban Institute of Culture. Work: Consecration of Spring.
1945, January - Second Vicente Escobar Salon. National Anti-Fascist Front. Acera del Louvre, Havana. Presentation by Oscar Hurtado.
1946, October- Third Vicente Escobar Salon. Association of Industrialists. Prado and San José, Havana.
1946, March - III National Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture in the Hall of Lost Steps, National Capitol. Work: The Indian.
1954, January- Exhibition of Contemporary Cuban Plastic Art tribute to José Martí. Lyceum of Havana
1955, May - Exhibition in tribute to Luis de Soto. 23 #965, Vedado. Havana.
1955 - Permanent Room of Plastic Arts of Cuba. Palace of Fine Arts.
1956, January - Exhibition Tribute in Memory of Guy Pérez Cisneros. Lyceum of Havana.
1956, February - Exhibition Cuban Ceramics and Jewelry. National Institute of Culture, Palace of Fine Arts, Havana.
1956, October- Exhibition of Cuban ceramics at the Lyceum of Havana.
1956-Exhibition of Cuban ceramics at the Lyceum of Camaguey.
1957- Exhibition of Cuban ceramics in the Store windows of El Encanto.
1960- Exhibition of Cuban Paintings and Sculptures at the Monument to Martí, Havana.
1961- August - Exhibition of Painting, Engraving and Ceramics. First National Congress of Cuban Writers and Artists, Havana.
1964, December 22-28- The Avant-Garde. Emergence of Modern Art in Cuba. Palace of Fine Arts, National Museum. Havana.
1966 - Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture. First National Salon. UNEAC, Havana.
1967- National Drawing Salon in Celebration of the Ninth Anniversary of the Triumph of the Revolution. National Council of Culture. City of Havana.
1968, October - Cuban Painting (One Hundred Years of Struggle). Havana Gallery.

Fresco Murals
1937- The Sowing. Normal School for Teachers of Santa Clara. Villa Clara, (removed in 1938).
1940- Dreams of Adolescence. Residence of Dr. Piedad Maza on calle 14, Miramar, Havana (removed after 1959).
1942- Chapel of the Martyrs (some unrestored remains still exist). Avenue of the Missions, City of Havana (former Havana Prison).
1944- Mural in the house of Mariana Corría. Buenavista. Calle 25 between 78 and 80 (covered with a coat of paint after 1962 by new residents).
1945- Prometheus Stealing Fire. Central Library of the University of Havana, (sealed with false ceiling since the 1970s).
1945- Prometheus Chained. Central Library of the University of Havana, (sealed along with the previous one).
1946- Livestock. Ministry of Agriculture, current Ministry of Labor. La Rampa, City of Havana. (Walls torn down for renovations made in the 1960s).
1947- Tobacco. Ministry of Agriculture, current Ministry of Labor. La Rampa, Havana. (Destroyed along with the previous one).
1947- Carnival Scene. Vestibule of the Cuban American Touring Company. Paseo del Prado, City of Havana. (Destroyed in the repair work of the premises in 1998).
1948. Bath in the River, in the courtyard of the residence of journalist Ricardo Casado. La Sierra, Havana. (Wall collapsed in the 1970s due to repairs to a neighboring school).
1958 - Colonial. Mosaic - Mural of nine square meters executed on the 20th floor of the Focsa Building. House of the Bretón family.
1958 - Mural in the residence of Dr. Mario Machado. Calle 212 and ave. 35, La Coronela, La Lisa City of Havana. (Covered with a coat of paint after 1962 by new residents).
1967- Collective mural at the Cuba Pavilion. XXIII May Salon of Paris.

Public Monuments
Abroad
1948 - Monument to Carlos J. Finlay in bronze. Collins Park, Miami, Florida.
1949- Fountain of the Antilles. Group in bronze two and a half meters high at the Permanent Pavilion of Cuba. Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
1950- Monument to Carlos J. Finlay, in bronze. Paseo del Centenario, Panama.

In Cuba
1943- Brother Casiano. Bust in stone at the Parish of Vedado, City of Havana.
1943- The Guardian Angel. Monument in stone in the Central Courtyard of the La Salle School of Vedado, City of Havana.
1944- Brother Claudio. Bust in Marble. Guantánamo, Cuba.
1947- Monument to Emilio Laurent. Stone, Gibara, Holguín. Cuba
1949- Monument to Guiteras. Bust in Bronze. Bridge over the Canímar River, Matanzas. (It was removed from the site during the Batista Dictatorship and returned to its place after the Triumph of the Revolution, with the addition of a bust of Aponte)
1951- Monument to General Enrique Collazo. Calle Línea and M. Vedado, City of Havana.
1952- Monument to Eliseo Grenet. Marble from Isla de Pinos. Ave. 41 and calle 78. Marianao, Havana.
1952- To the Mothers. Monument 2.50 meters high in Carrara marble. Santo Domingo, Province of Villa Clara, Cuba.
1952- "Monument to the Heroes of Cacarajícara". 14 meters high, in marble and stone. Las Pozas, Bahía Honda, north highway of Pinar del Río. Cuba.
1952-1953- Integrity. Sculptural group 6 and a half meters high executed in copper and bronze directly. Court of Accounts, Plaza de la República, (Current Ministry of Interior, Plaza de la Revolución). City of Havana. Cuba.
1957- Monument to the Vegueros Initiators of the Revolutions in Cuba in 1717. Erected by the Rotary Club of Santiago de las Vegas, City of Havana. Executed in marble and stainless steel. 7.50 meters high. Placed at the entrance of Santiago de Las Vegas, Boyeros Municipality.
Collections

Museum of Modern Art of New York
El Jaguey Oil from 1938 acquired by the Museum of Modern Art of New York in 1941.

National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba
Oil/masonite. Heads. 1938, 44 x 38.7 cms.
Dry point engraving. 1927. Nude. 3.66 x 2.75 cms. (Dedication to *Leila Martínez Anaya)
Oil/canvas. 1931. Head. 38.5 x 30.5 cms.
Oil/canvas. Nude. 1932. 41.4 x 33.2 cms.
Oil/canvas. Leda and the Swan. 1965. 92 x 67.5 cms.
Oil/canvas. 1941. Portrait of Juan Marinello. 91.5 x 72.5 cms.

Juan Marinello Memorial Library
Oil/canvas. 1934. Ligeia. 31.5 x 24 cms.
Oil/canvas. Crucible. 1931. 56 x 33.5 cms.
Iron Sculpture. Untitled. 1952. 214 x 50 x 42 cms.
Mariana Ravenet Collection.
Oil/canvas. 1944. Untitled. 55.5 x 50.5 cm.
Oil/canvas. 1939. Flowers. 68 x 52 cm.
Oil/canvas. Painting. 1955 99.5 x 88 cm.
Oil/canvas. Vases. 1934, 9.5 x 61 cm.
Dry point engraving. 1927 Girls Praying. 26 x 12.5 cm.
Dry point. 1927. Image. 3.66 x 27.5 cm.

El Abra Farm Museum
Portrait of José María Sardá Gironella Oil/Canvas, 1944. 100 x 80 cms.

La Lisa Museum
The Duende (ceramics), 1952
Set of figures (Dance) in yellow (Ceramics) 12x1.2x20 cms, 1952.
Scale model of the Cacarajícara monument (wood and plaster)
Oil/board 1937. War. 95x80 cms.
Iron sculpture "Blue".
Dry point engraving "Three Graces". 1924.
Sketch of the Prometheus mural. 1945. Tempera/paper.
Oil/canvas. "Gargoyle". 1967. 175x150 cms.
Ink. "Lace Figuration". 1962.
Ink. "Female Nudes". 1968.
Lithograph. "Horse Head". 3/10. 1968.
Tempera/paper. "The Game". 1964. 57x47 cms.
Oil/sawdust/canvas. "Textured in Sepia".
Oil/canvas. "Tropical Land". 1967. 180x150 cms.
Oil/canvas. "Reeds and Fish". 1967.
Bust of José Martí in stone from Jaimanitas.