Leonel López-Nussa

Painter, writer and critic

From childhood he begins to paint and draw and although he makes a brief foray into the San Alejandro academy, he is self-taught. He spends part of his childhood in Puerto Rico.

In the 1940s he travels to Mexico and the USA where he studies mural painting and begins his work in silkscreen printing. He holds his first solo exhibition in 1949 in New York.

Together with Luís Mitjans he founds and directs in Consolación del Sur, Pinar del Río, the humorous publication La Recortada, although his first writings appeared in La Luz.
He leaves his painting studies at San Alejandro unfinished, graduates with a Bachelor's degree from the Instituto de La Habana and from Marianao.

In Mexico he studies Marxist philosophy and political economy at a workers' university.
In 1945 he moves to New York where he worked as a dishwasher, house painter and office clerk.
He settles in Paris in 1950, travels to Italy and Spain, returns to New York and Mexico, where he dedicates himself to writing scripts for illustrated comic strips.

He returns to Cuba in 1957, and after 1959 works in the Press Department of INRA and was a draftsman and writer for that organization's magazine.

He collaborates with Revolución and its supplement Lunes de Revolución, Islas, Unión, La Gaceta de Cuba, Bohemia. He was responsible for the arts and entertainment pages of Hoy, writer for Cuba and film and theater critic for Granma.

During this period the Taller de la Gráfica at Plaza de la Catedral begins to function, where he works diligently for more than 15 years. During this period he holds several solo exhibitions and participates in innumerable group shows.

In the 1980s and 1990s he exhibits in Havana, Mexico, France, the USA, Switzerland and Spain. A large part of his extensive work is found abroad. His most recurring themes are woman, music and the couple. He is a founder of UNEAC and UPEC.

His novel Recuerdos del 36 deserves mention in the UNEAC contest of 1966. He participates in the Cultural Congress of Havana.

He has published the novels El ojo de vidrio, El asesino de las rosas, Tabaco, Recuerdos del 36, the first two by the editorial Constancia in Mexico, 1955-1957, Tabaco by the publications department of the Central University of Las Villas and the last by Unión editions.

He has used the pseudonyms Antonio Carpio, Alex Corbán, Alejo Beltrán and Red Blay with which he publishes his first two books. He also signs as Ele Nussa.

Awards and Honors:
He obtained a mention (1965) in the first contest of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba with his novel El Gao, published under the title Recuerdos del 36.
Silver medal for his drawings at the Leipzig Book Fair (1973), an event in homage to the 250th anniversary of the death of Dürer.