Publio Amable Raúl Martínez González

Painter, draftsman, engraver, photographer, and graphic designer.

Native of Ciego de Ávila, he had his first encounter with the world of images and reading through the adventures of Tarzan and other characters that appeared in the Sunday newspapers of the time.

In 1940 he moved to La Habana to study drawing. He worked in various trades, from office boy to shop assistant. He enrolled in the Elementary School of Plastic Arts attached to San Alejandro School in 1941, and completed his studies in 1943.

Around 1946 he enrolled in San Alejandro, whose studies he interrupted in 1948 due to economic problems. That same year he held his first solo exhibition in the vestibule of the now-defunct Adad theater.

In 1952 he applied for a scholarship and was accepted to the Institute of Design in Chicago, United States, founded by Moholy Nagy.

In 1947 he presented his work for the first time at the XXIV Salon of the Círculo de Bellas Artes. He exhibited at that same Salon in 1949 and 1950, and received honorific mention on both occasions. During that time he combined painting with poetry and discovered theater; attracted by musical comedies, he began to draw actress Judy Garland from magazine photographs.

In 1951 he participated in a drawing exhibition organized by the Sociedad Cultural Nuestro Tiempo —directed by Harold Gramatges—, of which he was a founding member. The Sociedad Cultural Nuestro Tiempo, which aimed to introduce the public to the appreciation of contemporary art, provided him his first approach to a group of renowned intellectuals, and influenced his formation through unprejudiced exchange with musicians, writers, dancers, and painters.

When he learned of the interdisciplinary integration proposals of Moholy Nagy's work The New Vision, he applied for one of the scholarships offered by the Institute of Design in Chicago, United States, which was directed by that artist, and which he entered in 1952. There he immersed himself in solving problems of basic design, sculpture, photography, engraving, and typography. Fascinated by the paint drips of Jackson Pollock's gigantic canvases and by the powerful women of De Kooning, he understood the treatment that abstract expressionism was making of personal experiences, with new approaches to space, structure, and form. From then on and throughout the entire decade he traveled repeatedly to Chicago and New York.

After his return from Chicago in 1954, his friend Sandú Darié Laver recommended him to Luis Martínez Pedro, who wanted to hire a draftsman for the advertising agency OTPLA. The advertising work carried out there between 1954 and 1960, and the Chicago experience, were tools that he knew how to maximize throughout his entire artistic career, especially because of the design and photographic essence of his production.

In a short time he surpassed the two-dimensionality of geometric abstraction, based on the criteria offered by his colleague Sandú Darié Laver, and began to apply what he had learned from the works of Kline, Tobey, and Rothko. He then already shared the proposals of the Grupo Los Once (1953-1955), made up of creators of an informalist tendency and consistent ethical stance, who sought a contemporary language, in opposition to that of the Escuela de La Habana.

He is part of the Grupo Los Once and participates in numerous exhibitions of the same, including the famous Abstract Expressionism exhibition at Galería Habana.

The following year, he exhibits Homenajes, where he begins to rid himself of abstract expressionism and initiates his foray into pop through collage.

Beginning in 1966 he begins to work with Martí iconography, combining elements of popular painting and pop. He participates in Salón 70 with his large-scale oil painting Isla 70.

Numerous collective and individual exhibitions make up his intense artistic work. The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes organizes in 1988 the exhibition Nosotros: the first and largest retrospective of his work.

Throughout his career he receives various awards. In 1995 he receives the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas in its inaugural edition. One of the most important exponents of abstract expressionism in the mid-twentieth century, and a paradigm of pop art in Cuba.

This multifaceted artist began in 1958 to create murals in different centers of the capital. From 1960 until the end of his life he designed magazines and books for prestigious cultural institutions, posters for theatrical and film works, sets for theatrical pieces, and experimented with the combination of painting and photography in theater and dance performances.

He assumed the artistic direction of the magazine Lunes de Revolución and was a design professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad de La Habana and at the Escuela Nacional de Arte.

Individual Exhibitions

1948 - Exhibits about a dozen works of academic style in the vestibule of the Ada theater, in Matanzas.
1950 - Second solo exhibition, at the Lyceum, La Habana.
1952 - Holds two solo exhibitions: one at the Raúl Martinez Galería Matanzas and another at the Lyceum. 1964 - Homenajes, in which he begins his Pop exploration through collage.
1966 - Begins to work with Martí iconography, combining elements of popular painting and Pop.
1975 - Exhibits his drawings and designs at the Centro de Estudios Cubanos of New York.
1978 - La Gran Familia, at Galería HABANA. This exhibition traveled to Santiago de Cuba.
1980 - Raúl Martínez. Abstractions from 57 to 66. At Galería L, in La Habana.
1984 - Exhibits at the I Bienal de La Habana.
1985 - Pinta mi amigo el pintor, temperas at Galería HABANA.
1986 - Shows a collection of collages on the theme of conquest at the II Bienal de La Habana.
1988 - Nosotros, Retrospective exhibition from July to December at the Museo Nacional.
1989 - De la conquista, in the vestibule of Cine Chaplin, La Habana. - Raúl Martínez, Museo Xawerego, Warsaw, Poland. - Selection from the retrospective exhibition shown at the Museo Nacional, at Galería Latinoamericana, Cracow.
1992 - Comentarios de la Conquista, (Nov. Dec.), new series of collages. - Islas 90, at Galería Juan David, La Habana.
1994 - New exhibition of abstract painting at Centro Wifredo Lam. - Anthological exhibition at Galería Los Lavaderos, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Collective Exhibitions

1953 - Exhibits with the Grupo Los Once, at the galleries: Lyceum and La Rampa.
1954 - Joins the exhibition Plástica Cubana Contemporánea (Anti Bienal), in repudiation of the one organized by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura; batistiana, and the Consejo de Hispanidad, Francoist, on the occasion of the Martí centennial.
1955 - Participates in two exhibitions of abstract painting with the Grupo Los Once.
1959 - Racial Integration, at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, La Habana.
1960 - Participates in the II Interamerican Biennial of Mexico, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico.
1961 - Exhibits works at the Salón de Mayo in Paris and its La Habana edition. - Exhibits collectively in Montreal, Canada and at Galería Ewan Phillips, in London, England.
1970 - Participates in Salón 70 with his work ISLA 70, Museo Nacional, La Habana.
1975 - Participates in a painting exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno of Mexico.
1977 - Exhibits collectively in the exhibition Cultura, Art et Revolution. Láffichecubainecontemporaine, at Centro George Pompidou, Paris.
1979 - Participates in the Drawing Salon of the Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona.
1980 - Participates in the 1st Carlos Enríquez Painting and Sculpture Salon, at the Centro de Arte Internacional, La Habana. - Participates in the IX Brno Biennial, Czechoslovakia and in the XIII International Warsaw Biennial.
1982 - Participates in the Venice Biennial.
1983 - Participates in two collective exhibitions in the US of Cuban photography and posters and in the II International Michoacán Salon of Textile in Miniature, in Mexico.
1984 - Participates along with Mario García Joya and Cuban artisans in the creation of the installation La Gran Familia, for the IV Venice Biennial.
1991 - Participates in the X International Graphics Biennial of Valparaíso, Chile and in the III International Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador.

Prizes and Honors

1949 Honorific Mention at the Salon of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in La Habana.
1950 Honorific Mention at the Salon of the Círculo de Bellas Artes.
1951 Silver Medal at the Cuban Painting Exhibition, University of Tampa, USA.
1959 Prize for Best Photographic Collection at the Racial Integration Salon, La Habana.
1960 First Prize in Photography at the La Habana Carnival Contest.
1965 Bronze Medal at the International Book Fair IBA, Leipzig, East Germany.
1971 Silver Medal at the International Book Exhibition IBA, Leipzig, East Germany.
1981 Distinction for National Culture.
1983 Alejo Carpentier Medal.
1994 Doctor Honoris Causa of the Instituto Superior de Arte.
1995 Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas, awarded for the first time.