Teodoro Ramos Blanco

Considered, along with Juan José Sicre, Ernesto Navarro and Florencio Gelabert, one of the initiators of the Cuban sculptural avant-garde and at the same time one of the most outstanding and talented figures.

He was born in La Habana. A graduate in drawing and modeling from the San Alejandro School in La Habana, where he studied between 1917 and 1928, once he completed his studies and by virtue of the national prize he obtained in the Mariana Grajales Monument Competition, he was able to travel to Europe (Spain and Italy), where he completed his training, and later visit Mexico and the United States. He obtained the Gold Medal from the Ibero-American Exhibition of Seville.

He soon became one of the best representatives of Cuban art of the time. From 1930 onwards he exhibited in places such as the Casa de España in Rome or at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in La Habana.

From a young age, he was a magnificent portraitist but deliberately moved away from the mimetic realism that dominated the genre in favor of a freer interpretation of the model that tends to capture the essential physical features and to deepen, above all, in its psychological expression. The well-known heads of Enrique José Varona (bronze in 1933 and marble in 1935) and Juan Gualberto Gómez (stone from 1934) are the highest exponents of this facet of the sculptor.

Skilled in the use of different techniques and materials, this artist stands out for the masterful command of direct carving, which is recognized as perhaps the boldest technical contribution of our first sculptural avant-garde. To the frankness of the technical procedure and the freshness of his works is added the merit of having addressed the racial theme with a depth without equals or precedents in local sculptural art. Precisely in the treatment of the Black theme does Ramos Blanco achieve his greatest successes in his work with terracotta and wood (Venus, Negra Vieja, Negra Triste, Lo eterno) and the highest plastic expressiveness.

Vida Interior (marble in 1934) becomes a true classic of modern Cuban sculpture and places its author as an indispensable figure in this first stage of takeoff and gradual consolidation of the plastic avant-garde in the country. To his abundant gallery work is added a significant number of environmental sculptures (commemorative monuments, funerary works and public sculptures in general) that testify to his versatility and the long path he traveled from initial realism, enriched with measured expressionism and surpassed through bold stylizations, to the very threshold of abstraction.

From 1944 onwards he began teaching at the elementary school of plastic arts at San Alejandro. Meanwhile, he continued winning awards such as in the II Ibero-American Art Biennial of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.

In addition to gallery exhibitions, Teodoro Ramos Blanco created numerous commemorative monuments, as well as funerary works and public sculptures.

The racial theme was the cornerstone of his sculptures, advocating for universal values and the historical dimension of human beings. In this way, he did not show his cultural roots in a folkloric manner, but rather integrated them with the rest of the races and with a common denominator: Cuba.

The artist confessed: "From my travels abroad, among many things I learned one that has been constant in my vocational life: the important thing is not to work in the manner of this or that master, but to grasp from each one what is essential in him to pour into my own creation all of that and something more… I have tried to give my work a connection with the reality of which it, my work, and I are part."

Awards: National Competition Mariana Grajales Monument, Gold Medal from the Ibero-American Exhibition of Seville, II Ibero-American Art Biennial of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.