# Havana Exhibition Reveals José Lezama Lima's Overlooked Career as Art Critic

**Date:** 09/27/2026

A new exhibition at Havana's Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes is spotlighting an often-overlooked side of José Lezama Lima's legacy: his work as an art critic and his close ties to some of Cuba's leading 20th-century painters. "El reino de la imagen" opened September 25 and runs through November 22, according to Diario de Cuba and 14ymedio, marking the 50th anniversary of the writer's death in 1976.

Curated by Roberto Cobas, a specialist in Cuban modern art of the 1927-1950 vanguard period, the show pairs Lezama's critical writings with works by painters including Arístides Fernández, Víctor Manuel, Mariano Rodríguez, René Portocarrero and Amelia Peláez, along with sculptor Alfredo Lozano and earlier 19th-century artists Vicente Escobar, Guillermo Collazo and Juana Borrero.

"The exhibition reveals Lezama's prodigious talent as art critic," Cobas said, according to Diario de Cuba, adding that it illustrates "the close relationship between the eminent poet and artists within his inner circle." He noted that Lezama was "the first intellectual seeking to transform Cuban art criticism into an artistic expression of another character," treating criticism itself as a creative act rather than strictly academic analysis.

Lezama Lima, born in Havana in 1910, is best known for his 1966 novel "Paradiso" and for founding the influential literary magazine Orígenes. He died in Havana on August 9, 1976, after the Cuban government had branded "Paradiso" pornographic and later accused him of counterrevolutionary activity, restrictions that darkened his final years.