VARIATIONS ON A THEME - THE McMULLEN MUSEUM OF ART IN BOSTON EXHIBITS MARIANO RODRÍGUEZ’ RETROSPECTIVE
The first major exhibition on Cuban artist Mariano Rodríguez (1912–90) in the United States, this retrospective features over 140 oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings from leading museum and private collections, including the artist's estate, which has provided unprecedented access to rarely seen works and archives.
Mariano's allegiance to the Cuban Revolution limited the display of his artworks in America principally to those created before 1959, when he was a member of the Cuban avant-garde. This exhibition widely expands the artist's known corpus. It demonstrates how his dedication to lo cubano (the essence of Cuban expression) and his evolving stylistic interests from other parts of the world repositioned him as a painter of universal consequence.
Mariano's career spanned six decades of the twentieth century. He embarked on his peripatetic life in 1936 when he left Cuba for Mexico to study with painter Manuel Rodríguez Lozano. Mariano belonged to the second generation of Cuban modernists, who first sought to align themselves with Mexico and then to adopt themes of national Cuban identity. Mariano's Cuban iconography focused on el gallo (the rooster), but he also embraced leitmotifs that included peasants, fruit, vegetation, and marine subjects. In exploring these national themes, Mariano forged distinctive styles that incorporated, in turn, geometric abstraction, abstract expressionism, figuration, and grotesque imagery. Through the grotesque he demonstrated virtuosity in hybridity, signaling a new postmodern orientation.
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Educating, 1938 - oil on canvas - 22.8 x 21.1″ - private collection, courtesy of Cernuda Arte © Fundación Mariano Rodríguez
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Woman with Rooster (Woman and Rooster), 1941 - oil on canvas | 32 x 26″ - Col. Nercys & Ramón Cernuda © Fundación Mariano Rodríguez
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Fishermen, 1950 - oil on canvas, 24.3 x 30″ - Col. Silvia & Emilio M. Ortiz © Fundación Mariano Rodríguez
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Fisherman, 1955 - oil on canvas, 35 x 40″ - Col. Fundación Mariano Rodríguez © Fundación Mariano Rodríguez
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Woman with Flowers, 1967 - oil on canvas, 40 x 35″ - Latin Art Core Gallery © Fundación Mariano Rodríguez
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Mangoes, 1967 - oil on canvas, 58 x 50″ - Col. Grier Family © Fundación Mariano Rodríguez
Elizabeth Thompson Goizueta will serve as the exhibition's curator and will edit and contribute to an accompanying bilingual catalogue that includes essays by Alejandro de la Fuente, professor of Latin American history at Harvard University, and Roberto Cobas Amate, curator of the Cuban avant-garde collection at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana. Together, the essays consider sixty years of Mariano's career, illuminating both his roots in traditional forms of Cuban symbolism and his unique styles that characterize his work beyond lo cubano.
Organized by the McMullen Museum in collaboration with the Fundación Mariano Rodríguez, the exhibition will travel to Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2022. Major support has been provided by Boston College and the Patrons and the Latin American Art Initiative of the McMullen Museum.
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College
2101 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02135
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