Antonio Gattorno (born

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, March 15, 1904 - died

Acushnet, Massachusetts Acushnet () is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,559 at the 2020 census. History Acushnet was first settled in 1659. It has been included as a part of three separate towns throughout its history. It ...

, 1980) was a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n painter. He was a distinguished member of the first generation of modern Cuban painters.Alonso ''et al'', p162.

Early life

He studied at the Academy of San Alejandro in that city before winning a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholarsh ...

, in 1919, which allowed him to travel to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

for further study. There he encountered

Mannerism Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, ...

and social realism, which together with the work of

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...

would form the major influence on his work; during his sojourn he roomed with sculptor

Juan José Sicre Juan José Sicre (born Juan José Sicre Velez; 1898 – 1974) was one of the greatest Cuban sculptors. His most famous sculpture is of José Martí y Pérez (1958) (the José Martí Memorial) in the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana. Sicre grad ...

Career

After completing college he returned to Cuba in 1926, and the following year-a time noted for its importance to modern art in Cuba-exhibited his works such as ''Mujeres en el Río'', a Deco representation of an idyllic tropical scene based on monumental female nudes. He became part of the "Vanguardia", along with

Victor Manuel The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

Amelia Peláez Amelia Peláez del Casal (5 January 1896 – 8 April 1968) was an important Cuban painter of the Avant-garde generation. Biography Amelia Peláez was born in 1896 in Yaguajay, in the former Cuban province of Las Villas (now Sancti Spíritus Pro ...

, and

Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in conta ...

. He became an instructor at his alma mater, and executed public

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s around Cuba. Gattorno developed his mature style in the early 1930s, concentrating on the depiction of Cuban peasants and their environment. The paintings that resulted from his maturity as an artist fluctuated between idyllic views of the Cuban countryside and criticism of Cuba's social conditions. In contrast to his radiant representation of nature and indications of a pastoral way of life, Gattorno depicted the guajiro as being emaciated and sad due to impoverished conditions. Given the representation of the land as radiant and bountiful, the most likely culprit for his peasants' look of dejection and impoverishment would have been the social system. Gattorno's association with socialist leaning writers tend to confirm the interpretation of some of his guajiro figures as a social critique of life in the Cuban countryside of the 1930s. His major contribution to his generation's discourse of national ethos was an idealized vision of the land and a critical view of its most humble inhabitants, making both the primary symbols of Cuba.Martínez, p104. His first exhibition in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, in 1936, was sponsored by

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

and John Dos Passos. In 1940 he married Portuguese-American Isabella Cabral and moved to

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

; he visited Cuba again only in 1946, but spent the next thirty years in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He remained in the United States for most of the rest of his career, in the process alienating many in the Cuban art community. He died in Massachusetts in 1980.

References

Sources

*Alonso, Alejandro G., Contreras, Pedro, and Fagiuoli, Martino (2007). ''Havana Deco''. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, . *Martínez, Juan (1994). ''Cuban Art and National Identity''. Florida: University Press Florida. . *Poupeye, Veerle (1998). ''Caribbean Art''. London; Thames and Hudson; .

External links

''Antonio Gattorno. A Cuban Painter for the World''.
Gattorno Foundation. ''passion4art.com''. Retrieved on 15 February 2010.

Gattorno Foundation. ''passion4art.com''. Retrieved on 15 February 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gattorno, Antonio 1904 births 1980 deaths Cuban painters Cuban expatriates in the United States 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American male artists Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro alumni