Biography
Raúl Martínez was a well-rounded designer, as he was successful in just about every art form he pursued: from the early abstract paintings to the later representative ones; from photography to college; from screen printing movie posters to freelance graphic design for government institutions such as the ICAIC. Originally a member of a group that called themselves '' Los Once (The Eleven)'', Martínez found success in all of his artistic endeavors until the end of his life in 1995. Martínez was born Publio Amable Raúl Martinez González inThe revolution and his work
The revolution had not influenced the work of Martínez until 1962 when the blockade between the United States and Cuba occurred. Even then, the influence of the revolution did not, yet, have a substantial effect on the body of work. Martínez simply began incorporating topical titles into his work (which becomes evident in his exhibition ''Expressionismo Abstracto'' in 1963). Abstraction soon became the mode of expression of the Cuban artist, shifting from billboard advertisements to abstract paintings by 1964, when Rauschenberg-like symbols began to appear in the artist's paintings (first with the number 26 as a graphic symbol in ''26 de julio''). Substantial to the progression of Martínez's work was the importance of his life-partner, Abelardo Estorino, a prominent playwright and poet in Cuba at the time. It has yet to be determined how influential Estorino had been directed upon the work of Martínez, but substantial to the progression of the artist's work was the fact that he was homosexual. During the homosexual paranoia in Cuba in the 60's and 70's, Martínez had lost his job as a teacher in the school of architecture in Havana, which caused him to further pursue his career as a freelance designer, while continuing his career as a prominent painter in Cuba, following his already well-known body of work.Paintings
By 1965, Martínez started losing interest in abstraction, but did not return to the "painting for the sake of painting" ideals of ''Los Once'', who believed in "expression of aesthetic emotion through plastic means – form and color – so that the spectator faced with the work would be moved by its basic element: painting." Figuration made its return to the work of the artist, who longed for closer communication with the public. "Magic always has been important for me, the magic of the surface and the magic of an expressive life transmuted on it. But magic I define the process of looking for the unknown, which is what I always have done." Briefly, during the 1960s, Cuba had been heavily influenced by the socialism of Soviet Russia. The USSR had a heavy impact on the developing art scene in Cuba, raising the marvel of social realism as an art form soon after the liturgical awakening in Cuba, where the literacy in the country had undergone a massive overhaul, the likes of which the world had never seen. (The literacy rate of the average adult went from 20%, to over an astounding 75% over the course of 12 years) When later asked why at the time he did not go with socialist realism, Martínez answered that "Cuban artists were building upon something that had not been built up yet; they could experiment, but they could not take anything for granted." This idea of a national art form was nothing new to the Latin American Art World, as is evident through Colombian and Brazilian art during the same time period and years prior. The development of icons was inevitable given the impact of individuals such as Che and Fidel to the developing Cuban culture. During his time studying at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Illinois, pop art was just beginning to emerge in the United States. Though this direct exposure to the emerging movement was rather brief, the inclusion of some of the devices of the movement found their way into the work of Martínez, who has been credited as a creator of "a very Cuban pop aesthetic", isolating popular elements of the time with the hope of returning them to the people as the true and original owners of the symbolic goods.Relation with U.S. Pop Art
Though there were a few borrowed elements from the movement in the United States, Martínez simply borrowed the serial structure that was most apparent. Like the artists in the U.S., Martínez used a preexisting popular image but did not really delve into mass-media aesthetics, nor into the desensitization methods utilized by other North American artists of the time. Instead of taking images from the media, he sought images taken from display cases in Workers' Centers and Defense Committees, images that were produced without taking aesthetics into consideration, and sometimes lacking evident technical skills, to be included into his work. By this time, the work of Martínez had moved from strictly painting with the inclusion of painted photographic images to heavy photographic collage implementation. The artist had also migrated from the idea of letting the canvas speak for itself, to beginning a piece with somewhat of an idea already in mind. The compositions made during this time were somewhat reminiscent of the contemporary Western art but did not erase his emotional individuality seen in his pieces.Freelance and the ICAIC
Later in his career, after being fired from the school of architecture in Havana, Raúl Martínez soon began his work as a freelance designer and made countless contributions to the Cuban Film Institute, and other centralized government organizations (before the decentralization of powers on Cuba under Fidel's reign). Otherwise known as the ICAIC (the acronym before translation), the organization played a major role in both the importance of the revolution to the history and development of Cuba, as well as perpetuating the inclusion of popular art within the culture. In a time where there was little else for the public to do for leisure, the movies were increasingly popular to the Cuban culture. Because of the embargo, movies were very limited in Cuba, thus the demand for new material was rather high. One of the outcomes of such demand was a cinematic success called ''Lucía'', for which the poster was designed by Martínez, and has come to define the movie.Legacy
The work of Raúl Martínez traces the progression of the pop art movement in Cuba, as well as the political influences of Cuban Revolutionary art. Examining his work throughout his lifetime, one can trace the artistic progression of Cuban art from Abstract Expressionism, to the later collages of militaristic figures. Influenced by the growing pop-art movement, Martínez created a series of designs for magazines, books, and posters. Note that while the pop art movement, especially in terms of Warhol, was all about the inclusion of ready-mades and the repetition of pop icons that were found images. This is not the case of Martínez. Even though there were many common devices found in his work, such as bright colors and repetition of culture icons (Martí), his work that is considered to be of the pop art genre was mostly painted, undermining many of the ideals of pop art as we know them today. Many of his works carried the themes and iconography of theSelected solo exhibitions
1948
*Raul Martinez. ''Vestibule of Adad theater, in Matanzas.''1950
*Raul Martinez. ''Lyceum, Havana, Cuba.''1952
*Raul Martinez. ''Matanzas Gallery, Matanzas, Cuba.'' *Raul Martinez. ''Lyceum, Havana, Cuba''1954
*Raul Martinez and Agustin Cardenas. ''Lyceum, Havana, Cuba.''1957
*Raul Martinez. ''Lyceum, Havana, Cuba.''1962
*Enamels and Ink. ''Lyceum, Havana, Cuba.''1964
*Tributes. ''Havana Gallery, Havana, Cuba.'' *Raul Martinez. ''National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.''1966
*Raul Martinez and Antonia Eiriz. ''Galeria de la Casa del Lago, Mexico D.F., Mexico.''1975
*Solo exhibition. ''Center of Cuban Studies of New York.''1978
*The Great Family. ''Havana Gallery, Havana, Cuba.''1980
*Raúl Martínez. ''Abstractions of 57 to 66. L Gallery, Havana, Cuba.''1984
*Solo exhibition. ''I Biennial of Havana, Havana, Cuba.''1985
*Pinta mi amigo el pintor. ''Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba.''1988
*Nosotros (We). ''Retrospective Exhibition. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.''1989
*Acerca de la Conquista. ''Vestibule of Charles Chapplin Movie, Havana.'' *Raúl Martínez. ''Xawerego Gallery, Varsovia, Polony.'' *Solo exhibition. ''Latin American Gallery, Cracovia, Poland.''1990
*Selection of Nosotros. ''23 y 12 Gallery, Havana, Cuba.'' *Raul Martinez en la plástica cubana. ''Servando Cabrera Moreno Gallery, Havana, Cuba.'' *Homenaje a la cultura cubana. ''Playa Gallery, Havana, Cuba.''1991
*De la Conquista. ''Facultad de Artes y Letras, Universidad de la Habana, Cuba.''1992
*Comentarios de la Conquista. ''National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.'' *Islas 90. '' Juan David Gallery, Havana, Cuba.''1994
*Abstract Painting. ''Wifredo Lam Centre, Havana, Cuba.'' *Anthological Exposition. Los Lavaderos Gallery, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canarias Islands.''Notes
References
External links
*http://www.panamericanart.com/bio/RaulMartinez215.php *http://www.lajiribilla.cu/2005/n203_03/203_12.html *http://www.cubanartnews.org/can/post/raul_martinez_pop_art_of_the_cuban_revolution_finally_comes_to_new_york *http://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=22401 {{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Raul 1927 births 1995 deaths School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni 20th-century Cuban painters 20th-century Cuban male artists Cuban gay artists People from Ciego de Ávila 20th-century Cuban LGBT people Male painters