Víctor Manuel García Valdés (October 31, 1897–February 1, 1969) was a

Cuban Cuban may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean * Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent ** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof * Cuban citizen, a perso ...

painter. He was an early member of the "Vanguardia" movement of artists who, beginning in the 1920s, combined European concepts of Modern art with native Primitivism to create a distinctly Cuban aesthetic.

Life and career

Born in

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.

, at age six Victor Manuel already showed a precocious aptitude for drawing. At age 12 he enrolled in the

Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, is the oldest and most prestigious fine arts school in Cuba. It is also known as Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", Academia San Alejandro, or San Alejandro Academy. The school is lo ...

, the most prominent art school in Cuba, where he studied under the famous painter

Leopoldo Romañach Leopoldo Romañach y Guillen (1862–1951) was a Cuban painter. He was born in Sierra Morena, Cuba, Sierra Morena, Corralillo, in the province of Las Villas Province, Las Villas. Romañach was a professor of color theory at San Alejandro, won a n ...

. By his mid-teens he was acting as an unofficial professor of elementary drawing.Art Experts: Victor Manuel Garcia (1897-1969); http://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/manuel.php retvd 12 8 15 By age 19 Manuel's talent started becoming evident. Nevertheless, he didn't have his first personal exhibition until 1924, at the Gallery of San Rafael in Havana, when he was 26 years old. In 1925 he traveled to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for a year of study in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. There, he was exposed to the various Modernist trends of the city's bustling art scene; he found particular resonance in

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 ...

's Primitivist style of painting.Martinez, Juan A.;''Cuban Art & National Identity: The Vanguardia Painters, 1927-1950; University Press of Florida, 1994''; It was in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

that a group of French artists advised him to sign his paintings only as "Víctor Manuel" (until then, he had used his entire name and surname). After returning to Cuba, Manuel's work was featured in both a solo show (Feb. 1927) and in the ''Exhibition of New Work'' group show (May 1927) at the Painters and Sculptors Association of Havana. Sponsored by ''

Revista de Avance ''Revista de Avance'' ( Spanish: ''Advance Magazine'') was a Cuban avant-garde magazine which existed between 1927 and 1930 in Havana. It was the media outlet of a group, minorism, which had been established in 1923 to support social and politic ...

'', a magazine which was the main voice of the Vanguardia artists, these shows are considered to be important starting points of the Cuban

modern Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

painting era.Artnet.com - Victor Manuel biography; http://www.artnet.com/artists/victor-manuel/biography retvd 12 9 15 In 1929, following another period of study and travel in Europe, Manuel created his most famous painting, ''La Gitana Tropical'' (''The Tropical Gipsy''), popularly known as "La Gioconda Americana" ("The American Mona Lisa"), which is in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana. It is considered by critics to be one of the defining pieces of Cuban

Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

art. In 1935, Víctor Manuel began to reap awards for his work, receiving prizes in the first two exhibitions of painting and sculpture, held in 1935 and 1938 respectively, at Havana's Lyceum. He was given solo exhibitions at the University of Havana (1945), the Association of Reporters (1951), and the Lex Gallery (1959), and was the subject of a career retrospective at the national galleries in 1959. In 1964, he began a new stage in which he expressed himself through lithography, holding experimental graphic workshops in Havana's Plaza de la Catedral.TheBiography - Biography of Victor Manuel; http://thebiography.us/en/manuel-victor retvd 12 9 15 He also continued exhibiting his works abroad. He died in 1969, in Havana.

Style

Víctor Manuel's style was not monolithic, but it evolved greatly during his lifetime. His early paintings show a tendency to mix European styles with an earthy primitivism, such as ''La Gitana Tropical'' (1929). In the 1940s and 1950s he adopted the more stylized look that became distinctive of his work. During the last years of his life, his style became almost abstract, with his portraits suggesting

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

. He was very inconsistent in signing his work, ranging from a simple "VICTOR MANUEL" in all capitalized letters, to fluid and complicated script, to not signing his paintings at all. He even used a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

in a period of his lif

His subjects were the constant point of his work. He was eminently a

portraitist A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

of female faces, as well as painter of

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...

, both rural and urban.

References

1969 deaths People from Havana 1897 births 20th-century Cuban painters 20th-century Cuban male artists Male painters Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro alumni {{Cuba-painter-stub