Felipe Jesus Consalvos (1891 – c. 1960) was a Cuban-American cigar roller and artist, known for his posthumously discovered body of artwork based on the vernacular tradition of cigar-band collage.

Life

Felipe Jesus Consalvos was born near

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.

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 ...

in 1891 and grew up on the farm of his mother's family. He married, moved to Havana, and later emigrated with his family to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

around 1920, eventually moving to

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and finally to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, where he is believed to have died sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. Consalvos worked for much of his life as a factory cigar roller.

Art

A large body of Consalvos' art work was discovered in 1983 at a

garage sale. The body of work consists of over 800 collages on paper, found photographs, musical instruments, furniture, and other objects. Consalvos' playful and often subversively political work—on which he is thought to have collaborated with his son, Jose Felipe Consalvos -- appropriated cigar bands and cigar-box paper, along with magazine images, family photographs, postage stamps, and cut-up money. Following extensive conservation work, Consalvos' work was first exhibited in a solo show in 2004 at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in

. Subsequently, his work has appeared in a number of public exhibitions and collections, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...

, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Consalvos has been described by art critic

Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position. Early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. Smith studied a ...

as a "self-starting modernist" who is "nearly on a par with folk-art greats like

Henry Darger Henry Joseph Darger Jr. (; April 12, 1892 – April 13, 1973) was an American writer, novelist and artist who worked as a hospital custodian in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page fantasy novel m ...

, Martin Ramirez and

James Castle James Castle may refer to: * James Castle (politician) (1836–1903), U.S. Representative from Minnesota * James Bicknell Castle (1855–1918), businessman in Hawaii * James Charles Castle (1899–1977), American artist-bookmaker from Idaho * Jam ...

." According to Smith, Consalvos' work "belongs to the collage continuum from

Hannah Höch Hannah Höch (; 1 November 1889 – 31 May 1978) was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage, or fotomontage, is a type of collage in which the p ...

Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captio ...

Collections

* Art Institute of Chicago *

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

* Koehler Foundation *

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

* Philadelphia Museum of Art

References

External links

Felipe Jesus Consalves at the Fleisher/Olman Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Consalvos, Felipe Jesus 1891 births Modern artists American collage artists Outsider artists Year of death unknown Cuban emigrants to the United States Artists from Philadelphia

Life

Art

Collections

References

Further reading

External links