Agustín Fernández (16 April 1928 - 2 June 2006) was a Cuban painter, sculptor, and multimedia artist. Although he was born in Cuba, he spent the majority of his career outside of Cuba, and produced art in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

, and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Biography

At the age of 11, in 1939, he took his first drawing lessons, soon entering the Jesuit-school ''Belén de Embarque'', where he received painting classes. In 1944 he began studying at the art school ''La Anexa'', and two years later he entered the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts. He also pursued doctoral studies in philosophy and literature at the

University of Havana The University of Havana (UH; ) is a public university located in the Vedado district of Havana, the capital of Cuba. Founded on 5 January 1728, the university is the oldest in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas. Originall ...

, which he did not complete. After graduating from San Alejandro, he traveled to New York, where he studied with

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

and

Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker. Early life Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889, in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906 at 17, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. Kuniyoshi ...

at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

. Back in Havana, he exhibited at the ''Ciudad Cultural Nuestro Tiempo'', revealing himself as key emerging artists of the Cuban avant-garde. In 1953, he travels to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

on the British ocean liner "Queen of the Pacific". For approximately two years he lives in Spain, attending courses at the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the centre of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal aca ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. In 1953, and until 1955, he was part of the group Los Once. In this first period he exhibited his works in Madrid (Bucholz Gallery, 1953), Washington D.C. (Pan-American Union, 1954), New York (Acquisitions of painting and sculpture,

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, 1958), and

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

(Museum of Fine Arts, 1959). He also participated in the IV and V Biennial of the Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo, receiving a mention in 1957.

International career

Although Fernández began his career in his country, most of his works were made and exhibited abroad. In 1959, with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, he received a scholarship to study in Paris. Due to political differences, Fernandez decided to go into exile in Paris. There he maintained contact with Simone Collinet - André Breton's first wife, who directed the Fürstenberg Gallery-as well as

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), usually known simply as Matta, also as Sebastián Matta or Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known Painting, painters and a seminal figure in 20th ...

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

Alain Bosquet Alain Bosquet, born Anatoliy Bisk () (28 March 1919 – 17 March 1998), was a French poet. Life In 1925, his family moved to Brussels and he studied at the Université libre de Bruxelles, then at the Sorbonne. He fought in the Belgian army in ...

and Richard Wright. In 1967 he participated in MoMA's retrospective on Latin American art 1931-1966. By 1969 he moved to

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

, after obtaining a contract with ''La Casa del Arte'' gallery. He also exhibited 20 collages on silkscreen at the Colibri Gallery. In 1972, he moved permanently to New York City. There he became friends with the photographer

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...

. He exhibited in the following galleries, among others: Anita Shapolsky, Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery, ACA Gallery, Mitchell Algus and Nina Menocal Gallery,

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. In New York he produced his famous group of paintings: Armors. Agustin Fernandez participated during his career in a variety of art fairs, among them: the May Salon, Paris Internationale,

FIAC The Paris International Contemporary Art Fair (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain or FIAC) is a contemporary art event that occurs in Paris. History FIAC was started by gallery owneDaniel Gervistogether with artisBengt Olsonand was usually ...

(Paris), Independent, Frieze (New York) and in Maastricht (Netherlands). In the period 1978-1979 he received a scholarship as a visual artist from the Cintas Foundation. In the 1990s he focused on developing a series of sculptural objects in which he returned to his surrealist essence. In 1992 Florida International University presented a major retrospective of his work. Two paintings by Fernández have been featured in cinema: "Développement d'un délire" appeared in

Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (; born September 11, 1940) is an Americans, American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for work in the suspense, Crime film, crime, and psychological thriller genres. ...

's film Dressed to Kill (1980), and in The Father of the Bride (2022), starring Cuban American actor

Andy Garcia Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of real individuals and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds * Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianis ...

Private life

Agustín Fernández first married María Elena Molinet in 1952. A second marriage followed in 1961 to Lia Epelboim, who had escaped from Romania during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. They had three children: Clodio, Clea and Sebastian. Fernández died on Thursday, June 2, 2006, in New York, at the age of 78, due to complications from pneumonia. Lia had passed away a few weeks earlier. By the time of his death, Fernández had had some thirty solo exhibitions and participated in over one hundred group exhibitions. He left unpublished memoirs in which he recounts his childhood and youth in Cuba, as well as the influences of masters such as

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 15996 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the Noble court, court of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He i ...

in the development of his career as an artist.

Solo exhibitions

*1951: ''Agustín Fernández Expone Óleos'', Galería Lyceum, Havana, Cuba. *1952: ''Agustín Fernández'', Galería Sociedad Nuestro Tiempo, Havana, Cuba. *1953: ''Agustín Fernández, Galería Bucholz'', Madrid, Spain, April 24-May 8 *1954: ''Agustín Fernández: 15 Paintings'', Pan American Union, Washington D.C. **''Agustín Fernández: Óleos'', Gouaches, Galería Lyceum, Havana, Cuba. *1955: ''Agustín Fernández'', Duveen Graham Gallery, New York, October 17 November 5 *1958: ''Agustín Fernández'', Condon Riley Gallery, New York. *1959: ''Agustín Fernández: Pinturas y Dibujos'', Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela. **''Agustín Fernández: Pinturas y Dibujos'', Galería Contemporánea, Caracas, Venezuela. **''Agustín Fernández: Pinturas y Dibujos'', Circulo de Bellas Artes, Maracaibo, Venezuela. **''Agustín Fernández'', Bodley Gallery, New York. *1960: ''Agustín Fernández: Peintures Récentes'', Galerie Fürstenberg, Paris. *1962: ''Agustín Fernández'', Galleria Del Cavallino, Venice, Italy. **''Agustín Fernández'', Galerie Fürstenberg, Paris. **''Agustín Fernández'', Galleria Del Naviglio Milan, Italy. *1964: ''Agustín Fernández'', Galerie Fürstenberg, Paris. *1966: ''Agustín Fernández, Objets-Tableaux'', Galerie Jacqueline Ranson, Paris. **Agustín Fernández: Objects, Books, Engravings and Collages, Librairie Nicaise, Paris. *1968: ''Agustín Fernández: Pinturas y Dibujos'', Galería La Casa del Arte, San Juan, Puerto Rico. *1969: ''Agustín Fernández'', Walton Gallery, London. *1970: ''Agustín Fernández: Oleos, Dibujos, Grabados'', Galería La Casa del Arte, San Juan, Puerto Rico. *1973: ''Agustín Fernández: Collages'', Colibrí Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico. **Agustín Fernández: Retrospectiva, Museo de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. *1974: ''Agustín Fernández: Retrospectiva'', at the Galería Las Américas, in San Juan, Puerto Rico *1976: ''Agustín Fernández'', Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York. **''Agustín Fernández'', Gallery 24 Collection, Miami, Florida. **''Agustín Fernández: Retrospective'', Metropolitan Museum and Art Center. *1979: ''Agustín Fernández: Recent Paintings and Drawings'', ACA Gallery, New York. *1980: ''Agustín Fernández: Recent Works'', Robert Samuel Gallery, New York. *1982: ''Agustín Fernández: Drawings'', at the Osuna Gallery, Washington D.C. *1989: ''Agustín Fernández'', Galerie Fürstenberg, Paris. *1992: ''Agustín Fernández: A Retrospective'', The Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, Florida. *1994: ''Agustín Fernández: Oleos y Dibujos 1969 1994'', Galería Nina Menocal, México D.F. *1999: ''Four Latin American Masters: Agustín Fernández, Perez Celis, Antonio Seguí, Oswaldo Vigas'', Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York. *2000: ''Agustín Fernández: Large Paintings'', Signal 66 Gallery, Washington D.C. *2001: ''Agustín Fernández: An Exhibit of Recent Works'', Aroca Gallery, Miami, Florida. *2005: ''Agustín Fernández: Paintings'', Drawings, Sculpture, Collage: 1960-2005, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York. *2008: ''Agustín Fernández: Translating Martí'', West Dade Regional Library, Miami, Florida. *2013: ''Form’s Transgressions: The Drawings of Agustin Fernandez''. The Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami Florida, and the

Collections

* Art Museum of the Americas *

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

* Cabinet des Estampes * Cintas Foundation *

Círculo de Bellas Artes The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a private, non-profit, cultural organization that was founded in 1880. Its building, located in Madrid, Spain, was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1981. The CBA is a major multidisciplinary centre with one ...

El Museo del Barrio El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo (the museum), is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the City ...

* Godwin-Ternbach Museum * Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art *

JP Morgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mark ...

Collection *

Lowe Art Museum Lowe Art Museum is the art museum of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The museum is located on the campus of the University of Miami and is accessible by Metrorail (Miami-Dade County), Miami Metrorail at University station (Miami- ...

* Miami-Dade Public Library * Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia *

Museo de Arte de Ponce Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) is an art museum located on Avenida Las Américas in Ponce, Puerto Rico.Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Tourism Company. Ven al Sur, page 20. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2003. It houses a collection of Art of Eur ...

, Ponce * Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes * Museum of Art, Nova Southern University *

Museum of Latin American Art The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) was founded by Dr. Robert Gumbiner in 1996 in Long Beach, California, United States, and serves the greater Los Angeles area. MOLAA is the only museum in the United States dedicated to modern and contemp ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art, formerly known as the Newark Museum, in Newark, New Jersey is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia (including a large collection of T ...

New Mexico Museum of Art The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico, United States. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located one bloc ...

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Snite Museum of Art The Snite Museum of Art, was the fine art museum on the University of Notre Dame campus, near South Bend, Indiana. * Saint Thomas University Library * The Frost Art Museum * The Patrick Lannan Foundation * Tucson Museum of Art * University of Texas-Pan American *

Utah Museum of Fine Arts The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) is a state and university art museum located in downtown Salt Lake City on the University of Utah campus. Housed in the Marcia and John Price Museum Building near Rice-Eccles Stadium, the museum holds a permane ...

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. The museum opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its holdings include Roman mosaics, Europe ...

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and period ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernández, Augustin 1928 births 2006 deaths Artists from Havana Cuban surrealist artists 20th-century Cuban painters 21st-century Cuban painters Cuban exiles 20th-century Cuban sculptors 21st-century Cuban sculptors Cuban male sculptors Cuban expatriates in Spain Cuban expatriates in France Cuban expatriates in the United States Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro alumni 20th-century Cuban male artists