Amelia Peláez del Casal (5 January 1896 – 8 April 1968) was an important
Cuban painter of the
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 ...
generation.
Biography
Amelia Peláez was born in 1896 in
Yaguajay
Yaguajay () is a municipality and town in the Sancti Spíritus Province of Cuba. It is located in the northern part of the province, and borders the Bay of Buena Vista to the north.
The Caguanes National Park (protecting swamp and coastal ecosys ...
, in the former Cuban province of Las Villas (now
Sancti Spíritus Province
Sancti Spíritus () is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its capital is the identically named Sancti Spíritus. Another major city is Trinidad.
Geography
The southern coast of the province is flat, but the western portion of Sancti Spíritus provinc ...
). She was the fifth born of eleven siblings in a family that was part of the Cuban-Creole middle class. Her father was a doctor, Manuel Pelaez y Laredo, and her mother, Maria del Carmen del Casal y Lastra, stayed at home with her children. Amelia's uncle was
Julian del Casal, who was a poet and included her family in Cuba's intellectual circles.
In 1917, her family moved to
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. , to the La Víbora district, and this gave her the opportunity to enter 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 ...
at the rather late age of 20 years (students at this
academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
usually start at 12–13 years of age). She was among
Leopoldo Romañach's favourite students. In 1924 she graduated from San Alejandro, and exhibited her paintings for the first time, along with another Cuban female painter, María Pepa Lamarque, at the Association of Painters and Sculptors in Havana. Receiving a small government grant, she travelled to New York City in the Summer of 1924 and began six months of study at the
Art Students' League. In 1927, after being awarded a larger grant, she began studying in France, while paying short visits to
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, ...
,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, and other countries.
Student life in Paris
Pelaez moved to Paris, accompanied by Cuban writer
Lydia Cabrera
Lydia Cabrera (May 20, 1899, in Havana, Cuba – September 19, 1991, in Miami, Florida) was a Cuban independent ethnographer.
Cabrera was a Cuban writer and literary activist. She was an authority on Santería and other Afro-Cuban religions. Du ...
, after she received a grant from the government in order to pursue art. Both took painting and art history courses at
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...
.
She also took drawing and art history courses at the
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France.
History
The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Académ ...
and the
École du Louvre
The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and grande école located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy.
Admissi ...
. In 1931 Pelaez enrolled, along with Cabrera, in
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually modified into a more figurative, po ...
's
Academie Contemporaine. She then began studying with Russian painter
Alexandra Exter
Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pro ...
, whose friendship and classes in color theory and design were an important influence.
[Martinez, Juan A.;''Cuban Art & National Identity: The Vanguardia Painters, 1927-1950; University Press of Florida, 1994; '']
Galerie Zak hosted a solo-exhibition of her paintings in 1933, where she exhibited thirty-eight works. In that same year, she participated in the eleventh
Salon des Tuileries The Salon des Tuileries was an annual art exhibition for painting and sculpture, created June 14, 1923, co-founded by painters Albert Besnard and Bessie Davidson, sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, architect Auguste Perret, and others.
The first year' ...
and “was also included in an exhibition of illustrated manuscripts by the calligrapher Guido at the Galerie Myrbor”, in which she illustrated Sept Poemes of Leon Paul Fargue. In her years 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. ...
, her work was highly praised by French critics.
Life in Havana

In 1934, following a showing at the
Salon des Independants
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon ...
, Pelaez returned to live in her mother’s colonial-style house in
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 ...
.
The Cuba Pelaez returned to was in a state of economic uncertainty and political unrest. Beginning in the late 1920s, Cuba was searching for a new art that would reflect the national identity. In response, Pelaez departed from earlier vanguard strategies and turned to new approaches that involved depictions of Afro-Cuban and guajiro (peasant) subjects, while representing them in the adoption of European modernism. According to Ingrid Williams Elliot, Pelaez’s vibrant colors as well as thick lines are derived from Spanish-colonial architecture “integrating domestic objects with architectural decorations”. Peláez uses "Baroque ornamentation in her use of domestic colonial interiors to engage and merge multiple histories and assorted styles -- past and present -- to arrive at a contemporary Cuban idiom.”
In 1935, Pelaez had a solo exhibition at a women’s club in Havana called the Lyceum, which helped gain exposure of her new modernist Cuban style.
During this time, in the mid-thirties, Peláez was experimenting with "patterns, shapes and geometric relationships of tablecloths and fruit dishes, laying the groundwork for the geometric constructions and rhythmic patterns that have been associated with her architectural ornamentation in her work in the forties”, it also shows her awareness of
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 ...
.
Her signature still life paintings were praised for the use of native fruits and flora referencing her Cuban roots.
In 1935-1936, Pelaez focused much of her paintings and drawings to the use of ink and pencil. The treatment of these drawings differs than her previous oil works, by distorting and exaggerating the figure with "sinuous line and light shading" that reference
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 ...
and European Modernism.
Peláez received a prize in the National Exposition of Painters and Sculptors in 1938, and collaborated on several art magazines in Cuba, such as ''
Orígenes'', ''Nadie Parecía'', and ''Espuela de Plata''. In 1950 she opened a workshop at San Antonio de los Baños, a small city near Havana, where she dedicated herself, until 1962, to her favourite pastime of
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and po ...
. She sent her paintings to the
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial ( Portuguese: ''Bienal de São Paulo'') was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennale (in existence since 1895), which serves as ...
in 1951 and 1957, and participated in 1952's
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
. In 1958 she was a guest of honour and jury member at the First Inter-American Biennial of Painting and Printmaking in Mexico City,
although she pulled out of the raucous and controversial jury discussions based on what she reported to be “an openly Communist bias in the decisions.”
Aside from painting and pottery, she dedicated time to
murals
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 Spanis ...
, located mainly at different schools in Cuba. Her most important works of this type are a
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelai ...
mural at the Tribunal de Cuentas in Havana (1953) and the
facade of the
Habana Hilton hotel (1957).
She had a hard time selling her paintings as a living artists—she and her paintings, later named Amelias, achieved fame much later in life.
Peláez died in Havana in 1968.
Estrada Palma 261
Amelia lived in her mother's house, which was a mix between a neoclassical design and a more traditional Cuban Creole architectural style house, for the rest of her years after her return to Havana, Cuba.
Her house was a main source of inspiration after returning to a reclusive domestic lifestyle. The house was built in 1912, filled with colonial furniture of the baroque style. The house contained marble, crystal, wood, and ceramics in its interior. Amelia would also hang her paintings as decor.
Exhibitions
* 1924 Amelia Pelaez y Maria Pepa Lamarque, Asociacion de Pintores y Escultores, Havana.
* 1933 Amelia Pelaez Del Casal, Galerie Zak, Paris
* 1935 Amelia Pelaez Del Casal, Lyceum, Havana.
* 1941 Amelia Pelaez, Norte Gallery, New York
* 1943 Amelia Pelaez: Retrospectiva, Institucion Hispano—Cubana de Cultura, Havana.
* 1956 Amelia Pelaez, Nuestro Tiempo, Havana.
* 1957 Amelia Pelaez, Lyceum, Havana
* 1959 Pintura de Amelia Pelaez, Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Marianao, Havana.
* 1960 Amelia Pelaez
* 1964 Oleos y Temperas de Amelia Pelaez, Galeria de la Habana, Havana.
* 1967 Dibujos de Amelia Pelaez, Museo de Arte Moderno Bogota. Amelia Pelaez; Goaches y Ceramicas, Lyceum, Havana.
* 1968 Amelia Pelaez: Exposicion Retrospectiva, Museo Nacional, Havana.
* 1977 Amelia Pelaez, Metropolitan Museum & Art Center, Miami.
* 1979 La Gran Pintora Cubana Amelia Pelaez, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.
* 1980 Amelia Pelaez, Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogota
* 1987 Amelia Pelaez, Nineteenth Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paolo.
* 1988 Amelia Pelaez; A Retrospective, Cuban Museum of Arts & Culture, Miami.
Collections
The works of Peláez are held in the
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana
The National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana) in Havana, Cuba is a museum of fine arts that exhibits Cuban art collections from the colonial times up to contemporary generations.
History
It was founded o ...
and the
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the ...
.
Further reading
* Peláez, A. (1991). ''Amelia Peláez, exposición retrospectiva 1924-1967: óleos, témperas, dibujos y cerámica''. Caracas, Fundación Museo de Bellas Artes.
* ''Pintores Cubanos'', Editors Vicente Baez, Virilio Pinera, Calvert Casey, and Anton Arrufat; Ediciones Revolucion, Havana, Cuba 1962
References
External links
*
Ediciones Vanguardia Cubana. Libros de Pintura Cubana, Amelia Pelaez
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelaez, Amelia
1896 births
1968 deaths
People from Yaguajay
Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière
20th-century Cuban painters
20th-century Cuban women artists
Cuban women painters
Women muralists
Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro alumni