José Manuel Acosta y Bello was a

Cuban Cuban or Cubans may refer to: Related to Cuba * of 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 Americ ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, and

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Biography

He graduated with first letters from a

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. After graduating, he became a clerk of an "old style" business house, commission agent, bookkeeper, used car salesman, alcohol tax inspector, and failed business shareholder. His brother was the famous Cuban poet Agustín Acosta Bello - who was the National Poet of Cuba before the Cuban Revolution. Acosta would often illustrate his brother's poems that would appear in magazines like ''

Social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

'' and '' Carteles.'' By the age of 35, he had submitted at least 35 drawings to Conrado Massaguer to be reviewed and printed in ''Social'' alongside his brother's work. In 1930, Acosta traveled to

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to work out of the ''Social'' bureau there. He moved into residence on Riverside Drive in

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. From New York, he contributed images of New York, and images of modern airplanes for ''Social.'' Social_Vol_XIV_No

Acosta also helped Massaguer design some of the covers of ''Social''. Acosta was a great personal friend of

José Zacarías Tallet José Zacarías Tallet (18 October 1893 – 21 December 1989) was a Cuban writer. He was born in Matanzas and died 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 also illustrated many of his poems. He illustrated a book for someone who went by the moniker of " The Fichista." The magazine ''Social'' wrote of Acosta, that he had:

"a quick mind in the conception and execution of ideas, an absolute command of the technique of his profession, which qualifies him for the highest endeavors. Oh! and some "frescoes", unfortunately gone, living only in the memory of the very few who had the opportunity to admire and enjoy them. And a physical sciatica that he hopes to cure in cold climates."

Career as a photographer

The writer and photographer Nelson Ramírez de Arellano of the Cuban magazine '' Revolución y Cultura'', a Cuban state-sponsored magazine dedicated to glorifying the Cuban Revolution, writes of Acosta:

"...the pioneering work of José Manuel Acosta stands for its own right as a culminating point and vortex generator of the entire avant-garde f Cuba a man with a singular talent... his understanding of the conventional limits of photography and his ability to break them... although his career as a photographer was relatively short, if was very fruitful, and in all his work we can see the presence of a photographer of the constructivist avant-garde on par with its greatest examples. That is to say, there is not a single shot in any of his negatives that does not indicate the intention to revolutionize photographic composition and visual experimentation, there is not a minute of rest for a candid shot and an easy composition. We could randomly select any of his negatives... and we will always appreciate the same creative rigor that allows me to conclude that this photographer had a very clear conscience of his position in the world as an artist and of the relevance of his work and his artistic criteria."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acosta, Jose 1895 births 1973 deaths 20th-century Cuban illustrators 20th-century Cuban sculptors Cuban magazine illustrators Cuban cartoonists 20th-century Cuban painters Cuban photographers