René Francisco (born 1960,

Holguín Holguín (, ) is a municipality-city in Cuba. After Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and Camagüey, it is the List of cities in Cuba, fourth largest city in Cuba. History Before Christopher Columbus, Columbus, the Taino people settled in huts made fro ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

) is a Cuban

contemporary artist Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art i ...

living 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.Instituto Superior de Arte The University of Arts of Cuba / Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) was established on 1 September 1976, by the Cuban government as a school for the arts. Its original structure had three schools: Music, Visual Arts, and Performing Arts. History T ...

) as a student in 1977, graduated in 1982, and studied until 1989, when he became a professor. He is very popular due to his unorthodox teaching methods, he sometimes leaves the Institute and the classes happen outside. Rene Francisco's determination to create interaction between students and professors led him to create ''Galería DUPP'', ''Desde una Pedagogía Pragmática'' (through a pragmatic pedagogy) in 1989. René Francisco talks admiringly and expansively about the ISA, which isn't for him only a school to learn to paint, but a school of ideas, where the professors try to shape the students. More than a few of Francisco's former students, such as Alexandre Arrechea, Wilfredo Prieto and Duvier del Dago Fernandez, have gone on to achieve artistic prominence on their own. René Francisco is an artist who has done a lot for the cause of conceptual art and community development. His commitment to El Romerillo, one of Havana's most notorious slums, extends beyond artistic interest. In 2003 he received a grant from a foundation in Berlin that he decided to use to give an art project to the foundation and help residents of El Romerillo at the same time. He renovated Rosa Estévez's house and his ''Casa de Rosa'' pictures were exhibited in Berlin late in 2003. In 2004, René Francisco turned the yard of Marcelina Ochoa, who everyone in El Romerillo called “Nin”, into a garden. He also provided her medical treatments. He exhibited his documentation of ''El Patio de Nin'' at the 52nd

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 2007. René Francisco's studio is filled with extremely interesting paintings. Paint has been layered on canvas with a spatula, using a painstaking, pointillist technique. Most of the paintings have sociological and political themes. One of them shows masses of indistinguishable faces in black-and-white. Another shows seamstresses sewing flags in a mass of red, blue and white.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francisco, Rene Cuban contemporary artists Cuban painters 1960 births Living people Instituto Superior de Arte alumni