Waldo Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez (10 February 1931 – 5 February 2025) was a Cuban painter and sculptor who later lived in Madrid, Spain.
Life and career
Born in
Banes, Cuba
Banes is a municipality and city in the Holguín Province of Cuba. Banes was an important area for the native Taino people before the conquest by Columbus.
The town of Banes is visited by tourists from Guardalavaca as it is the nearest town to ...
, Díaz-Balart was the son of the mayor of Banes,
Rafael José Díaz-Balart
Rafael José Díaz-Balart (c. 1899 – 1985) was a Cuban politician and mayor of the town of Banes, Cuba, Banes. With his wife América Gutiérrez, he was the father of Rafael Díaz-Balart, Rafael Lincoln Díaz-Balart and progenitor of the Díaz-Ba ...
. Díaz-Balart studied accounting and political science and economics 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. From 1959 to 1962 he studied art in the
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 ...
, New York. In 1967 he became a lecturer in many cultural centres and universities of the United States, Poland, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. He acted in two movies by
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
, ''
The Life of Juanita Castro
''The Life of Juanita Castro'' is a 1965 American underground film directed by Andy Warhol, filmed in March 1965 based on the absurdist theater play by Ronald Tavel by the same name.
Plot
A playwright (Ronald Tavel) taunts a number of actresses i ...
'' (1965) and ''The Loves of Ondine'' (1968). He was friends with fellow artist Andy Warhol and actor Louis Waldon.
Díaz-Balart lectured frequently and his work – explorations of color and light in geometric paintings and light sculpture – has been widely exhibited. In 1966 the Studio Gallery in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, presented a solo exhibition of his work. In 1967 he presented an exhibition at the
Iris Clert Gallery
The Iris Clert Gallery ( in French) was a single-room art gallery named after its Greeks, Greek owner and curator, Iris Clert. It was located on 3 :fr:Rue des Beaux-Arts, rue des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. It was open from 1955 to 1976 and dur ...
in Paris. In 1967 he joined Mass Art Inc. in partnership with Sujan Souri, Dorian Godoy, and Philip Orenstein. The company manufactured the first inflatable chair designed by Philip Orenstein which is now included in the permanent collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
in New York. In 1998 he showed "Waldo Balart. Black Painting" in Galería Edurne in Madrid. In 1964, he exhibited in the
Pan American Union Building
The Pan American Union Building is the headquarters for the Organization of American States. It is located at 17th Street N.W. between C Street N.W. and Constitution Avenue, Northwest, Washington, D.C.
History
The cornerstone was laid on May 1 ...
in Washington, D.C., and in 1968 in the Gallery of Modern Art, New York. In 1970, he participated at the first
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 ...
Bienal del Grabado Latinoamericano (Biennial of Latin-American Engraving) at the
Institute of Puerto Rican Culture
An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes ca ...
in Puerto Rico.
He had his first major exhibition in 1972, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo.
In 1979, he participated in the Third Bienal Internacional del Deporte en las Bellas Artes (Biennial of Sport in Fine Arts) in Barcelona, and in 1995 he participated in the international art fair
Art Cologne
Art Cologne is an art exhibition, art fair held annually in Cologne, Germany and was established in 1967 as ''Kölner Kunstmarkt''. It is regarded as the world's oldest art fair of its kind. The fair runs for six days and brings together galleries ...
in Germany.
In 2002, he was honoured as a
Frost Art Museum
The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum'' (''"Frost Art Museum") is an art museum located in the Modesto A. Maidique campus of Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1977 as The Art Museum at Florida Internat ...
of
Florida International University
Florida International University (FIU) is a public research university with its main campus in Westchester, Florida, United States. Founded in 1965 by the Florida Legislature, the school opened to students in 1972. FIU is the third-largest univ ...
fellow.
He had one-man shows in the Netherlands and in Spain. He is the recipient of a
Pollock-Krasner Foundation
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing funding to visual artists internationally to further their artistic practices. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expr ...
fellowship. His work is in the permanent collections of the
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 ...
in New York, the
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...
in Madrid, the Mondriaan House in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, and the Museum of Modern Art in
Hünfeld
Hünfeld () is a town in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated 16 km northeast of Fulda. In 2000, the town hosted the 40th Hessentag state festival. Hünfeld has a population of close to 16,000.
Infrastructure Transpor ...
, Germany, among others.
In 1992 he published the book ''Ensayos de Arte'' (Essays on Art).
In 1999, he moved from Spain to
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
, Belgium. He later returned to Madrid before 2011. He also briefly lived in Paraguay.
Represented by the Madrid gallery Casado Santapau.
The marriage of his sister, Mirta Díaz-Balart, to Cuban leader
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...
as Castro's first wife made Waldo Díaz-Balart Castro's brother-in-law. His nephews include
U.S. congressman
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
Mario Díaz-Balart
Mario Rafael Díaz-Balart y Caballero ( ; born September 25, 1961) is an American politician serving as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Florida's 26th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party ...
, the late U.S. congressman
Lincoln Díaz-Balart
Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart (born Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart y Caballero; August 13, 1954 – March 3, 2025) was a Cuban-American attorney and politician. A member of the United States Republican Party, Republican Party, he was the United State ...
, and ''
NBC Nightly News
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...
'' Saturday news anchor
José Díaz-Balart
José Díaz-Balart (born November 7, 1960) is a Cuban-American journalist and television anchorman for both Telemundo and NBC News. Diaz-Balart previously anchored weeknight editions of '' Noticias Telemundo'' on Telemundo and '' José Díaz-Bala ...
* Jose Veigas-Zamora, Cristina Vives Gutierrez, Adolfo V. Nodal, Valia Garzon, Dannys Montes de Oca; ''Memoria: Cuban Art of the 20th Century''; (California/International Arts Foundation 2001);
* Jose Veigas; ''Memoria: Artes Visuales Cubanas Del Siglo XX''; (California International Arts 2004);
* Andrea O'Reilly Herrera; ''Cuba: Idea of a Nation Displaced''; (State University of New York Press, 2007)
Cintas Foundation
Oscar Benjamin Cintas y Rodriguez, (31 Mar 1887 in Sagua la Grande, Cuba – 11 May 1957 in New York City, N.Y.) was a prominent sugar and railroad magnate who served as Cuba's ambassador to the United States from 1932 until 1934.
Career
He w ...
El País
(; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...
Waldo
Waldo may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Waldo (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Waldo (surname), a list of people
* Waldo (footballer), Brazilian footballer Waldo Machado da Silva (1934–20 ...