Cubans, even those lacking great culture, identify him as
the man who painted Cuba’s National Hero, Jose Marti,
in many different ways and endowed him with loud colors –like
those of his land- in an image that had nothing to do with
the traditional one found in all museums.
He humanized him as no other artist of his times. And he also
painted him more times than anybody else.
Born in Ciego de Avila, in 1927, Martinez was successful in
different expressions of plastic arts: painting, design, photography,
and also as a ghostwriter.
Having studied in Havana and in Chicago’s Art Institute
(USA), he received the National Plastic Arts Prize in 1994
for his lifework.
Raul Martinez was there, in every one of Cuban culture’s
key moments after the Revolution’s triumph in 1959.
He had to do with the foundation of cultural institutions
of those times -the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), Casa
de las Americas, the Cuban Book Institute- as well as with
the promotion and extension of artistic photography, posters
and theatrical projects, among other prominent events of the
period.
This
master in plastic arts created a style among his well-known
contemporaries, including Wifredo Lam, Rene Portocarrero and
Antonia Eiriz.
When
he painted Jose Marti, he did it following a trend that art
critics and historians insist on calling non-figurative and
that is part of his restless search of forms to show a different
way to deal with plastic arts in which everyday events drink
from sources which are less connected to the classic.
Raul
Martinez, a member of the so-called group of The Eleven (abstract
painters) was an interpreter of the pop movement but with
a Cuban outlook. His works have the vibes and the colors of
the tropics. Although this trend came on strong in Great Britain
and the US, it also had followers in Spain and Latin America,
with Colombian Antonio Caro and Venezuelan Marisol Escobar,
among others; and some used several features of this trend
in their works, such as Brazilian Antonio Enrique Amaral.
Perhaps among the many other decisive elements in his work,
the most prominent one is the transmission of the virtue of
plastic -born out of his talent and sense of experimentation
and innovation- to establish communication with great human
groups.
Right
on the artistic target, he painted the Cuban revolutionary
icons: not only Marti but also Cuban president Fidel Castro
and Commander Ernesto
Che Guevara, and he returned them as a whirlwind
of shapes and colors.
Faces flooded in light, many later turned into posters that
would identify an era and a country in revolutionary effervescence.
Raul
Martinez, who among other awards received the National Plastic
Arts Prize in 1994, set standards in Cuban posters. His work
outlined guidelines which are still in force today for film
posters. Great Cuban motion pictures of his time are also
distinguished by his peculiar style, apparently simple, but
which identified the history of films with its own voice.
The work of this master reached the common people, who recognized
his gusts of abstract art devoid of elitism. His paintings
were fresh, completely new to a public used to the shapes
and colors of traditional schools.
One
of the most renowned Cuban critics, Graciela Pogolotti -daughter,
in turn, of one of Cuban painting’s classic masters
(Marcelo Pogolotti)- recognized him as one of Cuba’s
greats and said: (…) “His is a lesson of talent
and skill, but above all, a lesson of lucidity and critical
spirit. Because when they are lacking, talent becomes a spark
and the skill is reduced to mere academic practice.”
Works by Raul Martinez are on exhibit in important museums
throughout the world. He made at least twenty personal exhibits,
among which are prominent those of his drawings and designs
in the Center of Cuban Studies in New York (1975), and Cuban
photography and posters (1983, United States). He also received
the Silver Medal in the Cuban Painting Exhibition at Tampa
University, Florida.
In addition, his works have been part of collective exhibitions
since 1953, with the group of The Eleven, as well as in the
Ewan Phillips Gallery (London, 1961), the Museum of Modern
Art of Mexico (1975), the Georges Pompidou Center (Paris,
1977), and the Hall of Drawing of the Joan Miro Foundation
(Barcelona, Spain, 1979).
Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts dedicates a large
space in the permanent collections halls to Raul Martinez,
especially remembered on the island for showing us –if
possible- a truer Marti. |
