NEW YORK, NY – Bill Hodges Gallery is honored to celebrate Agustín Cárdenas (1927 – 2001) and his decades long contributions to the global art community. Agustín Cárdenas, A Solo Exhibition, showcases museum caliber masterwork sculptures and works on paper, created by this dynamic Afro-Cuban artist. Agustín Cárdenas (Alfonzo) was born on April 10, 1927, in Matanzas, Cuba. He became interested in art at an early age, perhaps influenced by his father, a skilled tailor. To develop this interest, at the age of 16 he moved from Matanzas, a former major port city in the slave and sugar trade, to the bustling capital city of Havana, to attend the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, San Alejandro. There he would study under the celebrated Cuban artist, Juan José Sicre, an artist renowned for his monumental marble sculptures. After graduation he emerged onto the Havana art scene, where he aligned himself with various art groups. One such group, Los Once (The Eleven), was comprised of painters and sculptors who rejected conventional art practices and it exposed him to more experimental art methodologies. This newfound interest in diverging methods of creating art, prompted his move to France, arriving in Paris at the end of the French surrealist movement. Once in Paris he quickly found community with surrealist artists Constantin Brancusi and Salvador Dali, and exhibited his works in the same circles as prominent artists Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Meret Oppenheim. The important writer and poet André Breton, took particular interest in Cárdenas’ work later organizing his first European solo exhibition at Galerie de la Cour d’Ingres in 1959 (Cárdenas’ first solo exhibition was at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Havana in 1955). Although Cárdenas was welcomed and well regarded in these circles, he has not received the same wide recognition as his peers, hence our exhibition.
The artist’s body of work is often divided into three distinct periods: the first being his totem period marked by his migration from Cuba to Paris and his exploration of African art. A descendant of slaves from Congo and Senegal, Cárdenas looked to the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa for inspiration, creating work with similar characteristics to those present in Dogon art traditions and practices. Works by the Dogon people are often elongated vertical forms with rounded edges. These works are also abstracted even while depicting human or animal figurative forms.
The second period is marked by the use of marble, sourced in large part from quarries in Carrara, Italy as used for the work, La Dompteuse, 1972, featured above. La Dompteuse and many of these Carrara marble works share the same artistic qualities present in works throughout his career, expressive elongation and rounded edges, almost sensual in nature. This sensuality is amplified by the quality of the material, both from a scientific classification and artistic sensibility. Marble is considered a very “soft” mineral, from a 3-5 on the Mohs hardness scale versus diamond a 10, and the favorite medium for a countless number of sensual reclining nudes, throughout history. By employing this highly favored medium, Cárdenas is aided by the material and its historical applications in creating these carnally bold, yet not ostentatious works present in our exhibition.
The third period is defined by his works on paper. As an abstractionist, sculpting in marble, and wood and producing works in bronze as well as employing gouache, India Ink, and pen; he often created sketches and two-dimensional studies of works before transforming them into three-dimensional forms. Unlike his sculptural works, many of the works on paper are not limited by a single form or color. In works such as Untitled, ca. 1960, both gouache and graphite are utilized to give the unique geometric form, dimension and texture.
A master of materials, Cárdenas possessed the ability to coax, smooth curves and elegant forms from the dense materials he worked; revealing a biomorphic fluidity where there was only rigidity. In these works the possibilities of the abstracted form are explored, with some elements elongated and in other instances compositions are enveloped in color and texture. These works invite the viewer to peer closer for longer, contemplating form and function and finding a familiarity in the abstract.
Cárdenas continued to work into the early 1990s exhibiting his work around the world. In 1994 he fell ill and left France to return to Cuba, where he remained until his death in 2001. Agustín Cárdenas is buried in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and is survived by his sons. His works are in the permanent collections of many of the most important museums and institutions including, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba.
Agustín Cárdenas, A Solo Exhibition, magnifies the masterworks of a lesser known yet equally matched member of the abstraction and surrealist movements. In this exhibition we work to unearth and platform the work of, possibly, Cuba’s most important sculptor.
