Enríquez, Carlos (1901–1957)
Enríquez, Carlos (1901–1957)
Carlos Enríquez (b. 3 August 1901, d. 2 May 1957), Cuban artist. Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, Enríquez was sent by his parents to the United States to study engineering, but upon his arrival he instead entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was expelled from the school because of his rebellious personality and returned to Cuba. During a 1930–1934 sojourn in Europe, he became particularly attracted to the art of El Greco, Zurbarán, Velázquez, and Goya. During the 1930s he incorporated political and historical themes in his paintings. He won a prize at the National Salon in Havana in 1938.
His paintings depict nature in a state of turmoil, an effect achieved by swirling forms, translucid planes, and overlapping figures (The Rape of the Mulattas, 1937). Sensualism and the female body, to which he alluded even in the shapes of animals and vegetation, are characteristic of his work (Cuban Outlaw, 1943).
See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
José Gómez Sicre, Pintura cubana de hoy, English text by Harold T. Riddle (1944), pp. 79-87.
Adelaida De Juan, Pinturas cubana: Temas y variaciones (1980), pp. 71-74.
Additional Bibliography
Martínez, Juan A. Cuban Art and National Identity: The Vanguardia Painters, 1927–1950. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994.
Sánchez, Juan. Carlos Enríquez. La Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1996.
Marta Garsd