Peláez, Amelia (1896–1968)
Peláez, Amelia (1896–1968)
Amelia Peláez (b. 5 January 1896; d. 8 April 1968), Cuban painter. The niece of the Cuban symbolist poet Julián del Casal, Amelia Peláez is one of the most respected Cuban artists of the twentieth century. She graduated from the National School of San Alejandro, where she trained in academic impressionism, but she continued to modify her style throughout her life. Peláez studied in Paris under the Russian cubist Alexandra Exter and later experimented with modernist painting, ceramics, and stained glass. Her art evokes the Cuban creole spirit with its values of home, family, and a serene, glorious past. Devoted to her life-style and neighborhood, Peláez remained in Cuba after the revolution. Among her most famous works are Gundinga (1931); an illustration for her uncle's poem "The Agony of Petronius" (1935); Las dos hermanas (1943); and Las muchachas (1943).
See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century; Casal, Julián del.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Government Of Cuba, Pintores Cubanos (1963) and Pintores Cubanos (1974).
Giulio V. Blanc, Amelia Peláez (1988).
Additional Bibliography
Juan, Adelaida de. "Del silencio al grito: Amelia Peláez, Antonia Eiriz." Casa de las Américas 207 (April-June 1997): 133-137.
Martínez, Juan A. Cuban Art and National Identity: The Vanguardia Painters, 1927–1950. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994.
Karen Racine