Ponce de Léon, Fidelio (1895–1949)

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Ponce de Léon, Fidelio (1895–1949)

Fidelio Ponce de Léon (b. 24 January 1895; d. 19 February 1949), Cuban painter. Born in Camagüey, Ponce attended the National School of San Alejandro, where he fell under the influence of Leopoldo Romañach. Ponce had an artist's temperament and refused to work on subjects that did not interest him. He disappeared from public record in 1918 but reappeared in 1923 in Havana, where he lived cheaply and gave art lessons to poor children. As part of the burgeoning Cuban vanguard movement in the 1930s, Ponce began to exhibit his works and won a prize at the national salon of 1935 for his painting Las beatas. Typical of Ponce's style are pale colors, a fascination with light, and melancholy reflection on the animalistic nature of the human race. Unfortunately, his work suffers from deterioration and age and has lost much of its original brilliance.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Loló De La Torriente, Estudio de las artes plásticas en Cuba (1954).

Government Of Cuba, Pintores cubanos (1963) and Pintores cubanos (1974).

Additional Bibliography

Bermúdez, Carmen Paula. "Fidelio Ponce de León." Art Nexus 39 (Feb.-Apr. 2001): 64-69.

                                        Karen Racine

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