Portocarrero, René (1912–1986)

René Portocarrero (b. 24 February 1912; d. 7 April 1986), Cuban artist. Born on the outskirts of Havana, Portocarrero was a child prodigy, mostly self-taught, except for a brief period of study at the Academy of San Alejandro in Havana. Initially he painted domestic interiors, later incorporating images of Cuban festivities and religious practices. Socially conscious, he taught drawing to prison inmates and claimed to have been influenced by them. Critics characterized Portocarrero's style as "baroque" for its exuberant ornamentation and multiple-foci compositions, characteristics that reached a peak in his painting between 1946 and 1947. In 1956 he worked on a series of imaginary urbanscapes reminiscent of Havana, and won the national prize for painting at the Eighth National Salon of Painting and Sculpture in Cuba. Four years later he helped found the National Union of Sculptors and Artists of Cuba. He worked on The Color of Cuba, scenes of Carnival celebrations on the island (1962–1963), for which he received the International Samba Prize at the Seventh Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1963. He painted a series called Portraits of Flora, emblematic images of a Cuban woman (1966) and executed several murals in public buildings throughout Cuba.

Portocarrero received the Félix Varela Order from the Cuban government in 1981 and was awarded the Aztec Eagle from the Mexican government the following year. He illustrated several of José Lezama Lima's books as well as publications such as Orígenes, Carteles, Bohemia, Revolución y cultura, Signos, Islas, La gaceta de Cuba, and Juventud rebelde.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

José Lezama Lima et al., René Portocarrero: Exposición Antológica (1984).

Marta Traba, Museum of Modern Art of Latin America: Selections from the Permanent Collection (1985), pp. 46-47.

Additional Bibliography

Mosquera, Gerardo. "René Portocarrero." Art Nexus 19 (Jan.-Mar. 1996): 76-80.

Piñera, Virgilio. "La pintura de Portocarrero." Caravelle 80 (2003): 237-244.

                                        Marta Garsd