Maria Elena Molinet de la Caridad, Lia Fernández (born Epelboim)
Agustín Fernández (16 April 1928 - 2 June 2006) was a Cuban painter, sculptor, and multimedia artist. Although he was born in Cuba, he spent the majority of his career outside of Cuba, and produced art in Havana, Paris, San Juan, and New York.
Biography
Agustín Fernández c. 1952.Fernández in his studio in Paris.
At the age of 11, in 1939, he took his first drawing lessons, soon entering the Jesuit-school Belén de Embarque, where he received painting classes. In 1944 he began studying at the art school La Anexa, and two years later he entered the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts. He also pursued doctoral studies in philosophy and literature at the University of Havana, which he did not complete. After graduating from San Alejandro, he traveled to New York, where he studied with George Grosz and Yasuo Kuniyoshi at the Art Students League.
Back in Havana, he exhibited at the Ciudad Cultural Nuestro Tiempo, revealing himself as key emerging artists of the Cuban avant-garde. In 1953, he travels to France and Spain on the British ocean liner "Queen of the Pacific". For approximately two years he lives in Spain, attending courses at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. In 1953, and until 1955, he was part of the group Los Once. In this first period he exhibited his works in Madrid (Bucholz Gallery, 1953), Washington D.C. (Pan-American Union, 1954), New York (Acquisitions of painting and sculpture, MoMA, 1958), and Caracas (Museum of Fine Arts, 1959). He also participated in the IV and V Biennial of the Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo, receiving a mention in 1957.
International career
Although Fernández began his career in his country, most of his works were made and exhibited abroad. In 1959, with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, he received a scholarship to study in Paris. Due to political differences, Fernandez decided to go into exile in Paris. There he maintained contact with Simone Collinet - André Breton's first wife, who directed the Fürstenberg Gallery-as well as Roberto Matta, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Alain Bosquet and Richard Wright. In 1967 he participated in MoMA's retrospective on Latin American art 1931-1966.
By 1969 he moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, after obtaining a contract with La Casa del Arte gallery. He also exhibited 20 collages on silkscreen at the Colibri Gallery.
In 1972, he moved permanently to New York City. There he became friends with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. He exhibited in the following galleries, among others: Anita Shapolsky, Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Gallery, ACA Gallery, Mitchell Algus and Nina Menocal Gallery, Mexico City. In New York he produced his famous group of paintings: Armors. Agustin Fernandez participated during his career in a variety of art fairs, among them: the May Salon, Paris Internationale, FIAC (Paris), Independent, Frieze (New York) and in Maastricht (Netherlands). In the period 1978-1979 he received a scholarship as a visual artist from the Cintas Foundation. In the 1990s he focused on developing a series of sculptural objects in which he returned to his surrealist essence.[1]
In 1992 Florida International University presented a major retrospective of his work.
Agustín Fernández first married María Elena Molinet in 1952. A second marriage followed in 1961 to Lia Epelboim, who had escaped from Romania during the World War II. They had three children: Clodio, Clea and Sebastian. Fernández died on Thursday, June 2, 2006, in New York, at the age of 78, due to complications from pneumonia. Lia had passed away a few weeks earlier. By the time of his death, Fernández had had some thirty solo exhibitions and participated in over one hundred group exhibitions.
He left unpublished memoirs in which he recounts his childhood and youth in Cuba, as well as the influences of masters such as Diego Velázquez in the development of his career as an artist.
Solo exhibitions
Looking at and Understanding Two Different Operations, 1963.Untitled, 1998.Two views of the exhibition Agustín Fernández: Armaduras, Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo (ICA).
1999:Four Latin American Masters: Agustín Fernández, Perez Celis, Antonio Seguí, Oswaldo Vigas, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York.
2000:Agustín Fernández: Large Paintings, Signal 66 Gallery, Washington D.C.
2001:Agustín Fernández: An Exhibit of Recent Works, Aroca Gallery, Miami, Florida.
2005:Agustín Fernández: Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Collage: 1960-2005, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York.
2008:Agustín Fernández: Translating Martí, West Dade Regional Library, Miami, Florida.
2013:Form’s Transgressions: The Drawings of Agustin Fernandez. The Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami Florida, and the Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana.[2]
2014:Agustin Fernandez: Ultimate Surrealist. The American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington DC.[3]
2015:Agustin Fernandez: Paintings and Works on Paper. Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, New York.
2016:Agustin Fernandez: Paintings and Works on Paper. The Independent New York, presented by Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, New York.
Agustin Fernandez, Paris Internationale Art Fair, Paris, presented by Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, New York.
2017:Paintings and Works on Paper by Agustin Fernandez. Frieze Art Fair, New York, presented by Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, New York.
2018:Agustin Fernandez: Paradoxe de la Jouissance, Marie du IVeme arrondissement, Paris, France.[4]
Hole in the Wall, Leon Tovar Gallery, New York, New York.
2019:Master Drawings, Leon Tovar Gallery, New York, New York.
^Kuspit, Donald (2012). "The Fetishized Breast and the Phallic Woman: Agustín Fernández's Surreal Imagery". Agustín Fernández: The Metamorphosis of Experience. 5 Continents: 12.
