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SERVANDO CABRERA MORENO the Cuban Artist

Servando Cabrera Moreno was a prominent artist of Cuba and the world. Supporter of the Cuban Revolution, many of his paintings depict Cuban peasantry. Stylistically, his paintings are rooted in spearhead tradition; especially indebted to the work of Carlos Enriquez Gomez. Any artist who identifies with Cubism and Abstract art, will readily sense that Servando, in the early stages of his work, possessed a trend of geometric figures.

Born on the 28th of May 1923, in Havana, Cuba, he was christened Servando Miguel Justo Jesus Cabrera Moreno; the son of Servando Cabrera Sanchez, Sr. and Margarita Moreno Cabrera, of Marianao, Havana, Cuba. He studied at the Academy of San Alejandro Fine Arts, graduating with first place in grade paint exams in 1942. His first exhibition was held at the Salon XXII Fine Arts, in February 1940. His first solo exhibition was held at the Lyceum, in Havana, in September 1943.

After the emergence of the first generation of modern artists in Cuba during the late thirties, there was a period of lull. The first attempts to follow the modern trends started among graduates of the National Academy of Fine Arts to surface about a decade later. Among the new names added was Servando Cabrera Moreno, who began to abandon a sort of meticulous idealistic rendering of reality, especially in the field of portraiture. He approached new trends for his art. After years of hard discipline at the Academy, he gained new styles toward his art with more elaborate conception.

Cabrera Moreno presented, in 1946, his first one-man show in the United States. He attended and graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts. Later, while in New York, he enrolled in the Art Students League. By this time, he is linked to the theatre and costume design and scenery. He found among other artists, Pablo Picasso, which in recognizing the painter, would greatly influence his work through every stage. He traveled to Mexico, Guatemala and finally to Europe in 1949.

He toured museums and attended the Grande Chaumiere in Paris. His first break with oil painting techniques developed in 1950 and 1951. Cabrera Moreno exhibited in group shows and held a solo presentation at Madrid's Clan gallery in the fall of 1952. Two years later, in Paris, he presented in the La Roue Gallery. The influence of Joan Miro and Paul Klee mainly dominated his brief but intense experience in Abstract in 1954; introduced in Spain and France. While in Spain, he associated for a period of six months with new artists such as Paies, Saura, Oteiza, who were driving Spanish contemporary art into a new plastic direction.

During his exhibition in Paris, in January 1954, he met rejection of the mechanisms of the art market, to cause a sudden turn is his artistic creation. Servando participated in filming the documentary "The Megano", along with Julio Garcia Espinosa, in 1954. The inspiration from the documentary inspired him to make an important series of realistic charcoal drawings culminating in painting "The Colliers of Megano". Thereafter, he again toured Spain, Italy and Greece; visiting Mexico and Central America.

The modern art of Matisse, Picasso and Cubism strongly influenced Cabrera Moreno's new style of enthusiastic collector-configuration. Themes began to surface in The Triumph of the Revolution within Cabrera-Moreno's paintings in the year 1959.

The artist participated in numerous shows in Cuba and the United States. His work has been included in important group exhibitions in Venezuela, France and Spain. His paintings have been among the Cuban selections sent to several Biennial exhibits, including the 26th in Venice, the 4th in Sao Paulo and the 1st in Mexico City. In his prolific life, he held more than 130 exhibitions.

Every work made in 1981, the year Servando died, illustrated that his full dominance of his instinctive artistic qualities had emerged. Twenty-four oil paintings over cloth and tempera over a card were the last works of the Cuban painter. They exhibited at the Museum Library in Havana, Cuba. The selected pieces to El Largo Camino de la Nostalgia (The Long Road to Nostalgia), the selected title for the exhibition, each correspond to the recurrent interest in the erotic from the perspective of the human body and the sensuality the artist achieved in the last years of his life.

An exceptional draftsman, the painter held a sharp sense of lines, colors and compositions. Servando Cabrera developed along his life a very personal language, directly related with the avant-garde, but sufficiently distanced himself to become an artist of difficult classification.

Servando Cabrera Moreno died in Marianao, Havana, Cuba on the 30th of September 1981.

Personal Exhibitions

In 1943 "Exhibition of charcoal portraits by Servando Cabrera Moreno". Lyceum, Havana, Cuba
In 1952 "Cabrera Moreno, oil paintings and gouaches". Caralt Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
In 1954 "Cabrera Moreno". Galeria La Roue, Paris, France.
In 1956 "Paintings by Cabrera Moreno". Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba
In 1959 "Cabrera Moreno of Cuba". Pan American Union, Washington, D.C. USA
In 1961 "exhibits among others", "Cabrera Moreno". Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba
In 1967 "Servando Cabrera Moreno". Sopot/Lublin, Poland
In 1988 "Exhibition of Selected Works by Servando Cabrera Moreno". Christies, Amsterdam, Holland
In 1995 "Servando Cabrera Moreno". Marpad Art Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida USA

Group Shows

In 1941 Participated in group exhibitions such as "Exhibition of Modern and Classical Painting and Contemporary Sculpture in Cuba". Municipal Palace, Havana Cuba.
In 1946 III National Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Hall of Lost Steps, National Capitol, Havana
In 1951 Discussed in "Art Contemporain Cuban". Musee National d'Art Moderne Paris, France and in the 1st American Biennial. Madrid, Spain
In 1952 Participated in the XXVI Venice Biennale di Venezia, Italy
In 1957 The IV Biennial do Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo. Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo and in the 5th Sao Paulo Biennial, Ibirapuera Park Paulo, Brazil
In 1960 Artist was present at the Second Inter-American Biennial of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving. National Museum of Modern Art, Mexico
In 1961 and 1963 Presented in the VI and VII Biennial de Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In 1969 and 1970 Participated in the VIII and IX International Prize Dibuix Joan Miro in Vicereine Palace, Barcelona and Collegi of Architects, Catalunya, Baleares, Barcelona, Spain
In 1994 The Sample was in "Cuban Art The Last Sixty Years". Pan-American Art Gallery, Dallas, Texas USA
In 2000 In "The people at home, contemporary collections". 7 ma. Havana Biennial

Awards and Distinctions

In 1992 - Honorable Mention, XXIV Hall of Fine Arts, Circle of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba
In 1946 - Silver Medal, XXVIII Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture. Circle of Fine Arts Havana, Cuba
In 1948 - XXX Gold Medal Hall of Fine Arts, Circle of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba
In 1969 - First Mention. VIII International Prize Dibuix Joan Miro. Vicereine Palace, Barcelona, Spain

Works in Collection

Servando Cabrera Moreno's work is on display at:

The Fundacion Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain; The Foundation Verannemam, Belgium; The National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria; The Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC). Havana, Cuba; The Cuban Mission, United Nations Organization (UN). New York, USA; The Museum Bacardi, Santiago de Cuba; The Museum of Modern Art, Lodz, Poland; The Museum of Fine Arts, Bucharest, Romania; The Museum of the City of Havana; The Museum Ignacio Agramonte, Camaguey, Cuba; The National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.

Source reference websites:

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