Background
Agustín Cárdenas was born on April 10, 1927, in Matanzas, Cuba into a family that came originally from West Africa. He was a descendant of slaves from Senegal and the Congo. Cárdenas was the son of tailor.
Marianao, Havana, Cuba
Agustín Cárdenas studied at Academy of Fine Arts "San Alejandro" from 1943 - 1949.
Marianao, Havana, Cuba
Agustín Cárdenas studied at Academy of Fine Arts "San Alejandro" from 1943 - 1949.
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Agustín Cárdenas was born on April 10, 1927, in Matanzas, Cuba into a family that came originally from West Africa. He was a descendant of slaves from Senegal and the Congo. Cárdenas was the son of tailor.
Agustin Cardenas studied under Juan Jose Sicre and at the Academy of Fine Arts "San Alejandro" (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro") from 1943 to 1949. In 1949, he considered his training over even though he had not qualified as a sculptor from the university.
Augustin Cardenas arrived in France in 1955 and settled in Montparnasse. He met André Breton, who invited him from as early as 1956 to participate in a group exhibition at the Surrealist gallery, l’Étoile Scellée.
Cárdenas’s sculptures are worked in a variety of materials including wood, marble and bronze and for the most part represent fantastical, poetic and elegant "biomorphic" shapes. His famous totems in wood evoke his African origins. Without being figurative, he often uses the shapes of a woman’s body.
As from 1968, Cárdenas lived and worked in Meudon-Bellevue and at his studio in Nogent-sur-Marne. Cárdenas also worked in Canada, Austria, Japan, Israel and Korea, as well as Carrara in Italy where he sculpted marble pieces and at Pietrasanta, where he cast his bronze sculptures.
Augustin Cardenas is considered as one of the greatest Cuban sculptors in addition to being one of the last artists to join the Surrealist movement. He was made a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, a Knight of the Legion of Honour and received the William and Norma Copley Foundation Award.
Cardenas was an award-winning, successful and appreciated artist, whose works are exhibited in important places around the world. He was exhibited in more than 100 group exhibitions, and 40 solo shows all over the world. His main legacy is his sculpture and his drawings. He drew all his life, creating innumerable new shapes.
The timeless beauty, exotic plasticity, monumentalism and elegance of the shapes of his compositions have brought him recognition around the world.
Agustin Cardenas was a leading member of Los Once, a group consisting of nine painters and two sculptors (Cárdenas himself and Tomás Oliva) who were influenced by American Abstract Expressionism and by Wilfredo Lam, the sole referent accepted by the early avant-garde movements.
Quotes from others about the person
Poet Andre Breton said of his artistic hand that was "efficient as dragonflay."
Agustin Cardens was a father of five sons. They were all born in France.
