Historical Close-Up: Modern Cuban Painters at MoMA, 1944

In a photographic detail, María Luisa Gómez Mena stands with a core group of artists and critics in the doorway of Galería del Prado, c. 1942-1944. Gómez Mena stands sixth from the left, in front. Others in the shot include José Gómez Sicre, Mario Carreño, Cundo Bermúdez, Alfredo Lozano, Amelia Peláez, Mestre, MLGM, Roberto Diago, and Eugenio Rodríguez.

 

"... On March 17, 1944, the Museum of Modern Art opened the exhibition Modern Cuban Painters. Organized by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. in consultation with a young Cuban art critic and curator by the name of José Gómez Sicre, the exhibition was hailed by the art criticism establishment, from the conservative Royal Cortissoz to the more liberal Edward Alden Jewell. In Art News, H.F. Kraus described it as 'an exhibition of color and verve and home grown baroque sensibility . . . very different from the Mexican work seen in these very galleries four years ago.' Cuban art was not a complete stranger to New York audiences. ..."

Historical Close-Up: Modern Cuban Painters at MoMA, 1944, Part 2: Spotlight on María Luisa Gómez Mena, Part 3: More on Maria Luisa Gómez Mena

An exhibition at the Galería del Prado, c. 1942. The works on view include pieces by Amelia Peláez, Mario Carreño, Felipe Orlando, and Mariano Rodríguez.