José María Mijares

JOSE MARIA MIJARES (Havana, 1921-2004).
"Bird".
Oil on canvas.
Enclosed certificate María Antonia Cabrera de Mijares.
Provenance Doña María Antonia Cabrera de Mijares, widow of the artist.
Measurements: 90 x 121 cm; 117 x 150 cm (frame).
In this work the autochthonous referents are fused with the formal language learned in Europe to produce works where the characters of the Yoruba pantheon that will populate great part of his later production already appear. The Cuban school of the 20th century was characterized by embracing the European avant-garde and developing, on that basis, a language of its own. This generalized current of artists trained in Europe, who returned to Cuba, meant a great artistic impulse for the country. Thanks to painters who fused their roots and experiences, thus creating a new personal and independent language as can be seen in the representation of this bird. A symbol that was used on several occasions by Mijares, who resorted to the symbolism of the bird as the protagonist of some of his compositions.
Mijares, considered one of the great 20th century Cuban and Latin American artists, studied at the San Alejandro National School of Fine Arts in Havana, where he taught. Among his teachers were Romanach, Menocal, Valderrama, Ramon Loy, Caravia and others. It was Mijares himself who recognized that one of his most influential teachers was Ponce, who helped him develop his own style of expression. He was a member of the group Diez Pintores Concretos. Between 1968 and 1973 he was a member of Grupo Gala in Miami, where he settled at the age of 47. He directed Alacrán Azul magazine in Miami. He held his first exhibition at the Havana Lyceum (1947). In the eighties he exhibited in Coral Gables, Florida, where he reiterated his presence. In 1994 the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture of Miami dedicated a retrospective to him. Also the Alfredo Martinez Gallery of Coral Gables would organize an ontological one in 1996. As for group exhibitions, it is worth mentioning his participation in the Venice Biennial of 1952. He is represented at the Cintas Foundation in New York, the Loewe Art Museum, Florida; the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Mijares' well-deserved recognition came mainly from knowing how to harmonize his universal vocation with the search for an autochthonous Cuban language. His works are characterized by illustrating a personal, expressive artistic style, with a special poetics that values at the same time the versatility of his plastic resources and an exquisite sensitivity in handling different themes. Sometimes starting from a colorful postcubism through which he practically enters into abstraction, but without losing the referential thread. The Florida International University awarded Mijares an honorary doctorate in fine arts in December 2001. In 2002, he opened the Mijares Gallery in Coral Gables, where his latest works were exhibited.