Lot 178: Desnudo con flores

Domingo Ravenet (Cuban 1905-1969) Desnudo con flores signed and dated 'Ravenet 1943' (lower right), signed and dated again and titled 'Desnudo con flores' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 28 1/8 x 20 in. (71.5 x 51 cm.) Painted in 1943.

Havana, Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club, Ravenet, June 1944.
Havana, Casa de Cultura de Playa, Facetas de Ravenet: Pintura, Escultura, Grabado y Cerámica, September 1981.
Miami, Casa Bacardi, University of Miami, A Tribute to Ravenet, April - June 2005.

Dra. Mariana Ravenet collection.
Carlos Padial collection.

Domingo Ravenet is considered the Renaissance man of the Cuban avant-garde.(1) Along with Eduardo Abela, Victor Manuel, Antonio Gattorno, Carlos Enríquez, and Amelia Peláez, and other artists of his generation, he brought Cuban art into the twentieth century. After graduating from Cuba's San Alejandro Academy, he soon realized the limits of an academic education and in 1927, joined a wave of fellow artists who left for Paris and Madrid to expand their cultural and artistic experiences. There, he soon developed a highly personal expressionistic style. Upon his return to Cuba in 1934, he began to take part in exhibitions at such places as the Universidad de La Habana, the Lyceum, the Círculo de Amigos de la Cultura Francesa, and the Primer Salón Nacional de Pintura y Escultura, where he won an award. In a 1941 exhibition held at the Capitol Building in Havana, two of his works were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York which became part of its permanent collection.

Desnudo con flores, 1944, is representative of his so-called luminous period when the artist put an end to the use of the dark palette of his Paris days.

Carlos Padial, President, Fundación Domingo Ravenet.

(1) J. Martínez, exhibition catalogue, A Tribute to Ravenet, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, April-June 2005.