Cundo Bermúdez 

b. Havana, Cuba, 1914 – d. Miami, Florida, United States, 2008

Untitled (A Pair of Works)

c. 1960 

Oil on canvas 

 

Cundo Bermúdez studied at Academia San Alejandro in Havana and at Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City and became a central figure in the Cuban modern art movement in the 1930s-1940s. Beginning in 1962, he lived in Puerto Rico for three decades before relocating to Miami.

 

Bermúdez’s paintings, drawings, sculptures, and murals of the 1930s-1940s burst with color and lively depictions of Cuban life. They are exuberant depictions of colorful figures, musicians, women with flamboyant hairstyles in rumba dresses, and lavishly decorated interiors. 

 

By the 1950s, Bermúdez had moved towards experimentation with elements of concrete abstract art. In this diptych, underlying motifs of Cuban life―two roosters with flowers―serve as the point of departure for his exploration of abstract composition and color.

 

*This piece was included in the exhibition section titled "The Language of Forms and The Forms of Language."