PEDRO DE ORAÁ

Pedro de Oraá
b. Havana, Cuba, 1931 – d. Havana, Cuba, 2020
Untitled
1959
Oil on wood
Pedro de Oraá―painter, sculptor, designer, art critic, poet―studied at Havana’s Academia San Alejandro. He played a foundational role in Cuban concretism, an art movement with a strong emphasis on geometric abstraction, collaborating with Los Once (The Eleven) before becoming a founding member of 10 Pintores Concretos (10 Concrete Painters) in 1957. Oraá and his wife, the artist Loló Soldevilla, opened Galería Color y Luz, an important rendezvous and exhibition space for Cuban abstract artists.
This painting encompasses major precepts of the concrete movement: rational, programmatic design devoid of references or emotionality; simple composition; mechanical execution highlighting the materiality of plastic elements and their infinite spatial and structural correlations. These characteristics act in concert to achieve sensory as well as rational aesthetic pleasure, exempt from storytelling and meaning, emanating solely from the contemplation of pure form and color.
*This piece was included in the exhibition section titled "The Language of Forms and The Forms of Language."
