(2) Agustin Fernandez (Cuban, 1928-2006) Serigraphs

Agustin Fernandez (Cuban, 1928-2006)
Agustin Fernandez was a Cuban painter, sculptor, and multimedia artist. He is one of the most significant exiled Cuban artists in the development of international modernism. Although he has been classified as a surrealist throughout his career, his work draws from a wide realm of visions, inventions, and contortions. While not abstract in approach, his work does not represent objective reality, instead depicting unconscious yearnings, obsessions, and fantasies.
In 1959, Fernandez moved to Paris, where he would remain for more than 10 years, producing a series of erotic works. While his work of the 50’s was more colorful, after a beige period, Fernandez’s work of the 60’s moved to a more limited palette of black and white. His ambiguous, yet provocative paintings combine soft, fleshy human-like forms contrasted with hard metallic surfaces. Using the machine as reference, his work conjures subconscious, often erotic imaginings.
In 1968, after moving to Puerto Rico, and destroying much of his earlier work, he began to work in collage, and continued to explore the armor-like metal facades. He would also create three-dimensional objects, like those of Duchamp or Man Ray. Slowly color started to reappear, but Fernandez continued to represent the sometimes conflicting, often emotional, human conditions.