Amelia Peláez was a Cuban painter, ceramist, illustrator, and muralist who constitutes one of the most interesting and outstanding female figures of Latin American modernity. Mujer con abanico (1931) is from this period. She returned to Cuba in 1934 and, a year later, she exhibited her works at the Female Lyceum, a cultural and social institution of great relevance to Cuba’s art history. From this moment on, Amelia Peláez gave rise to a unique work that takes from Afro-Cuban culture the elements associated with colour, shape, and nature, transforming them into an abstract–ornamental, personal, and political imagery. She actively participated in the magazines Orígenes and Espuela de plata, led by the poet José Lezama Lima; these publications were nationalist proposals that enabled a combination of images and written and visual aspects, within the possibilities of an identity of “origin”. Finally, the artist represented Cuba at the Bienal de São Paulo in 1951 and at the Biennale Arte the following year. With the arrival of the Cuban Revolution, Amelia remained in Havana until her death in 1968.
This is the first time the work of Amelia Peláez is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Gloria Cortes Aliaga
