Humberto Calzada

Humberto Calzada

Humberto Calzada
Born Humberto Calzada
25 May 1944 (1944-05-25)
Havana, Cuba
Nationality Cuban-American
Education University of Miami
Known for painting
Notable work

in museums:

  • Meadows Museum and Sculpture. Dallas, Texas, USA
  • Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
  • Sait Louis Art Museum. Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Movement Contemporary
Awards Cintas Foundation Fellowship 1979, 1981. Painting Fellowship Division of Cultural Affairs, State of Florida

Humberto Calzada (born May 25, 1944 in Havana) is a Cuban-American artist living in Miami, Florida since 1960.[1]

Life in America

Calzada's family left Cuba shortly after the communist takeover of Fidel Castro, on October 11, 1960. He attended and graduated from Coral Gables High School. He would later attend the University of Miami where he graduated as an Industrial Engineering in 1966, and the University of Miami where he also earned an MBA in Finance in 1968.

In 1976, Calzada decided to pursue painting as a full-time career. The subject of most of his art is the architecture of Cuba particularly Havana's colonial and neo-classical architecture.

Calzada's work is in numerous museums as well as in private, corporate, and public collections. In 2006, the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami presented a thirty-year Retrospective of his work titled "Humberto Calzada: In Dreams Awake." Calzada resides in Miami.[2]

Periods

Humberto Calzada's art can, generally, be divided into phases or categories, but not into periods. They are phases in the sense that, during a specific time he painted primarily that category of painting, though not to the exclusion of all else. But they are "categories" in the sense that, throughout his career, he has produced works that have characteristics of any of the different classifications or will revisit any past phase. The general major classifications are:

  1. The Anecdotal Period paintings. Paintings of a more personal nature painted in a detailed but casual style, based on memories of his home, places he knew and visited in Cuba, and other specific recollections.
  2. The Surreal Theatrical Scenarios paintings. Extracting elements of Cuban architecture and placing them out of context in an unlikely setting.
  3. Meta-Art paintings. An extension of the theatrical scenarios but incorporating his past works in the walls as one more element.
  4. The Gardens paintings. Ruins, incomplete buildings, but still recognizable as Cuban architecture of the neo-classical period.
  5. Still Life paintings. Brief period in which architectural elements were arranged as classical still life painting.
  6. "Years of" Paintings. These are the flooded spaces, which consist mostly of houses in which the ocean waters have entered. It is one of his favorite iconographies because water has a dual meaning: it can mean total destruction, but it can also mean rebirth.
  7. Tributes to other painters. Paintings which can either be Calzada in subject but another painter in technique or style or a Calzada painting in which the work of another painter is either hung or displayed in the space portrayed.
  8. The Night paintings. Paintings of architectural and/or landscape themes at night.
  9. La Hora Azul paintings. Paintings of architectural and/or landscape themes during the dusk hours.
  10. The swimming pool paintings or Cuba circa 2025 painting. An optimistic assumption that in the not-too-distant futures, Cuba will not only have houses in good repair, but also houses with swimming pools.
  11. The Reconstructing Havana paintings. A much-enlarged photograph of current private and public buildings in Havana is partially "reconstructed" by painting in what once was and what, someday, could be again.

Exhibitions

Solo

Solo exhibits of Calzada's artwork between 1975 and 2006.

Humberto Calzada's work
Humberto Calzada at work.

2006–1990

1990–1975

Collective

Shared exhibits of Calzada's artwork between 1978 and 2010.

2010–2000

Premier of "Calzada" A documentary by Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Premier of "Calzada". Humberto Calzada premier speech.

2000–1990

1990–1980

1980–1970

Public and corporate collections

Bibliography

Documentaries

Eduardo Montes-Bradley (Director) (January 2010). Calzada (TV Movie / DVD). USA: Heritage Film Project. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Catalogue Art Basel, Miami, December 2010
  2. ↑ El Nuevo Herald
  3. ↑ "Una Oda a la Habana" by Olga Connor. El Nuevo Herald. Revista aplausos. January 7, 2010
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