Casseopia, 1970, Stainless steel (four piece geometric form in box), 31.5” x 24”

José Ygnacio Bermúdez (b. 1922, Havana 1922 – d, 1998, Phoenix): Part of a group of abstract expressionist artists who came of age in the 1950s and became known as“Los Once,” Bermúdez was known for his work in painting, sculpture, photography and graphic design. Between 1953 and 1971, he was program officer in the Cultural Affairs Division of the Organization of American States and later head of its graphic services division. He exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, including solo shows at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas. In 1961, he won first prize at the American Mural Competition in Maryland, and in 1969, second prize at the IX Festival de Arte in Cali, Colombia. Bermúdez also made several documentary films. His work is in several major collections and museums, including the Detroit Art Institute, the J.B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky., the Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Miami-Dade Public Library and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1969-70, 1970-71)

José Bernardo (b. 1938, Havana): The winner of three CINTAS fellowships, Bernardo worked as a designer with the architecture firm Harrison and Abramovitz in New York, where he worked on the master plan for Lincoln Center as well as on the U.S. Steel building in Pittsburgh. As an independent designer, he participated in projects at various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Natural History. Bernardo is also a musician and a writer. He is the composer of La Niña, a musical tragedy based on José Martí's poem “La Niña de Guatemala,” which received an award from the National Opera Institute, (now National Institute of Musical Theatre). Other compositional works include Concerto Barroco, Taliesin Symphony, Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and Concerto For Piano, Cuban Dance Band, and Symphony Orchestra. Bernardo’s books include Silent Wing, The Secret of the Bulls and The Wise Women of Havana. He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University. (CINTAS for Architecture & Design, 1969-70, and for Music Composition, 1970-71, 1972-73)

José Bernardo (b. 1938, Havana): The winner of three Cintas fellowships, Bernardo is the composer of La Niña, a musical tragedy based on José Martí's poem La Niña de Guatemala that received an award from the National Opera Institute (now National Institute of Musical Theatre). He also composed Concerto Barroco, Taliesin Symphony, Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and Concerto for Piano, Cuban Dance Band and Symphony Orchestra. As a designer, he worked with the architecture firm Harrison and Abramovitz in New York. Independently, he participated in projects at various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Natural History. Bernardo is also an author whose books include Silent Wing, The Secret of the Bulls and The Wise Women of Havana.  He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University. (Cintas for music, 1970-71, 1972-73, and for architecture, 1969-70)

Curriculum Vitae #8,1970, Oil on canvas, 40” x 40”

Hugo Consuegra (b. 1929, Havana - d. 2003, Rego Park, New York) An architecture graduate from the University of Havana and the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, Consuegra was one of the leading exponents of abstract expressionism in Cuba in the 1950s. He was a member of Los Once, the legendary group that broke from the representational style that predominated in Cuba at the time. He taught and practiced architecture in Havana and was widely exhibited in Cuban and internationally until he received political asylum in Spain in 1967. He moved to New York three years later, eventually joining the architecture firm of Brennan Beer Gorman Architects in Manhattan while continuing his painting, drawing and engraving career. His pieces are in the permanent collections of the Museo de Barranquilla in Colombia, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, the Museo de Bellas Artes in San Juan, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana, the Miami-Dade Public Library and the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington, D.C., among others. A large marble mural by Consuegra is in the lobby of the Time & Life Building, in New York’s Rockefeller Center. (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1970-71, 1973-74)

La Charmeuse Du Printemps,1971, Oil on canvas, 25.5” x 21.25”

Roberto García York (b. 1929, Havana - d.2005, Paris) A painter and engraver as well as a wardrobe and interior designer, García York was artistic director of the Galerie l’Oeuf du Beaubourg in Paris and wardrobe designer for the Venice Carnival in Italy and the Festival Internationale du Film in Cannes. His first show, featuring designs of women’s fashions, took place in the Havana Lyceum in 1943. He had many solo exhibitions at galleries and museums such as Galería Proteo in Mexico City, the Fondation Rosa de Grancher in Paris, Círculo 2 in Madrid and Galerie Forni in Amsterdam. Group exhibitions include the VI Biennial in Sao Paulo, 7 Peintres Surrealistes Cubains at Galerie Maya in Brussels, Artistes Latino‑Americains de Paris at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the First Surrealist Exhibition in Sao Paulo, and Le Fantastique Contemporaine at the Galerie de L’Université in Paris. His work is represented in the permanent collection of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. (CINTAS for painting, 1970-71)

Untitled,1971, Oil on canvas, 36.5” X 38.5”

Osvaldo Gutiérrez (b. 1917, Matanzas - d. 1997, Miami) Although he worked for many years as a set designer for the theater, Gutiérrez always pursued a career as a painter and had exhibitions throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States. He participated in Art Cubain Contemporain at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1951, the Homenaje a la pintura latinoamericanain El Salvador in 1977 and in Hispanic-American Artists of the United States: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba and Uruguay, at the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America, in Washington D.C., in 1979. His work is in the collections of the Lowe Art Museum of the University of Miami, the Miami-Dade Public Library, the Museo Nacional, Montevideo, and the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America, among others. (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1970-71, 1971-72)

Inverna Lockpez (b. 1941, Havana) A widely-exhibited artist, Lockpez has also been a visual arts consultant for private foundations and corporations such as AT&T New Art/New Visions International Program and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest International Artist Series. From 1979 to 1994, she was director of the INTAR Gallery in New York, where she curated more than 250 exhibitions. In 2001, she became the curator of the Erpf Gallery at the Catskill Center. Lockpez attended medical school at the University of Havana, and studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro and the Taller de Grabado in Havana. She also studied social work at Columbia University and film/video and computer graphics at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She has lectured at Columbia and Cornell universities, Hunter College and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, among many institutions. She is past president of the National Association of Artists' Organizations. Lockpez is the winner of grants and fellowships from the Roxbury Arts Group, Creative Artists Public Service (CAPS, for sculpture), CETA, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vogelstein Foundation. In 2010, her graphic novel, My Revolution, was published by DC Comics/Vertigo. (Cintas for arts, 1970-71, 1971-72)

Under The Moon and The Sun, 1971, oil on canvas, 51" x 62"

José M. Mijares (b. 1921, Havana-d. 2004, Coral Gables) A painter, engraver and muralist, Mijares was a member of the Grupo Diez Pintores Concretos formed in Havana in 1958. The artists were influenced by the tradition of European concrete painters and were pioneers in geometric abstraction in Latin America. Mijares studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro and then taught there until moving to the United States in 1960. His drawings were used as illustrations in the magazine Orígenes. He participated in numerous exhibitions, beginning in 1944, when he had his first solo show at the Conservatorio Nacional Hubert de Blanck in Havana. In 1950, he won first prize at the Salón Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado in Havana. He was represented in the exhibition Modern Cuban Painters at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Outside Cuba exhibition and in Hispanic‑American Artists of the United States at the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington, D.C. In 1994, the Museo Cubano de Arte y Cultura in Miami celebrated his 50th anniversary as an artist with an exhibition. His work is in the collection of the Lowe Art Museum, the Miami‑Dade Public Library System, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Florida International University awarded Mijares an honorary degree in 2001.  (Cintas for art, 1970-71, 1971-72)

Proud Character, 1951, Steel, copper, brass, 51" x 10" x 7"

Juan Nickford (b. 1925, Havana-D. 2001): A member of the Sculptors Guild, Nickford held the title of Professor Emeritus of Art at City College of New York. He also taught at the University of Hartford and Smith College. His work was shown at the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum, Fordham University and Lever House, among other venues. His work is in the collection of the Smith College Museum of Art and the Spaeth Foundation in New York. Among his many commissions are pieces for the Socony Oil Building and the Trade Show Building in New York, and the SS Santa Rosa. He received a Bronze Medal at the New York State Exposition. Nickford studied at the University of Havana School of Architecture. (Cintas for art, 1970-71)

Cloud Pictogram XVII, 1983, oil on canvas, 41" X 71"

Baruj Salinas (b. 1935, Havana): An architect by training – he studied at Kent State University in Ohio – Salinas found early success as a painter and engraver. He is also an educator, having taught for many years at Miami Dade College. Salinas is regularly featured in solo shows in galleries in Europe and the United States. His participation in group exhibitions includes Recent Developments in Latin American Drawing at The Art Institute of Chicago, Outside Cuba, and Breaking Barriers: Selections from the Museum of Art’s Permanent Contemporary Cuban Collection at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Prize to Excellency at the VII Grand Prix International de Peinture  in Cannes, France; a first prize at the IV Pan American Exhibition in Miami, and a first prize at the Sexta Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His work is in the collections of museums in Israel, Spain, Colombia, Mexico and the United States. (Cintas for art, 1969-70, 1970-71)

Ana Simo (b. 1943, Cienfuegos): Simo is the author of several plays, including Alma, Penguins and Going to New England, of films and radio plays, and of the short story collection Las fábulas. She wrote the essay, Lydia Cabrera: An Intimate Portrait, for the exhibition at Intar Latin American Gallery in 1984. She was a cofounder of the direct action group The Lesbian Avengers and of Dyke TV, a half-hour television program that aired on public-access television across the United States for more than a decade.(Cintas for literature, 1969-70, 1970-71)