Aristides Fernández
Period: The Vanguard
1904 - 1934

Study for the Burial of Christ
Estudio para el Entierro de Cristo, ca 1933
mixed media on heavy paper laid down on board
11 x 14 inches

Arístides Fernández Vázquez was born in Guines, a region on the outskirts of Havana, in 1904. He did not finish his studies at San Alejandro, which he had begun in 1925. He worked alone and all of his work was produced in his last years of his life. He died in 1934 with his paintings largely unknown to the world. In 1935 his friend Jorge Arche organized an exhibition where Aristides' work was shown for the first time. Fifteen years later, in 1950, an exhibition was organized at the Nation's Capitol which allowed the author to be known.

Aristides Fernández was part of a generation that lived decisive moments filled with desires for a national recuperation. Together with Victor Manuel, they were the artists who invigorated these moments with the new Cuban artistic trends, thus breaking away from all rules entrenched by academicism.

Fernández also cultivated and developed portrait painting with unyielding discipline and diverse techniques.