Jorge Camacho
Period: Contemporary
1934 - 2011

Man of Corn
Hombre de Maíz, 1982
oil on canvas
38 7/8 x 31 3/8 inches


Jorge Camacho was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1934.

"Instinctively and inexplicably, in 1951 I decided to be a painter. I never studied art; I adamantly refused to enter the School of Fine Arts. By the end of the 40's my friend, the poet Carlos M. Luis, and I were very well versed in contemporary painting, especially in surrealism. It was he who first introduced me to the paintings of Klee, Miró, Tanguy and De Chirico. In 1953 I went to México; I lived there for a year, and met the great José Luis Cuevas. My first major influence was the Wifredo Lam exhibit at the University of Havana in 1955. As a young man I was also influenced by the work of Tamoyo, Miró, Bacon and Tanguy. Basically, what is important is that these influences be positive, that they generate a new and personal language. When I returned to Havana, I had my first one-man show at the Cuban Gallery in 1954. Painters like Felipe Orlondo, José Ignacio Bermúdez, René Portocarrero and the critic José Gómez Sicre lent me support with their friendship and encouragement. In a sense, they were my first "teachers". In 1960, I exhibited in Paris for the first time, at the R. Cordier Gallery. My meeting with Andre Breton in 1961 tied me to the Surrealist Movement. Surrealism is, without a doubt, the most important poetic creation of the XX century, because it is a world open to enchantment. As for the present? A series of works inspired by the magical and hermetic circle of the Shaman, that medicine man ever present in the life of all primitive societies. As to the future? A perennial openness to new horizons."