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Agustín Fernández (1928 – 2006): Choices.

Exhibition Photos

Agustín Fernández was born in Cuba in 1928 and began his studies
at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in Havana (1944–46).
His academic aspirations led him to pursue painting abroad, first at the Art
Students League of New York, where he studied with artists like George Grosz,
and later at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid.

In Havana, Fernández established himself as a crucial member of the Cuban
avant-garde. His work from the 1950s embodies a fauvist tropical modernism,
saturated with heat and movement. Caribbean fruit and flora are rendered
in dominant reds, yellows, and deep greens, reflecting the influence of artists
like Matisse. In works like Banana Bunch (1954) and Bacchus (1959),the brushwork
is impulsive and unrestrained, a far cry from the illusionism of his later style.
During this period, he exhibited both on the island and internationally as
part of the group Los Once.

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Banana Bunch
(Racimo de Plátanos), 1954
oil on canvas
36 x 33 3/4 inches

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Tropical Fruits
(Frutas Tropicales), 1953
oil on canvas
55 x 35 inches

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Bacchus
(Dios Baco), 1959
oil on canvas
59 x 39 1/4 inches

In 1959, amid revolutionary upheaval in Cuba, Fernández received a painting scholarship
and left for Paris. His circle in Paris included Matta, Miró, and Max Ernst.
Working in the wake of late Surrealism, he aligned with the movement’s more
decadent wing. He exhibited alongside figures such as Picabia, Tanguy, and Dalí,
and Hans Bellmer. In the City of Light, Fernández’s work visually distanced itself from
the Caribbean. The artist abandoned expressionism in favor for a surrealism rich
in psychological and erotic elements. His palette cooled to beige and bone.

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Obsesiones
(Obsessions), 1961
oil on canvas
28 3/4 x 28 3/4 inches

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
The Petite Skin
(La Pequeña Piel), 1964
oil on canvas
48 3/4 x 43 1/4 inches

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Armor
(Coraza), 1975
oil on canvas
33 inches round, diameter.

In 1972, he relocated permanently to New York, where he continued to exhibit
and develop his well-known Armors series. In 1979, Fernández became friends with
photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, a friendship that lasted until Mapplethorpe’s
death from AIDS in 1989. Fernández’s fascination with leather culture,
sharpened by this relationship, emerged vividly in his work from this period,
which is charged with themes of desire.

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Metamorphosis
(Metamorfosis), 1982
oil on canvas
27 3/4 x 26 1/2 inches

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Fort
(Fuerte), 1989
oil on canvas
53 1/4 X 49 1/2 inches

Agustín Fernández (1928 - 2006)
Love Beneath the Tempest
(Amor Bajo la Tempestad), 1992
oil on canvas
51 1/4 x 41 1/4 inches

Over a lifetime marked by relentless creativity, Fernández presented more than thirty solo exhibitions
and participated in over a hundred group shows in prestigious galleries and museums worldwide.
In 1992, the Art Museum at Florida International University (now the Frost Art Museum) organized
a pivotal retrospective of his work, helping to establish him as a major artistic figure. In 2025,
the museum once again honored the artist with a solo show, Agustín Fernández: The Alluring Power
of Ambiguity, a retrospective of more than 65 artworks, curated by Dr. Elizabeth T. Goizueta.
From 2019 to 2020, Fernández’s Armor series was featured in the solo exhibition Armaduras (Armors)
at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.

His work can be found in major museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art
in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museo Nacional de Bellas
Artes in Havana, and the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas, Austin, among others.