Exhibition on Lezama Lima to Open at the Museum of Fine Arts

In the temporary room of the Cuban Art Building of the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA), the exhibition "Jose Lezama Lima, El reino de la imagen" (José Lezama Lima, The Kingdom of the Image) will be inaugurated on Friday, September 25 at 4:00 p.m., dedicated to the notable writer and his relationship with the visual arts.

The exhibition has been conceived as a tribute to the Cuban and universal intellectual on the fiftieth anniversary of his death, based on the painting collections of the institution and the House Museum that bears his name, according to what the exhibition's curator, Roberto Cobas, explained to the Cuban News Agency.

For the expert, José Lezama Lima (1910-1976) occupies a greater space every day; and in this sense, this time they have focused on a facet of him that is not so studied: art criticism.

That extraordinary figure aspired to an art criticism different from the academic one; one that was linked to his poetic inspiration. Thus, in 1944 the magazine Orígenes appeared, and painters such as Mariano Rodríguez (1912-1990), René Portocarrero (1912-1985) and sculptor Alfredo Lozano (1913-1997) became linked to it.

Within that link between Lezama and the visual arts is the fact that he was the great discoverer of the pictorial work of Arístides Fernández (1904-1934), which went unnoticed by his contemporaries in the 1930s. He rediscovered it and wrote several essays.

Likewise, Cobas explained, he also approached the painting of Víctor Manuel García (1897-1969), was very close to Amelia Peláez (1896-1968) and, curiously, took an interest in the work of a primitive painter named Rafael Moreno (1887-1955), which is striking.

The exhibition includes 40 pieces by these artists: eight belong to the collection of the Lezama Lima House Museum, and the rest are works from the MNBA collection, he added.

Attendees will be able to appreciate texts linked to the artistic work of these painters; that is, all the painters will have texts written on the walls by the author of Paradiso, which will radiate toward the paintings that will be shown; a concept that constitutes a dialogue between art criticism, poetry, painting and sculpture — three sculptures by Lozano are included.

Cobas highlighted that the exhibition will be open to the public during the months of October and November, an exceptional occasion to approach this poet and narrator at the MNBA, and to find a treasure of knowledge in that approach of Lezama to painting.

Lastly, the specialist detailed that the title corresponds to a phrase used by the protagonist in the text "Interrogando a Lezama Lima" (Interrogating Lezama Lima), based on the homonymous compilation prepared by Pedro Simón in 1970, from fragments of interviews with the writer; and which opens the compilation book of letters, essays and opinions "Valoración Múltiple" (Multiple Valuation), anthologized by Roberto Méndez Martínez for Casa de las Américas in 2010.