Born in Cuba as a descendant of formerly enslaved people from Senegal and the Congo, Cárdenas moved from Havana to France in 1955 and, at the invitation of André Breton, joined the Surrealist group in Paris. His encounter with West African culture through Pan-Africanist circles there transformed his work and provided inspiration for his dynamic, totemic sculptures that fall between abstraction and figuration. Breton saw magic in the sculptor’s hands that he described as clever "as a dragonfly."[1] For Cárdenas, Surrealism offered artistic freedom and personal rediscovery. "In Paris," he said, "I discovered what a man is…what African culture is...what a Black man is."[2] Directly carved and shaped from wood, Jucambe draws on the visual traditions of international modernism, African art, and Cuban Santería.
[1] André Breton, Cárdenas: Sculpture, dessins. Exh. cat. Paris: Galerie la Cour d’Ingres, 1959, unpaginated.
[2] Quoted in José Pierre, La Sculpture de Cárdenas, Brussels, 1971, p. 11.
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Credit Line:Purchase, Bequest of Florene M. Schoenborn, by exchange, 2022
Accession Number:2022.504
Inscription: Initialed and dated (underside): AC / 58
the artist (1958–60; in 1960 to Schwarz); Vera and Arturo Schwarz, Milan (1960–98; gift in 1998 to the Israel Museum); Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1998–2018; sale, Christie’s, Paris, June 8, 2018, no. 134, sold to private collection and Di Donna); private collection, United States in half-shares with Di Donna Galleries, New York (2018–22; sold to MMA)
Milan. Galleria Schwarz. "Cárdenas: Mostra Personale," March 24–April 13, 1962, unnumbered cat.
Paris. Artcurial. "André Pieyre de Mandiargues et l'art du XXe siècle," May 10–July 13, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 137).
Jerusalem. Israel Museum. "Dreaming with Open Eyes: The Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art in the Israel Museum," December 21, 2000–June 9, 2001, no. 115.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Dreaming with Open Eyes: The Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art in the Israel Museum," February 2–April 28, 2002, no. 115.
Toronto. Art Gallery of Ontario. "Dreaming with Open Eyes: The Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art in the Israel Museum," June 14–September 8, 2002, no. 115.
São Paulo. Instituto Tomie Ohtake. "Dreaming with Open Eyes: The Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art in the Israel Museum," September 23–November 21, 2004.
Rome. Complesso Monumentale del Vittoriano. "Dada e Surrealismo Riscoperti," October 9, 2009–February 7, 2010, not in catalogue.
New York. Di Donna. "The Life of Forms," October 26–December 14, 2018, unnumbered cat. (p. 59; lent by a private collection).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Surrealism Beyond Borders," October 11, 2021–January 30, 2022, unnumbered cat. (fig. 289; dated 1950–59, lent by a private collection).
Jennifer Field. The Life of Forms. Exh. cat., Di Donna. New York, 2018, pp. 17–18, 64, ill. pp. 59, 65 (color, overall and detail).
Stephanie D'Alessandro and Matthew Gale in Stephanie D'Alessandro and Matthew Gale. Surrealism Beyond Borders. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2021, pp. 28, 333, fig. 289 (color).
Henri Matisse (French, Le Cateau-Cambrésis 1869–1954 Nice)
1905
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