Rene' Portocarrero Biography
René Portocarrero (1912 - 1985) was born in the neighborhood of El Cerro, Havana, in 1912. He began painting from an early age and at 14 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts of San Alejandro. Of a strong temperament and unable to adapt to this apprenticeship, he leaves the institute and begins to work on his own. His work was first exhibited at the Salon of Fine Arts in Havana. Portocarrero was a professor at the Free Institute of Painting and Sculpture in 1939. He made many trips between Haiti, Europe and the United States, where he opened an exhibition at the Levy Gallery, in New York, in 1945.
He painted tirelessly since childhood and never planned any of his works. In his spontaneity, he had no idea what work he would create until the brush was about to hit the canvas. A master of color, Portocarrero produces lively painting with strong ties to the Afro-Cuban tradition and which integrates private moments (extraordinary portraits) with choral compositions aimed at political engagement, some of which will become large murals for public buildings.
Portocarrero's works are exhibited in the permanent collections of the Museums of Modern Art of: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York and San Francisco; at the National Gallery in Canada; at Fine Arts, Caracas; the Milwaukee Art Center, The Pan American Union in Washington; Modern Arts of Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Art, Indianapolis; Fine Arts, Montevideo; Fine Arts, Buenos Aires; Institute of Contemporary Art, Lima, Peru; and the National Museum of Havana. He died in Havana in 1985.
