Antonia EIRIZ
1929–1995, Cuba/USA
Antonia Eiríz is one of the most important artists to come of age during the Cuban Revolution, Antonia Eiríz was a provocative, paradoxical figure. Though she received many awards and honors from the Cuban government, her paintings never conformed to the officially prescribed Social Realist style or subjects. Eiríz associated with members of Los Once (The Eleven) - Cuban artists of the 1950s who, like the Abstract Expressionists, advocated an abstract art that was intuitive and sought to convey existential truths. Although she worked in a figurative mode, Eiríz was sympathetic to the ideas of The Eleven, and through her art and her teaching she influenced two generations of artists.
Eiríz's paintings from the 1960s often dealt with the excesses of demagoguery and (despite her denials) were interpreted as critical of the Cuban government. These works were never officially censored, but the criticism they received caused Eiríz to stop painting and exhibiting for more than twenty years. A 1991 retrospective of her art revived interest in her work and encouraged her to resume painting...