Since we were children it envelops us, it surrounds us […]. He alone is our entire national and universal substance. And where, to the extent of our forces, we will have to meet the one who fully realized it, and who in the abundance of his heart and the sacrifice of his life found the virginal naturalness of man.”
“Every righteous and sensitive Cuban who has had José Martí among his humanist ideals, as well as in his intellectual readings and paradigms, agrees to possess a permanent ‘debt of conscience’ to him. This explains the presence of the Martian image, metaphors and ideology in people born in Cuba who have lived here and in other lands, belonged to different historical and cultural generations, and has professed various creeds and philosophies. Martí has been, to a large extent, an essential companion of our existence …”. 2
“But by a miracle of his own genius, Martí, fallen into Dos Rios, was to stand at once in man of his time and of all times; definer of the present and announcer of the future. Because his work continues to answer … all the questions we ask ourselves about our America every day.”3
The presence of José Martí in his city is not limited to the temporary transit of his existence through the streets and squares of Havana, but is perpetuated by the images that reproduce his figure in parks and museums. Martí’s representation in the visual arts varies depending on the aesthetic sensitivity of each era or period of national history, and the different styles, movements and trends of Cuban art. On an imaginary tour of the historic center of the city, we will approach two statues, as well as paintings belonging to the Cuban art collection of the Museum of Fine Arts and other collections.
The statue in Central Park
In the Habanero Central Park, located between Prado, Neptuno, Zulueta and San José streets, is the first sculpture by José Martí that was placed in a public place.
By survey promoted by the newspaper El Figaro, on April 30, 1899, personalities of the time had been asked which Cuban distinguished should occupy the site of the statue of Queen Elizabeth II, removed from its pedestal in that year. The survey was then expanded to the general population, and by majority José Martí was elected. The funds for the project were gathered by the Association of the Monument to Martí, established in 1900. The cost of the monument was valued at $4,500, which included bringing to Havana the sculpture commissioned to José Vilalta de Saavedra, a prominent Cuban sculptor residing in Italy.
Built in Carrara marble, the statue was unveiled on February 24, 1905, in an act headed by Generalísimo Máximo Gómez and President Tomás Estrada Palma, attended by Leonor Pérez, Carmen Zayas Bazán and Amelia Martí. At three-thirty in the afternoon thousands of children paraded in front of the statue; in the evening he concluded the day with the performance of a band.
Although this is the first statue of Martí in a public place, it was not the first tribute he received after his death: in Dos Ríos, on August 9, 1896, Máximo Gómez asked the more than 300 soldiers who accompanied him to collect a stone from the road and deposit it in the exact place where Martí had fallen, to form a rustic pyramid. And at the end of the nineteenth century, the Cuban emigration of Key West placed on the facade of Casa Natal a commemorative tarja that is still there.
In the center of the park, the statue of Martí stands on the shield of its pedestal; with his right hand he is as indicating the way, or as delivering one of the speeches that his contemporaries described as ardorous and convincing. The resemblance to the photos we know of the Apostle is great. It is surrounded by the palms that José María Heredia longed for in his “Ode to Niagara”, and which for Martí were also a precious symbol of Cubanía: “I am a sincere man / from where the palm grows…”.
- Fine Arts and Kamyl’s studio
Walking from the Central Park towards the sea on Zulueta Street, we arrive at the National Museum of Fine Arts. Founded on April 28, 1913 by the architect Emilio Heredia, the Museum originally had several locations in the capital, until in 1955 the building that currently houses the Cuban art collection was inaugurated, in Trocadero between Zulueta and Monserrate.4
Touring all the martyred iconography in the National Museum goes beyond our possibilities in time and space. An approach to the vastness of this iconography was the exhibition “Like a Bath of Light,” presented at the Hispanic-American Center for Culture in 2015, to commemorate the 120th birthday of the National Hero’s fall in combat. The exhibition showcased forty works by artists such as Federico Edelman, Armando Menocal, Esteban Valderrama, Jorge Arche, Eduardo Abela, Adigio Benítez, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Raúl Martínez, Carlos Enríquez, René Portocarrero, Nelson Domínguez and others.
In the National Museum we will only stop at two paintings. We will start with one of the best known, the Martí painted by Jorge Arche in 1943: a window open to the Cuban countryside, through which the Apostle is looming dressed in white guayabera, with one hand on his chest and the other exceling outside the frame.
About the Martí de Arche has commented the critic Israel Castellanos León:
“… it is undoubtedly his most accomplished portrait and the one that has made him transcend in a special way in the history of Cuban art. In this painting, the rural landscape in the background is not a mere curtain, for it alludes to the land that the Apostle was forced to abandon and to which he returned to die. Hands are not crossed either, idle. One points and tries to cover the wound, the deadly slash? in white clothing; and the other rests on the frame, insinuating leaving the painted space, from that ‘other’ reality, and moving on to that of the viewer of the moment, as if looking to update himself permanently.”5
Martí’s death in Dos Ríos had already been the subject, in 1917, of a painting by Esteban Valderrama. But the painter, being harassed by the critics of his time, decided to destroy the work, of which only a few photos remained. In 1939, as part of the project for a mural of the same name, Carlos Enríquez painted “Dos Ríos”, a painting that, sent by the painter’s friends to the contest convened in 1953 on the occasion of the Centenary of José Martí, won the prize in painting of that contest.
Among Enríquez’s characteristic transparencies is Martí in the arms of a pale lady who kisses him. Death? “Kiss on the forehead the white lady / those who must die early,” Juana Borrero wrote. The homeland? “When you die / in the arms of the grateful homeland / death ends, the prison breaks, / begins at last with the death of life!” wrote Martí himself. The frightened horse spins with the rest of the painting in the middle of a whirlwind dream, a dream that is expected to awaken to discover that it is not true that the hero has fallen.
A few meters from Fine Arts, in the square next to the church of the Holy Angel – where José Julián Martí y Pérez was baptized – is the studio of Kamyl Bullaudy, who defines himself as “painter and martyrdom”. Born in 1962 in Velasco, Holguin, he studied at the School of Art of Las Tunas, where he graduated in 1991. According to one interview, one night in 1995 she found prophetic: “I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t fall asleep. It was a strange thing because I had Martí in my mind, and I got up and started and dawned painting it.”6 Since then José Martí is a constant presence in the work of Bullaudy, who has represented him in multiple facets and with various techniques. “Painting the Apostle is my great passion. It is difficult to achieve a new image, but there will always be a different dialogue, a renewing concept and a thought to bring to art. The debt is infinite.”
Kamyl is a member of the national board of the José Martí Cultural Society and a Martiano Club, and states that for him Martí “is one more member of the family […]. I have land from Dos Rios. Behind the bed is a great cloth with him drawn, it’s like my guardian angel. He’s like my neighbor, my father, I talk to him.”
Perhaps that is why tenderness in his paintings is evident, as is the case in “The Two Princes”, where the already mythical character of Saint Exupéry shakes hands with that endearing prince of spirit and virtue called José Martí. At the same time, the title of the painting alludes to Helen Hunt Jackson’s well-known poem that translated Martí for The Golden Age.
Martí’s death in Dos Ríos had already been the subject, in 1917, of a painting by Esteban Valderrama. But the painter, being harassed by the critics of his time, decided to destroy the work, of which only a few photos remained. In 1939, as part of the project for a mural of the same name, Carlos Enríquez painted “Dos Ríos”, a painting that, sent by the painter’s friends to the contest convened in 1953 on the occasion of the Centenary of José Martí, won the prize in painting of that contest.
Among Enríquez’s characteristic transparencies is Martí in the arms of a pale lady who kisses him. Death? “Kiss on the forehead the white lady / those who must die early,” Juana Borrero wrote. The homeland? “When you die / in the arms of the grateful homeland / death ends, the prison breaks, / begins at last with the death of life!” wrote Martí himself. The frightened horse spins with the rest of the painting in the middle of a whirlwind dream, a dream that is expected to awaken to discover that it is not true that the hero has fallen.
A few meters from Fine Arts, in the square next to the church of the Holy Angel – where José Julián Martí y Pérez was baptized – is the studio of Kamyl Bullaudy, who defines himself as “painter and martyrdom”. Born in 1962 in Velasco, Holguin, he studied at the School of Art of Las Tunas, where he graduated in 1991. According to one interview, one night in 1995 she found prophetic: “I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t fall asleep. It was a strange thing because I had Martí in my mind, and I got up and started and dawned painting it.”6 Since then José Martí is a constant presence in the work of Bullaudy, who has represented him in multiple facets and with various techniques. “Painting the Apostle is my great passion. It is difficult to achieve a new image, but there will always be a different dialogue, a renewing concept and a thought to bring to art. The debt is infinite.”
Kamyl is a member of the national board of the José Martí Cultural Society and a Martiano Club, and states that for him Martí “is one more member of the family […]. I have land from Dos Rios. Behind the bed is a great cloth with him drawn, it’s like my guardian angel. He’s like my neighbor, my father, I talk to him.”
Perhaps that is why tenderness in his paintings is evident, as is the case in “The Two Princes”, where the already mythical character of Saint Exupéry shakes hands with that endearing prince of spirit and virtue called José Martí. At the same time, the title of the painting alludes to Helen Hunt Jackson’s well-known poem that translated Martí for The Golden Age.
The equestrian statue
in the Park March 13
Next to the former Presidential Palace, today museum of the Revolution, where Zulueta and Monserrate streets converge to become the beautiful Avenida de las Misiones, stands the replica of the equestrian statue of José Martí that was made in 1958 by new York artist Anna Hyatt Huntington. The original monument is located in New York Central Park. The 5.63-meter effigy, unique in the world where José Martí appears on horseback, depicts the Apostle’s death in combat in Dos Ríos, and rises on a black granite pedestal, on whose sides a brief synthesis of Martí’s life appears, in English and Spanish:
“Apostle of cuba’s independence, a guide to American peoples and a paladin of human freedom, his literary genius rivals his political clairvoyance. He was born in Havana on January 28, 1853. He lived fifteen years after his exile in New York City. He died in combat in Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895.”
The inaugural event of the statue in Havana was held on January 28, 2018, on the 165th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, with the presence of Raúl Castro Ruz, president of Cuba, and Eusebio Leal Spengler, historian of the city, among other personalities.
Anna Hyatt Huntington was old when the original sculpture began. To the reporters of bohemian magazine who interviewed her in 1957, Hyatt told them: “By her compatriot Gonzalo de Quesada I knew laxly of Martí’s apostolic work, of her struggles for the independence of her homeland, of her character. Without Mr. Quesada’s cooperation, my work would have been impossible. I see in Martí, above all things, a deep intellectual spirit and a man of a rare and exquisite sensibility.”7
Two portraits of Martí
Among the paintings preserved in the collection of the Office of the City Historian is the one he painted in 1901 Armando Menocal (1863-1932), based on a photo of the Apostle given to him by Dona Leonor Pérez. On the pictorial art of Menocal had been expressed by the poet Julian del Casal:
“Under the dominion of his brush, the mirrored satin, the silk creaks, the lace is more steamy, the flower boasts invisible nuances and the precious stones throw very bright glows. The same can be said of the human figure. The face retains its color; pupil, her gaze; forehead, folds; and physiognomy, the expression.”8
But the only portrait made directly from the natural, in the life of the Master, is preserved in the collection of josé Martí’s Casa Natal Museum. Opened in 1925 as José Martí Museum, personal and other objects related to the life and work of our National Hero are treasured there. The house is located at Calle Leonor Pérez 314 (the old address was Calle de Paula number 41).
In the painting of the Swedish painter Herman Norrman Martí is seen in the attitude of writing; behind him is a bookshelf, and next to him an inkwell. Blanche Zacharie de Baralt, Martí’s personal friend and author of a book about him, comments in an article:
“The pen in his fine, nervous hand was an attribute that seemed to be part of his own being. Very well interpreted is the character of the race writer in the painting of the Swedish artist Norrman, the only oil portrait of the natural that de Martí exists. He is at the Martiano Museum in Havana and spent many years hanging on the Master’s desk in his New York office, 120 Front Street.”9
The painter and literary Federico Edelman dedicates to the painting and its author a more extensive commentary:
“Among the fondest memories I keep of the Master is that of having visited, using him as cicerone, the first major painting exhibitions I saw in my life. […]
“Because of this love of painting, Martí had to discover in New York bohemian Herman Norrman, a highly talented Swedish painter …, who painted from the natural the only portrait of Martí that exists, and gratefully offered it to the Master, who greatly appreciated it as a work of art.
“This small oil portrait, depicting him sitting at his desk, in his historic 120 Front Street office in New York …, gives a full and just idea of the Apostle.”10
Herman Norrman, born in a small town in Sweden in 1864, arrived in New York between October and November 1887, and returned to Europe in the spring of 1891. After spending a year in Paris, he returned to his hometown, where he lived working as abanist and furniture decorator until his death in 1906.
“… from a very young age he was able to paint by heart, and with great precision, oaks, birch trees, pines and fir trees, and to reproduce the wild freshness of foliage. […] It can be said that the stream of the mountains, and not the sea, was the atmosphere of shapes, movement and colors that nurtured Herman Norrman’s artistic sensibility.”11
By way of conclusion
So far our short tour visiting Martí in some of its plastic representations in the historic center of Havana. Outside this center, many places remain to be visited where statues, busts and effigies of the National Hero have been placed, or that relate to his passage through the city: among many others, the giant and thoughtful Martí of revolution square, the statue in the National Library and the beautiful portrait painted by Esteban Valderrama in 1951, which is preserved in the Center for Martyrdom Studies. As we have already pointed out, it is not the intention of this work to explore martyred iconography or its critical analysis; Specialists in the field have published important works on the subject.12 We only wanted to approach, once again, the Apostle from Cuban plastic, in which his prominence is undeniable. These lines are a modest tribute to the man of the Golden Age: hero, politician, poet and exceptional human being. Ω
Notes
1 Fina García Marruz: “José Martí”, in Essays, Havana, Editorial Letras Cubanas, 2008, p. 9.
2 Manuel López Oliva: “A Debt of Conscience”: http://www.cnap.cult.cu/actualidad/marti-una-deuda-de-conciencia.
3 Alejo Carpentier: “Martí y el tiempo”, in Yearbook of the Center for Martyred Studies, No. 26, 2003, p. 181.
4 The collections of universal art are located in the building that was the headquarters of the Asturian Center, in front of the Central Park.
5 Israel Castellanos León: “Jorge Arche, retractor of Cuban modernity”, in La Jiribilla, No. 212, 2006: http://epoca2.lajiribilla.cu/2005/n212_05/mirada.html.
6 Lauris María Henríquez: “Martí is my spiritual handle”, in Escambray, 8 August 2017: http://www.escambray.cu/2017/marti-es-mi-asidero-espiritual-fotos-y-pinturas/.
7 Quoted in Marta Rojas: “Work of Love: Anna Hyatt’s Equestrian Martí” in Granma, January 16, 2018: http://www.granma.cu/cultura/2018-01-16/obra-de-amor-el-marti-ecuestre-de-anna-hyatt-16-01-2018-23-01-40.
8 Quoted by Pedro Antonio García Fernández in “Armando García Menocal, the Mambí painter”: http://www.cubahora.cu/historia/armando-garcia-menocal-el-pintor-mambi-fotos.
9 Blanche Zacharie de Baralt: “Martí, Caballero”, in Carmen Suárez León (comp.), I met Martí, Havana, Centro de Estudios Martianos, 2012.
10 Federico Edelman and Painted: “Memories of Martí”, in Carmen Suárez León (comp.), I met Martí, ed. cit.
11 René Vázquez Díaz: “Herman Norrman, the Swedish painter of Martí”, in La Jiribilla, No. 664, 2012: http://epoca2.lairibilla.cu/articulo/6850/herman-norrman-el-pintor-sueco-de-marti.
12 See, for example, Jorge R. Bermúdez: Visual Anthology. José Martí in Cuban plastics and graphics, Havana, Cuban Letters, 1999, and Martí, visual communicator, Havana, Centro de Estudios Martianos, 2017; as well as Iconografia de José Martí, editor Arturo Carricarte, Mexico, Editorial Frente de Afirmación Hispanista, 2017.
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