Mario Carreño y Morales, better known as Mario Carreño (May 24, 1913 – December 20, 1999) was a Cuban-Chilean painter.

Biography

Morales was born on May 24, 1913 in Havana, Cuba. He studied painting at the Academia de San Alejandro, Havana from 1925 until 1926. In 1934, he studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain. In 1937 he was a student at the Ecole des Arts appliqués, Paris, France and that same year, at the Académie Julian, Paris, France. Among his teachers was Jaime Colson. Circa 1935, he painted a mural in Havana with David Alfaro Siqueiros, which was later destroyed. He was an original member of the Origenes (nativist-baroque) movement. In 1944 he was one of several painters displayed in the New York Museum of Modern Art's-- Exhibition of Modern Cuban Painters. Works such as "Cortadores de Caña", "Danza Afro-Cubana", and "Fuego en el Batey" characterize the nativist-baroque style of this period, while at the same time, paintings such as "La Siesta" and "El Azulejo", evince classical and cubist inspiration. In the 1950s his style evolved towards geometric abstraction with works such as "Equinocio", and in the 1960s towards a poetic style, which could be described as surreal-metaphysical. This latter period is represented by works such as "Los Olvidados", "Mar y Luna", "Atardecer de Nostalgia" and "La Caida de Los Grandes Mitos". Besides a prolific output he also taught painting at numerous institutions such as the New School for Social Research in New York City, the Escuela de San Alejandro in Havana, Cuba, and the Universidad Catolica of Santiago, Chile.

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Awards

Collections

Many of his pieces are in the permanent collections of:

Selected bibliography