Cuban Furniture

Dolores "Lolo" Soldevilla Neito (Cuban, 1901-1971), circa 1955. A very important piece by a leading female artist in the Cuban abstract movement. This painting conducted in oil and likely tempera on canvas laid to board. Her colorful geometric paintings evoke mixed emotions and feelings - we have always viewed this piece as an homage to our solar system. In its original frame, identical framing to nearly all of her pieces. Signed to the lower right "LoLo". Measuring 13.75" w x 10.5" h (image), 20.25" w x 16.875" h (framed). Provenance: From the collection of a Cuban art collector in Canton, Massachusetts. Below is a very detailed biography of the artist from her website dedicated to her work and life. María de los Dolores (Loló) Juana Soldevilla Nieto was born June 24, 1901 in the Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. She was the third child of a piano teacher, María Paula Bathilda Nieto Lannes and a merchant, Raoúl Soldevilla Seballos, both originally from Pinar del Río. Her maternal grandparents were Severo Nieto (Pontevedra, Spain) and Lorenza Lannes Díaz, baptized in Pinar del Río. Her paternal grandparents were Pedro Soldevilla Martí (Caracas, Venezuela) and Dolores Seballos Bermúdez (Habana, Cuba). Loló was a precocious, restless, and curious girl. She was surrounded in her early years in Pinar del Río by a numerous, charismatic, and cultured family. Her mother’s and uncle’s instructions provided a learning environment, and from an early age she practiced reading and writing, singing, piano, and the appreciation of various art forms such as painting and theater. Also as a child she was reflective of social issues since she was surrounded by ideals and actions that defined her family during that time. Around 1911 Loló is translated to Havana with her family. There she studied and graduated from piano and vocal performance (soprano). She trained her voice with professor Zoila Gálvez in the Municipal Academy of Havana and violin with professor Casimiro Zertucha in the Falcón Conservatory. In 1926 Loló went to live with her mother and sister near Paseo del Prado, where they remained until they were evacuated during the catastrophic hurricane of that same year. At age 25, Loló married Manuel de Jesús Nazario Barba Bonen, a professional pianist. From this marriage were born her three children, Haydée, Magaly, and Pasto; the latter passing at one year old. In 1934 she founds the “Loló Orchestra,” composed of women and with a Latin American and Cuban repertoire. She directed the orchestra and played the violin. They performed regularly in the “Aires Libres” in the cafés of the Paseo del Prado in Havana. During these years Loló refines her political ideals and actions, stemming from her early education in Pinar del Río and family traditions. She takes part in diverse activities against the government of Machado and she was imprisoned more than once in the Women’s Detention Center of Guanabacoa. In 1937 she becomes a member of the National Executive Committee of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (Authentic), where she carried out activities according to that historical moment. In 1940 Loló marries syndicalist Eusebio Mujal and they divorce four years later due to the discrepancy of their political ideas. In 1946 she represented the Authentic Party as a member of the House Representatives of the Oriente Province, where she was named President of the Commission of Press and publicity. She travels to Prague in 1947 to participate in the first session of the International Women’s Federation. Loló was charged with representing and defending the ideals of Cuban women, their social problems, the defense of children, etc. In 1948 she became a member of the House of Representatives of Cuba. Between her actions one could mention the public denouncement about the assassination of the farm workers leader Sabino Pupo, the proposal for a law for minor courts, the retributions due to sugar workers, among other demands. That same year she was invited by the American Federation of Art in Washington and she visited museums in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York. Later that year she travelled to Paris and begins to paint under the guidance of her painter friend Wifredo Lam. At that time she creates her first small and large format sculptures, drawings, portraits, and projects for mural paintings. In February of 1949 she is named Cultural Attaché in the Cuban Embassy in France. From that moment on, her career as a visual artist deploys in intense and varied studies and exhibitions. She matriculates in the “Académie de la Grande Chaumière” in Paris and begins her sculpture studies with professors Léopold Kretz and Ossip Zadkine. In the 1950s she travels across Europe with her daughter Magaly. In Spain, she meets Eusebio Sempre who dedicated the poem collection “Claridad de Vivir. Versos Populares.” Together with Lam, she visits museums and galleries in Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, Austria, and Eastern Germany. She continues her studies in various workshops and attends several conferences on new artistic trends. She also continues establishing connections with painters, sculptors, musicians, writers, photographers, and artistic personalities of Cuba and the world. She exhibits her work in various individual and collective shows, such as an exhibition in Tampa. She returns to Cuba and exhibits there for the first time. In the show “Loló esculturas” (November 23-27, 1950) in the Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club of Havana she presented 22 sculptures and one oil painting. Back to Paris she participates in various collective exhibitions including Salon d’Automne Grand Palais del Champs Elysées; Peintres, graveurs et Sculpteurs Etrangeres (Ecole Nationale del Beaux-Arts, Paris). She also participates in Jubilé International in the Cité Universitaire, among others. There she becomes part of “The Dissidents,” and she travels to Mexico invited by the painter Felipe Orlando. In 1951 she promotes and organizes, as Cultural Attaché of Cuba in Paris, the exhibition, “Art cubain contemporain, in the Musée National d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. She includes works of Pedro Alvarez...

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