Rene Portocarrero (1912-1985)

Born in El Cerro, Havana in 1912. He began painting at an early age and entered the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 14. He was too temperamental to adapt to this training, so he left the institution and began working independently. His work was exhibited for the first time at the Havana Art Salon. In 1939 Porto Calero became a professor at the Institute of Free Painting and Sculpture under the guidance of Eduardo Abella. The artist traveled to Haiti, Europe and the United States, and in 1945 had an exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. He also created numerous murals and ceramics.
Porto Carrero’s work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Su00e3o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York and San Francisco. At the National Gallery of Canada. At the Bellas Artes in Caracas. Milwaukee Art Center, Pan American Union in Washington. Contemporary art in Paris. Houston Museum of Art. Museum of Art, Indianapolis. Bellas Artes, Montevideo. Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires. Contemporary Art Institute, Lima, Peru. It is also at the National Museum in Havana.

He painted vigorously from childhood, but never planned his own works. In his spontaneity, he had no idea what he was going to do until his brush hit the canvas. The artist died in Havana on April 7, 1985.

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