IN recognition of his lifetime achievements, painter, writer and critic Pedro de Oraá was awarded the 2015 National Prize for Visual Arts, granted annually by the Cuba’s National Visual Arts Council.
The prize has been awarded since 1994 to “a living Cuban visual artist, resident in the country, whose production is distinguished by its valuable contribution to the development and history of visual arts in Cuba.” Also taken into consideration are important works and recognition of the artist nationally and internationally.
Pedro de Oraá (1931) studied painting and sculpture at the San Alejandro Academy in 1952, joining the group known as The Eleven in 1956, and was among the Ten Concrete Painters, 1958-1961.
Outstanding among his principal personal expositions have been those presented at the Pequeño Espacio Gallery; the National Visual Arts Council; the Raúl Martínez; the Cuban Book Institute; the Fayad Jamís Art and Literature Center in Havana; the Fine Arts Center in Caguas, Puerto Rico; and La Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris.
His abstract works are included in the collections of important institutions including Cuba’s National Fine Arts Museum; Chopo University in Mexico City; the Godwin-Ternbach Museum of Queen’s College in New York; the Museum of Finest Cuban Arts, Vienna; New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA); The Pompidou Center in France; and the Ludwig Museum in Germany.
He participated in the 5th Sao Pablo Biennial at the end of the 1950s, and most recently in a collective project entitled Zona Franca, a parallel exposition during the last Havana Biennial.
(Granma)