Attributed to Rene portocarrero private collection, no coa medium: oil measurements:27"wx34"h framed, mint condition Biography:Portocarrero began his artistic education at the San Alejandro academy, but left early and is hence considered 'self taught'. He put on his first exhibition in 1934, at the Havana Lyceum, beginning a long and fruitful career which included a 1937 collaboration with Mariano Rodríguez and work as a 'free studies' teacher of painting and sculpture.[After travels in Haiti, Europe and the United States he gave his first show to an overseas audience at Julien Levy's gallery in New York City in 1945.In 1950, he worked with Wifredo Lam, Mariano, Martinez Pedro and Amelia Peláez in the village of Santiago de las Vegas. In 1961, he had meetings with Fidel Castro in the José Martí National Library, where they discussed culture. René received lessons in painting from Nicolás Guillén Landrián. In 1977 he worked for the Japan Women's Association. In 1979, he worked for UNESCO and AIAP. He knew Peggy Guggenheim.Throughout his life he executed several murals, using different techniques, including his "History of the Antilles", in ceramic, for the Hotel Havana Hilton, currently known as "Habana Libre".Portocarrero is one of the pioneers in Cuban art, with Eduardo Abela, Victor Manuel Garcia, Amelia Pelaez, and Mariano Rodriguez, who broke with the Academic past setting their sights on the more distant horizons of the School of Paris.He received prizes in national exhibitions including the 1951 National Prize for Painting for his tribute to the Cuban city of Trinidad. Besides the retrospectives at the National Museum of Havana in 1967 and 1982, major exhibits of Portocarrero's work have been held at the Museum of Modem Art, New York (1943), the Museum of Art, San Francisco (1945), the Musee d'Art Modeme, Paris (1951), the Panamerican Union, Washington D.C. (1956), in Vienna, and Mexico City (1965 and 1985). Portocarrero died in Havana in 1985.