Untitled

Multifaceted artist Loló Soldevilla was a painter, sculptor, musician, and writer, as well as an unflagging promoter of Cuban art. In her young years she took singing and violin lessons, and formed an all-female orchestra in 1934. Her life featured her steadfast commit- ment to political and gender causes. In 1949, she settled in Paris as a cultural attaché to Cuba. There, in the City of Lights, she studied sculpture with Léopold Kretz and Ossip Zadkine and began painting by suggestion of her friend Wifredo Lam. Her cosmopolitan life allowed her to get acquainted with various artists, and became an active participant in the international abstract scene. In her paint- ings and collages she can approach to or depart from figuration to abstraction without conflict. Far from being rigid, her geometric artworks embrace deep, creative freedom. This untitled work is a clear example of her non-figurative production—simple, spirited, and ludic. Soldevilla was still living in Paris when she created this painting in 1955, which reminisces about pieces of domino, a game typically played in her home country. In 1956, back in Havana, she kept promoting art and abstract quests at Color-Luz gallery, her own artistic space.