54 Montebravo (José Garcia Montebravo) Untitled, 2002. Oil on canvas. 10” x 8”

MONTEBRAVO [Jesús de García Montesbravo], 1953-2010, in Cienfuegos. He was a self-taught painter who was teaching geography for 19 years before doing art full-time. A welcoming spiritual tent hangs over all of his paintings, drawings and prints, and though not trained, his works were informed by his in-depth knowledge of both African religions and art history. In an interview with Gerard Mouail in 2004, he said that the foundation of his art comes from a phrase of musician Carlos Puebla, “I do not have the how, but I have the why.” He painted many black dolls that he called “infantas,” and often named the dolls after the Orishas, because “that’s what people expected but they are simple black dolls. They wear clothes characateristic of the deities, but they are not the deity. The costume is the link with universal painting.”