MANUEL MENDIVE HOYO (Havana, 1944)."El encuentro", 2001.Acrylic on canvas.Attached certificate of authenticity issued by the artist.Signed and dated in the lower right area.Unframed.Measurements: 122 x 109 cm.The curved forms dominate the whole composition, denoting an artistic activity based on the roots of a people who, in the painter's opinion, had to recover their dignity. In this way, the native references blend with the formal language learned in Europe to produce works in which the characters of the Yoruba pantheon that would populate much of his later production appear. In this piece we observe a play of perspectives that intermingle with the artist's dreamlike, surrealist style. The Cuban school of the 20th century was characterised by embracing the European avant-garde and developing, on that basis, a language of its own. This generalised current of artists trained in Europe, who returned to Cuba, gave the country a great artistic impulse. Thanks to painters who fused their roots and experiences, thus creating a new personal and independent language.Painter, watercolourist, sculptor and lithographer, Manuel Mendive's art is a search for the mystery of creation based on the energy of the Orishas of the Yoruba pantheon, an art that is therefore telluric, spontaneously fluid and timeless. He trained at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana, graduating in 1963. Since then he has shown his work both in Cuba and abroad, mainly in Europe, both in solo exhibitions (the first in 1964) and in group and official exhibitions. In 1968 he won the Adam Montparnasse prize at the Salon de Mayo in Paris, and that same year he was awarded third prize at the National Salon of Plastic Arts in Havana. He also holds the Alejo Carpentier Medal, and is a Knight of Arts and Letters of France. His work is currently held in museums and galleries in Latin America, Russia, Africa, the United States and Europe. Today his works are part of important art collections, including The Farber Collection in Cuba, the Nader Art Museum Latinamerica in Miami, the Museu Coleção Berardo in Lisbon, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba - MNBA, the Galería Máxima-arte cubano contemporáneo in Cuba, the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America in Essex, United Kingdom, and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, among others.