Andrés García Benítez

Andrés García Benítez
Born	July 10, 1916 Holguín, Cuba
Died	1981 Havana
Awards	Juan Gualberto Gómez

Andrés García Benítez was one of the most important Cuban illustrators in the first half of the twentieth century. He was an artist and scenic designer whose works and notoriety existed for several decades before the Cuban Revolution, and survive into the modern era. After the revolution, he took working gigs in Spain and Puerto Rico. Many of his works were signed "Andrés."

His works are regularly listed and valued on the auction market, such as the 2020 auction sale for US$6,390 at Sotheby's New York. Many of his works are still exhibited in galleries. The website Cuban Art News writes of his work:

"Given the variety and richness of his art, it is easy to imagine García Benítez as a tireless creative machine, an artist possessed of a powerful and inexhaustible talent that continues to delight, astonish, and seduce us after 100 years."

Career as a painter and illustrator

Cover of the magazine Carteles, painted by Andrés, who greatly promoted the Afro-Cuban identity.

Andrés had only completed two years of high school in Holguín before informing his father, the Don Saturnio Garcia Zaballa, that he was going to drop out of school to pursue the life of a professional artist. Andrés had no professional training as an artist in the beginning of his career, and largely taught himself the craft.

By 1932, when Andrés was only 16 years old, he had already sold his first paintings, had his first art show, and had been hired by Alfredo T. Quiléz to draft covers for Carteles, one of the most popular magazines in Cuba. His first submissions were sent by mail.

In August 1936, Andrés was promoted to the position of official designer for Carteles. It is notable that his work defines the second phase of Cuban folk art, following the first phase art of Víctor Patricio de Landaluze.

Andrés worked as a graphic artist and illustrator for Carteles and Vanidades for over twenty years, until 1961, when the magazine industry in Cuba was completely shuttered by the Castro regime.

Career in the performing arts

Career in the theatre

In June 1942, he designed the set for the production of La Comedia de la felicidad de Everinoff, a play commissioned by Luis Martínez Allende.

Andrés also designed scenery and sets for the Havana theatre productions of Prometeo, Talía, Las Máscaras and others. In Holguín, he also designed the production of the Tropicana Cabaret.

More notably, he designed the productions of Doña Rosita the Spinster, The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife, Electra Garrigó, and Romeo and Juliet.

Career in ballet

Andrés collaborated with maestro Ramiro Guerra on the ballet productions of Havana 1830, El Milagro de Anaquillé, and Liborio y esperanza. In 1948, he went into a brief collaboration with Alicia Alonso.

Career in nightclubs and the cabaret

Andrés designed productions for the Tropicana Club and the Tropicana Cabaret, the Cabaret Parisien, and the Hotel Capri.

He also designed the costumes for Esther Borja, Elena Burke, Merceditas Valdés, and Luis Carbonell.