top of page

 Luis Martinez Pedro 

Luis Martinez Pedro was born in 1910 in Havana Cuba. After studying architecture at the University of Havana, he studied at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine-Arts starting in 1929. The repression under the dictatorship of Machado drove him to leave for the USA, where he settled in New Orleans, joining the city’s School of Art and Craft in order to study painting and drawing. He went back to Cuba in 1933, where he began working for various advertising companies. From 1944 to 1956, he carried out illustrations for the magazine « Origenes » (Origins). He exhibited widely internationally, first in the NY at the Rose fried gallery and in Italy at Galeria Il cavallino in Venice. In 1953, Martínez Pedro won an award at the II São Paulo Biennial for his Espacio azul (Blue Space) painting granted by UNESCO as “the most outstanding example of abstract art”. Represented Cuba in the Venice Biennial of 1957 and 1959.  Luis Martínez Pedro became one of the first members and co-founder of Los Diez Pintores Concretos between 1958 and 1961, a group of artists responsible for the revolutionized, self-styled concrete art movement of the twentieth century. Established in Havana, the group included various concrete artists such as Mario Carreño and Loló Soldevilla whose artworks were exhibited at Galería de Arte Color-Luz in 1959, the second year anniversary of the gallery. Los Diez were together and exhibited three more times before the gallery closed its doors in 1961.Between 1963 and 1973, Luis Martinez Pedro carried out a series of works on the theme “Aguas Territoriales” (Territorial Waters)Many of his works are now in renown museums including MoMA NY. Luis Martinez Pedro passed away in 1989, at the age of 79.

Luis Martinez Pedro

Luis Martinez Pedro

Composition No 5. Oil on Canvas, 21 3/4 x 36 in. c 1958.

Luis Martinez Pedro

Luis Martinez Pedro

"Composition No. 33/ Pintura No. 6" 28 x 7 in Oil on Canvas 1957

Luis Martinez Pedro

Luis Martinez Pedro

Bal Harbour, Florida 1958

bottom of page