M
ario Carreño was a Cuban‑born Chilean Modernist whose work fused Cubist abstraction, Surrealist invention and the bold compositional strategies of Mexican muralism into a distinctive visual language. His international training and major institutional recognition positioned him as a central figure of twentieth‑century Latin American art, with works now held in leading museums across the Americas.
Mario Carreño Biography
Mario Carreño was a Cuban-born Chilean painter known for his unique style, which blends Cubist abstraction and surrealism with techniques seen in Mexican muralist paintings. Carreño was part of the second generation of Modern artists working in Cuba during the 20th century.
Mario Carreño y Morales was born in Havana, Cuba in May 1913. He studied painting at the Academia de San Alejandro in Havana, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain; later, he attended the Ecole des Arts appliqués as well as the Académie Julian in Paris, France. Later, Carreño established residency in Santiago, Chile.
Carreño gained critical attention with his inclusion in a number of prominent group exhibitions: in 1943, his work appeared in the MoMA New York’s The Latin American Collection; the following year, he appeared in MoMA’s ‘Exhibition of Modern Cuban Painters’; in 1951, he was selected for the São Paulo Biennial; and in 1952, he exhibited at the XXVI Venice Biennial. In 1956, Carreño received the Guggenheim International Award, followed by the National Prize of Art of Chile in 1982 and the Cintas Foundation Fellowship in 1987.
Carreño died in Chile in December of 1999. Today, his work is owned by prominent institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile.
