René Francisco (1960) - Ignopolis. Serie.

René Francisco. Cuba. 1960
Category: Engravings and Prints Graphic Work
Series: Ignipolis
Publisher: Del Campo and others. Taller del Prado. Madrid.
Technique: Lithography
Support: Conqueror Connoiseur 300 g paper
Dimensions: 62 x 82 cm – (50 x 70 cm plaque)
Edition: 100 copies
The edition number of a given copy may vary but always within the certified edition of 100 original copies, signed and manually numbered.
P/A: 10
H.C.: 10
P/T: 5
Genre: Abstract, Geometric

Belonging to a generation of artists who emerged at the end of the eighties, René Francisco Rodríguez (Holguín, Cuba, 1960) was awarded the National Prize for Plastic Arts 2010 at the National Museum of Fine Arts. This prize, awarded annually by the Cuban Ministry of Culture since 1994, is conferred once to a living visual arts creator, residing in the country, for a lifetime of work. This is the first time it has been awarded to an artist born after 1959.

René Francisco graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Arte (ENA) in 1982 and from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 1987, a center where he has taught in a non-orthodox manner. Since the 1990s, he has become a mandatory reference within Cuban art in his duo with Eduardo Ponjuán and later for his solo career.

His artistic discourse has maintained a constant ascent, combining experimentation, renewal, investigation, critical sense, and interest in the social; affinities that also appear in his transgressive pedagogical work, which forms an inseparable unity with the entirety of his creation. René Francisco has proven to be a "facilitator or medium"—as he himself recently defined—in more than one generation of emerging artists, some of whom are now recognized figures in the Cuban visual movement.

His work as an educator, already twenty years in activity, first gained international recognition at the VII Havana Biennial, when in 2000 he was awarded UNESCO’s Prize for the Promotion of the Arts to DUPP Gallery—third edition of its project From a Pedagogical Pragmatism. Subsequently, the Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in California, United States, in 2001, honored both his work as an artist and his teaching.

From his creative energy stand twenty-four solo exhibitions to date. Among the most notable in the last five years are: his presentation at the 52nd Venice Biennale, Italy (2007), Crossed Histories at PanAmerican Art Projects, United States (2008), and in Havana, the exhibitions Interprete (2009) and Paintings of Yesterday and Tomorrow (2010).

Notable mention is due to his socially engaged work known as Patio de Nin, in the El Romerillo neighborhood (2004/2005) —to name just one— and also his collective project Plaza almada (2009), linked to residencies, workshops and workshops in different places around the world. The multifaceted and dynamic body of work created by René Francisco, tied to the social, critical, and irreverent, refers not only to existential problems of the country but also to the intricacies of its history.

The procedural character of that work and its performativity have risen, just as his artistic practice asserts his belief that art is encountered with life, dissolves into it, and can transform it.

He is currently part of several of the most important collections in Spain, in addition to those where he already is, such as the Jorge Perez Collection in Miami, Ella Fontanal de Cisneros, etc. He is preparing for November 2026, as curator of the exhibition at Casa de América for the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State.