Jorge Arche
Jorge Arche began to study painting at age thirteen in the
Fundacion Villate of the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais,
located in Havana. In 1923 he entered San Alejandro, where he
studied for years but did not complete the requirements for
graduation. In the late 1920s he associated with Victor Manuel,
following the latter's artistic orientations and advice.
Arche developed his own style in the early 1930s, as seen in one
of his most renowned paintings, Retrato de Aristides Fernandez
(Portrait of Aristides Fernandez, 1933 ). In this portrait of
his friend and colleague (who died prematurely a year later) he
found his favorite subject matter and his personal style of
simplified naturalism. In the following years he recorded
himself, his wife, leading intellectuals and artists of his
generation, and the apostle of Cuban independence, Jose Marti,
in portraits of increasing realistic details, chromatic
intensity, and polished surfaces. A salient example is Retrato
de Fernando Ortiz (Portrait of Fernando Ortiz, 1941). Arche also
painted genre scenes--La carta (The Letter, 1935) and Jugadores
de domino (Domino Players, 1941) are examples--and scenes of
work--such as Trabajadores (Workers, 1938) and Castillo de
Atares (stares Fortress, 1941). Although his style represented a
purification and restatement of academic art, rather than a
break with it, he nevertheless joined the ranks of the
vanguardia movement.
In the First and Second National Salons, held in Havana in 1935
and 1938, Arche exhibited in the rooms reserved for modern (as
opposed to academic) art and received purchase awards in both
(for La carta 1935 and for Mi mujer y yo [My Wife and I] in
1938). In 1937 he participated in a mural project for a
pedagogical school in Santa Clara. That same year he
collaborated with other modern artists in teaching at the Free
Studio of Painting and Sculpture.
In the last decade of his life Arche helped organize a fine arts
school in the city of Camaguey. He also made various trips to
Mexico, painting native scenes and landscapes. The majority of
his works are in Cuban private collections and his major
paintings are in the collection of the National Museum of Cuba.