ExhibitionFebruary 25, 2025
Agustín Fernández. The Alluring Power of Ambiguity
Cuban-born Agustín Fernández (1928–2006) was a modern master, incorporating a non-dualistic visual language of figuration and abstraction. Juxtaposing anatomical images with subdued coloration, Fernández is an artist difficult to place within the color-saturated Cuban canon. His ambiguous forms are evocative of flesh and eros, represented through a monochromatic palette. Fernández’s work explores exile, separation, and abandonment themes while resonating with the broader modernist movement.
The retrospective exhibition Agustín Fernández: The Alluring Power of Ambiguity traces Fernández’s trajectory from Cuba to New York City and with over 65 works of art, including large-scale paintings, drawings, collages, and portfolios, along with an unpublished personal memoir. Curated by Elizabeth T. Goizueta with the assistance of Gabriela Goizueta, the exhibition builds on the Frost Art Museum’s 1992 exhibition, Agustín Fernández: A Retrospective, and draws on the Frost’s extensive holdings of Fernández’s work.
From the Agustín Fernández estate, private collectors and the Frost—many of which have never been exhibited—form the basis of this in-depth examination.
Fernández’s work reflects a wide range of influences, from surrealism to post-Minimalism to New York City’s punk culture. Trained at Havana’s preeminent art academy, San Alejandro, Fernández left the Cuban capital for Paris in 1959, where he absorbed the tenets of surrealism. His subsequent moves to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and New York City reveal how these places formed his aesthetic and metaphysical explorations.
For more information, visit: https://frost.fiu.edu/whats-on/events/2025/01/agustin-fernandez.html
The retrospective exhibition Agustín Fernández: The Alluring Power of Ambiguity traces Fernández’s trajectory from Cuba to New York City and with over 65 works of art, including large-scale paintings, drawings, collages, and portfolios, along with an unpublished personal memoir. Curated by Elizabeth T. Goizueta with the assistance of Gabriela Goizueta, the exhibition builds on the Frost Art Museum’s 1992 exhibition, Agustín Fernández: A Retrospective, and draws on the Frost’s extensive holdings of Fernández’s work.
From the Agustín Fernández estate, private collectors and the Frost—many of which have never been exhibited—form the basis of this in-depth examination.
Fernández’s work reflects a wide range of influences, from surrealism to post-Minimalism to New York City’s punk culture. Trained at Havana’s preeminent art academy, San Alejandro, Fernández left the Cuban capital for Paris in 1959, where he absorbed the tenets of surrealism. His subsequent moves to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and New York City reveal how these places formed his aesthetic and metaphysical explorations.
For more information, visit: https://frost.fiu.edu/whats-on/events/2025/01/agustin-fernandez.html
