Gina Pellón Papers

Open original Objeto digital

Elementos de identidad

Nombre y localización del repositorio

Nivel de descripción

Colección

Título

Gina Pellón Papers

Fecha(s)

  • 1979-2004 (Creación)

Extensión

1 Box

Nombre del productor

(1926-2014)

Historia biográfica

Gina Pellón is a Cuban artist, educator, and poet. She was born on December 26th, 1926 in Cumanayagua, Las Villas in the province of Cienfuegos, Cuba. She studied fine arts at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" in Havana, and graduated in 1954. She then taught children for three years, from 1954 to 1957 at the Velado Polytechnic Institute. Of her few years of teaching, Pellón said that she “allowed children to express themselves freely, to tell their stories through colorful strokes of the brush. My painting is just that, a kind of multicolor graffiti. I believe that every artist has preconceived innate ideas; but when an artist goes into the world, the universe unfolds before them.”

In 1959, she applied for a scholarship to obtain a visa to study in Paris. She was one of the finalists, but didn’t receive the scholarship. Undeterred, she reached out to a steamship company to find a means to travel to Europe. They offered her a free ticket if she brought them the twelve scholarship recipients. In the end, she brought 50 people. Pellón arrived in Paris in 1959 and did not return to Cuba after her 3-month visa expired, drawing the ire of Cuban cultural attache in Paris, Roberto Fernandez-Retamar. She ended up living out the rest of her life in Paris, working as a successful artist and displaying her work around the world, as well as publishing collections of poetry.

In 1961, she had her first solo exhibition at Gallery Kasper in Lausanne, Switzerland. She noted that, “When I arrived with my tropical colors to the sober and gray tranquility of Scandinavia, it was as if I had brought the sun to them.” In Europe, she interacted with the surrealists in Paris, and then joined the COBRA group, a European movement of innovative abstract expressionism. Her work was also displayed in many exhibitions in cities in Europe and Scandinavia, including Paris (1968, 1986, 1990, 1999), Lausanne, Brussels, Amsterdam, Toulouse, Silkebour and Copenhagen (Denmark), Larvik (Norway,) and Spinea-Venezia, Italy in 2002, and Albisola Marina, Italy in 2003, as well as major cities in the Americas, such as Miami (in 1981, 1991, 1994, 2001) New York, and Caracas (1975).

In 1978, she received the Order of Arts and Letters in France and won a CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in New Jersey, United States in the same year. Pellón was a prolific painter, using intense colors, abstract forms, and often painting figures and faces of women. She noted that “I paint every day… from sunrise to sundown. In this process, I have the need to create, to portray emotions, and once I am about to complete a work, I get the urge to attack another.” She also made collages and prints. Her work has most recently and also posthumously included in collections and catalogs by Cernuda Arte gallery in Coral Gables, Florida. She died on March 27, 2014 in Paris, France.

Área de contenido y estructura

Alcance y contenido

The collection documents the activities of Gina Pellón as an artist. The materials include catalogues, postcards, flyers, books and a DVD.

Sistema de arreglo

The collection is arranged in two series:

  1. Ephemera 1979-2004.

  2. Books 1999-2004.

Condiciones de acceso y uso de los elementos

Condiciones de acceso

This collection is open for research.

Acceso físico

Acceso técnico

Condiciones

Requests to publish or display materials from this collection require written permission from the rights owner. Please, contact chc@miami.edu for more information.

Preferred citation: Gina Pellón Papers, Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.

Idiomas del material

  • danés
  • inglés
  • francés
  • italiano
  • español

Escritura(s) de los documentos

Notas sobre las lenguas y escrituras

Instrumentos de descripción

instrumento de descripción generado

Elementos de adquisición y valoración

Historial de custodia

Origen del ingreso

This collection was donated by Gina Pellon in 2004; material was added in August of 2005 and February of 2007.

Valoración, selección y eliminación

Acumulaciones

Further accruals are expected.

Elementos de material relacionado

Existencia y localización de originales

Existencia y localización de copias

Unidades de descripción relacionadas.

Descripciones relacionadas

Elemento notas

Notas especializadas

Identificador/es alternativo(os)

Área de control de la descripción

Reglas o convenciones

Fuentes

Nota del archivista

The collection-level record created by Beata Bergen, March 2009. Finding aid subjects terms assigned by Ana D. Rodríguez, February 2013. Updated by Juan A. Villanueva, June 2016. Updated by Rebeca Gonzalez, May 2021.

Puntos de acceso

Puntos de acceso por materia

Puntos de acceso por lugar

Puntos de acceso por autoridad

Tipo de puntos de acceso

Objeto digital metadatos

Objeto digital (Ejemplar original), área de permisos

Objeto digital (Referencia), área de permisos

Objeto digital (Miniatura), área de permisos

Área de Ingreso

Materias relacionadas

Personas y organizaciones relacionadas

Tipos relacionados

Lugares relacionados