Agustín Cárdenas

Cuban sculptor Agustín Cárdenas (1927-2001) settled in Paris in 1955, where André Breton welcomed him into the Surrealist circle. His work draws on Afro-Cuban heritage and the lessons of Brancusi and Arp, resolved in smooth, totemic forms carved in wood, marble and stone or cast in bronze. Collectors look for pieces where the carved surface stays taut and continuous, and for the tall, interlocking columns that best express his quiet, organic vocabulary.