Mario Torroella original watercolor painting

Bold, striking painting in signature bright color and black accents. The painting is 24x18 and with frame is 29x23.5.

ABOUT MARIO TORROELLA

Mario Torroella was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1935. Ever since he can remember, Mario has been drawing and painting. His mother who had studied art in Havana at the Academy of San Alejandro, and in the USA at the Corcoran art gallery, taught him the different techniques of watercolor and oil painting. Otherwise, he is a self-taught artist.

At an early age, he was sent to study with his two brothers to the United states. He graduated from Dartmouth College and proceeded to study architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design while continuing to practice art here and in Cuba. Before graduating from Harvard, Mario took a leave of absence in 1959 to return to Cuba and work for the Cuban revolution. He soon became disenchanted with the new regime, and in 1960 definitely left the country. In 1962, Mario graduated from Harvard and began practicing architecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts while at the same time exhibiting in different venues and countries. Mario’s first-one-person exhibit was at the art gallery of the University of Puerto Rico in 1962. In 1969, Mario was cofounder of HMFH Architects, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts where he has acted as partner in charge of design.

Mario has had group and one-person exhibits in the United States, Puerto Rico, France, Switzerland and Spain. Works of his are found in private collections in the USA, Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile, Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Taiwan and Japan, and in the permanent collection of the University of Puerto Rico, and El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo De Velez-Malaga, Spain. A piece of his has been exhibited at a group show in El Museo of America, Madrid, Spain, in 2005.

Written by Guy Michel Telemaque, photographer and professor of art at the Boston Arts Academy.

IN THE ARTIST’S WORDS

I paint in order to communicate and/or alleviate an alienation brought about by coming from where extreme beauty and natural abundance have been the backdrop for a society which has often erupted in self-violence, thus causing great sorrow to all concerned. These two components, beauty and sorrow, combined with analysis and criticism, are great stimuli for expressing one’s feelings, and expression and feeling is what my art is about.