Vita

1923

Llinás is born on March 21 in Pinar del Río.

1937

He enters the Escuela Normal (teacher training school), Artemisa. Studies the piano until age 10, and then plays the clarinet in a youth band until 1939.

1939-46

He attends several courses at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Pinar del Río.

1942

Graduates as a teacher.

1944

1st Anarchist Congress of the Cuban Libertarian Assocation

1946

First exhibition, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Pinar del Río (one work: Casas de Cayajabo). Critique by Dulzaides, dated 12/24/1946)[1]

1946

Wifredo Lam exhibition in Havana.

1947

Guernica, copy for the anarchist headquarters at Estrella 105, Havana.

1948

Publication of Cucalambé by Robert Altmann.

1948-50

2st and 3rd Anarchist Congresses.

1950

Salón de los Rechazados [Exhibition of the Rejected].

1952

Llinás moves to Havana (according to the painter’s archives, also possibly in 1951).

1953

Receives a doctoral degree in arts pedagogy.

April: first Los Once exhibition.

First trip to New York and Washington; he enters the US on June 16 (the title of a 1965 painting).

1954

Anti-biennial in homage to Martí, beginning of the year.

1955

Exhibition in New York, at the Galería Sudamericana.

1957

Murals for La Roca, LH, with architect Hugo d’Acosta.

In May his US visa is renewed until 1959.

1957

First stay in France; enters Italy on October 27.

Leaves Switzerland on the 26th or 27th (there are two stamps) and enters France through Pontarlier on November 28.

In Paris, he lives at the Casa de Cuba (Cité Universitaire); he works at the studio of Wifredo Arcay.

1958

Visits Spain from late August to mid-September.

1959

Leaves Amberes on January 1, arrives in Havana January 23.

1959

Towards the end of the year, he returns to Paris with a scholarship. He works at the Atelier 17 of W. Stanley Hayter; again resides at the Cité Universitaire.

October 14: Passport stamp, enters France.

December 5: Passport stamp, enters New York.

1960

Visits: England (April); Austria, East and West Germany (Berlin in June).

Atelier Stanley Hayter, Paris, where Llinás studies metal engraving.

August: Exhibition at the New Vision Gallery, Newcastle.

October: Third International Congress of Plastic Arts, Vienna, in which he participates as a representative of Cuba.

December: Premiere of Medea en el Espejo by José Triana. According to the author, Llinás attended, but his whereabouts in 1961 are unknown, as he has exhibitions in Paris and Havana.

1961

June: meetings at the National Library; Castro gives his famous speech, “Palabras a los intelectuales” [Words to the Intellectuals]. Llinás attends.

August 18-22: 1er Congreso de Escritores y Artistas Cubanos [1st Congress of Cuban Writers and Artists]; establishment of the Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas Cubanos (UNEAC).

Between 1961-62, collection of Abakuá sketches, requested of Argeliers León or Odilio Urfé for the Institute of Ethnology2.

1962

He teaches at the Escuela de Arquitectura.

Dec. Premiere of Aire Frío, with scenography by Llinás.

Dec 14-16  Ist National Congress of Culture.

1963

January 11 to February 3: Abstract Expressionism Exhibition at Galería La Habana.

1963

May 15: flight to Paris via Prague; arrival to Prague on May 16; visa to Germany dated May 18.

October: International Architects’ Union Congress for which he made the mural at L and 23 streets in Havana. There is a plaque with his name on the sidewalk at La Rampa.

In Paris, Llinás lives at the Impasse de l’Astrolabe, 75014.

1964

April: Llinás begins to work at the Galerie Denise René

August: London.

Cuban passport renewed; Llinás must present himself at a military center upon return to Cuba.

At the beginning of the year he lives at 147, Rue de Charonne (75020). In March he moves to 40, Rue Brancion, 75015 (the title of one of his first wood engravings, from 1965).

1965

Spends New Year’s in London.

1966

Amelia Peláez visits.

August: Andalucia and Madrid.

Publication of Michael Rothenstein’s second book on experimental engraving. Book with Cortázar.

October: Desnoes and María Rosa Almendros visit.

1967

April: visits Belgium and the Netherlands.

Denise René gallery opens at St Germain and in California; Llinás receives a salary increase.

He moves to Rue du Temple, Vincennes (on the outskirts of Paris).

May 15 to August: Antonia Eiriz visits. In August Desnoes and Ambrosio Fornet arrive in Paris heading from a reunion of the Pen Club in Ivory Coast.

December 6: Stokely Carmichael speech in Paris.

1968

May: London; summer: Stockholm.

Llinás begins psychoanalysis due to hair loss.

1969

May 16: Calvert Casey commits suicide in Rome.

1970

August 2-30: West Germany; August: Copenhagen with Roberto Altmann. End of the year: Belgium.

1971

July and August: Belgium, Amsterdam and Germany.

1972

May: Great Britain; June: Basel; June: Italy; august: Greece.

Poemas, book with José Lezama Lima.

1973

April 4-26: Syria, via Lebanon; June: Art Basel; August: Madrid.

1974

March: Geneva; August: Portugal; November: Belgium.

1975

Difficulties leading to his dismissal at the Galerie Denise René; he remains unemployed until 2005.

Juillet: Italie.

1976

May: Madrid; August: Great Britain.

1977

April: Gentilly et l’Afrique. Llinás exhibits and creates the poster for the event.

Moves to 72, rue de Romainville, Montreuil.

1978

Exhibition Signes in Malmö, au mois d’août Copenhague et Allemagne.

1979

August 15 to September 4: premier voyage à Cuba depuis 1963.

1980

Juillet: Londres.

1981

United States.

1983

July: second trip to Cuba, with Jacqueline, Sylvie, and François Sauvage.

Founding of the group Xylotraces, (until 1989).

Le long du fleuve, with Michel Butor.

1984

United States; Julio Cortázar dies.

1985

1rst  exhibition of Xylotraces.

September – October: visit of Antonia Eiriz; she exhibits in Paris with a work from 1965.

Llinás obtains French citizenship.

1986

Membre du Jury de la Biennale de Fredrikstad,  Norvège.

1987

Le masque d’artiste, Exhibition in Cannes.

1988

Septembre: New York.

1989/90

Retrospective à Puerto Rico. Décembre-Janvier, voyage en Egypte.

1993

Exhibition in Paris, at the Séita, by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

1994

March 29: François Sauvage dies.

1995

Raúl Martínez and Antonia Eiriz die.

September: trip to Cuba.

1997

Retrospective in Miami.

2003

50 woodcarvings (donated by the artist) at the Lehigh University Art Galleries.

2005

Llinás dies on July 4 in Paris/Créteil at the Hôpital Mondor, after a traffic accident in Vincennes.

[1] Jorge Montesino: “Negro y vitalidad gestual”. Conference in Pinar del Río, Museo de Arte, 27/4/2007.
[2] Katherine Hagedorn (Pomona College, Claremont, California): “Tangible Effects of Preserving Intangible Culture in Cuba: Afro-Cuban Religious Performance and the Conjunto Folklórico Nacional – A Case Study”. http://svr1.cg971.fr/lameca/dossiers/ethnomusicologie. The Institute of Ethnology and Folklore was created in december 1961. In January 1962 Argeliers León was appointed director.