signed and dated 2004 lower right; titled on a label on the reverse
33 × 39 in (83.8 × 99.1 cm)
Auction Estimate:$14,000 - $18,000
Sale date:October 7 - 21, 2025
Price Realized
$14,400
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Gary Nader Fine Art, Miami
Private Collection
Literature
"Begin/Again: Marking Black Memories," Chapman University [online exhibition], 2020
The colourful and evocative works of Afro-Cuban artist Manuel Mendive celebrate the historical and religious art forms of Africa and Cuba, bringing new insights into the impacts of the African diaspora in Latin America. Mendive draws upon African, Spanish and Indigenous influences, which he then fuses with European painting techniques to present a rich array of mythical figures.
In the present work, various amorphous and dotted figures stand in an indistinct landscape, some of their bodies morphing into bird-like shapes, surrounded by colourful fishes. The fluid lines and sense of movement—in the flapping bird wings, pointing finger and leaning hand—serve to invoke “áse (spelled aché in Cuban), a sacred ancestral energy and representation of the Supreme Power that unites the aesthetic vision of Africans and their descendants.”
His works are held in private and public collections, such as the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest.
