Sandú Darié, Untitled, 1950, Oil on Canvas
Sandú Darié was a Romanian artist who grew up in France and initially trained as a lawyer. He had many contacts with the Romanian avant-garde, Including the poet Stephan Roll and the painter Medi W. Dinu. After spending some time in Paris, he settled in Havana, Cuba, in 1941, taking Cuban nationality.
Darié belonged to the South American Neo-Constructivist movement. He was also a member of the Diez Pintores Concretos group (The Ten Concrete Painters). This group with its development of Cuban abstract geometric art conincided with the radical political and cultural shifts that raged throughout Cuba in the 1950s. In Darié’s compositions, the triangle predominated in combination with vertical and horizontal lines. Interchangeable mobile panels also provided the physical structure for his works.
The basic tenets of Concrete Art was evident in his works with the combinations of planes, primary colors and rigorous geometric form. His use of irregular shaped canvases and structures with moving parts broke the existing tradition of painting and focused on the physicality of the art. Darié drew the viewer into his works with its space, color and light, encouraging the viewer to participate in its perspective and motion.