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TONEL: Lessons of Solitude

Antonio Eligio (Tonel) Fernandez

114exg601_4_lg_144_144TONEL: Lessons of Solitude is the first ever retrospective of the work of Tonel, born Antonio Eligio Fernández. One of the most pivotal figures of contemporary Cuban art, Tonel creates satirical and scatological drawings in the tradition of William Hogarth, Francisco José de Goya, and George Grosz. At the center of his cartoonish drawings are themes of sex, the body and a subversion of the machismo that is associated with the Cuban Revolution. In addition to the drawings, Tonel has created laminated wood sculptures that take the form of self-portraits. A catalogue was published on occasion of the exhibition and includes essays by co-curator Eugenio Valdés Figueroa (co-curated by Scott Watson), as well as writers Orlando Hernández, David Mateo, and Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda.