Manuel Carbonell

Manuel Carbonell
Manuel Carbonell with Madonna of the Moon at the foundry in Miami, Florida
Born	(1918-10-25)October 25, 1918 Sancti Spíritus, Cuba
Died	November 10, 2011(2011-11-10) (aged 93) Coral Gables, Florida, United States
Nationality	Cuban
Education	Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" in Havana, Cuba
Known for	monumental bronze sculptures, sculptures, bas-reliefs, drawings, and historical public monuments
Style	Contemporary Figurative Abstract bronze sculptures

Manuel Carbonell (October 25, 1918 – November 10, 2011) was regarded as the last of the Cuban Master Sculptors. He was part of the generation of Cuban artists, which includes Wifredo Lam and Agustín Cárdenas, that studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", Havana Cuba. Carbonell's inexhaustible vision and his ever changing-style are the product of a brilliant talent and academic background. Ceaselessly searching for the essence of form and the absence of details, he empowered a sense of strength, monumentality and simplicity to his work. Until the age of 92, he had continued to work daily in his studio.

Carbonell was born on October 25, 1918, in Sancti Spiritus ("Holy Spirit"), Cuba. He had two sisters the older, Josephine and the younger Angela. His father alone came from a family of eighteen brothers and sisters. The family history has its roots in early sugar farming, from the early 1800s.

At an early age the family moved to Cienfuegos and Carbonell went to study at"Monserrat" Cienfuegos primary school, this proved to be the beginnings of many long lasting friendships, even then he was known and recognized as the person so in admiration of art, and consumed with drawing and carving. Continuing on to his more formative academic years, in Havana he attended Belen, a Jesuit Preparatory Catholic High School where he excelled in the classes that involved art or history.

Carbonell first realized he wanted to be a sculptor when he was eight or nine years old. He was always making little figures with clay. And whenever he found a piece of paper, he would doodle little figures on it. His harshest punishment as a child was when his mother forbade him to draw. Having the understanding that a piece of paper could be torn apart but not a sculpture, held the idea of lasting permanence to the thought of creating. To this day he becomes depressed when he is not involved in the process of creation, he becomes impossible. "Something curious happens to me when I sit down to begin the process of translating the images in my imagination into this third dimension. I see the whole piece finished, actually totally finished, in my minds eye, even before I begin. But, as we all know, imagination can be very treacherous." To describe Carbonell's sculptures they have the force of Auguste Rodin, the monumentality of Henry Moore and the simplicity of Aristide Maillol, but with a personal style and interpretation.