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Double Portrait of the Machi Family
La Familia: Retrato Doble de la Familia Machi
Requires Photography
La Familia
Double Portrait of the Machi Family
La Familia: Retrato Doble de la Familia Machi
Raúl Martínez (Cuban, 1927–1995)
1975
Medium/Technique
Acrylic on cardboard
Dimensions
Overall: 106 × 76 cm (41 3/4 × 29 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Anonymous gift in memory of Antonio F. Cao
Accession Number2019.99
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsContemporary Art, Americas, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPaintings
DescriptionIn this painting, based on a photograph he took of a friend and his family, Martinez places the mother at the center of the composition by creating a mirror image of the father and son. This work commemorates the adoption of Cuba's Family Code on March 8, 1975 (which became International Women’s Day in Cuba), implemented to afford rights and protections to women in a patriarchal society.
InscriptionsSigned and dated, l.r.: Raul 75
Provenance1995, upon the death of the artist, by inheritance to Abelardo Estorino López (b. 1925 – d. 2013), Havana, Cuba; 2013, by inheritance to his sister, Zenaida Antonia Estorino López, Havana; December 2014, sold by Zenaida López to anonymous collector, Cambridge, MA; 2019, gift of anonymous collector to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 20, 2019)