Lourdes Gomez-Franca

Her grandfather was Cuban leader Porfirio Franca (born 1878), a lawyer, banker, and economist who was a member of Cuba's Pentarchy of 1933.

Her early life, however, was marked by repeated tragedy that proved to be highly formative to her life and artistic career.

Her mother, Josefina, was killed by thieves when Lourdes was 10 months old, causing her father to subsequently deteriorate mentally and physically as he suffered from depression, tuberculosis, and possibly schizophrenia.

He was institutionalized when Lourdes was five, after which she and her older sister were raised by their grandparents.

Lourdes Gómez Franca (February 15, 1933 – October 16, 2017), better known simply as Lourdes, was a Cuban-American painter and poet who was active in Cuba and the United States.

Her work was significant in Miami and Cuban art communities of the later Twentieth Century and covered by many critics and scholars.

Lourdes was born in Havana in 1933.

Her family was well-established in Cuba and she was raised in Havana's wealthy Vedado neighborhood of stately homes.

Their father died in 1946 when they were 13 and 14, respectively.

Lourdes and her sister were both present in the hospital and witnessed his last words.

Their grandfather then died in 1950.

Art proved to be a powerful outlet for Lourdes early on.

She started painting as an untrained prodigy by the age of three, focusing mainly on religious themes such as the Madonna and Child for her first years.

She was encouraged by teachers while attending the Escuela de Margot Parraga, the St. George's School, and the Merici Academy.

She formally studied painting at the prestigious Academia San Alejandro at the age of 20.

By the 1950s Havana newspapers and art critics were praising her impressionistic style.

One of her non-religious painting series covered were domestic depictions of her grandfather's home, showing its high ceiling, marble floors, and curving grand staircase.

She first became a known and respected artist in Cuba at this time, even championed by leading Cuban art figures such as Victor Manuel and Carlos Enriquez.

By the end of the decade, however, her life would take several dramatic turns that resulted in major shifts in her career.

Lourdes had achieved significant early success and recognition in her home country during its mid-century artistic flourishing.

Despite this, she wanted to expand her audience and be known outside of Cuba, as well as learn new skills.

She then went to Paris in 1957 at the age of 24 and spent several months there.

Though spanning less than a year, this period proved to be a highly significant and pivotal point in her life and career.

She studied fine art directly under two leading masters of the time, learning painting from Andre Lhote and etching and engraving from Stanley Hayter.

She was living in the Cite Universite and immersed in the mid-century Parisian art scene.

It was also in this time when schizophrenia began to surface in Lourdes' life, a key development that greatly impacted much of her work thereafter.

Though it was initially gradual, it became progressively worse until she experienced a sexual assault incident that precipitated a mental breakdown.

She was then hospitalized shortly afterwards, her first in a series of mental health hospitalizations throughout her life.

After her Paris hospitalization, Lourdes returned to Cuba accompanied by a psychiatrist and for a short time was able to find a new balance in her life.

She would revisit her traumatic Paris period several times in later paintings and poems.

Following the events of the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro's rise to power, Lourdes relocated permanently to Miami in November 1960.

Their relationship was a significant aspect of Lourdes' US career as she became a key figure in the Permuy Gallery during the 1970s as well as Permuy's subsequent art salon social circles in the decades following.

Lourdes painted portraits of the Permuy family and Permuy was a frequent dealer of her artwork for much of her career.

Lourdes would often use her private Coral Gables residence, the Permuy House, as a studio to paint.

She would remain there and continue to paint the rest of her life until her death in 2018.

Over the course of her more than fifty-year career in the United States, she participated in several exhibitions of her paintings and published poetry collections in both Spanish and English.

As in Cuba, Lourdes was a significant presence in the exile community in Miami but often struggled to expand her audience beyond it into a broader mainstream.

This was partly due to the crippling impact of her mental health on her career when it came to sustaining high-profile events such as book launches and major art exhibitions, which would remain a constant regret for the remainder of her life.

Despite this, she befriended several prominent figures in the South Florida art market who would become important contacts for her throughout the enduring Miami period of her career.

Chief among these contacts was Coral Gables, Florida-based Cuban fine art patron, dealer, and collector Marta Permuy.