Mario Carreño is widely recognized as a key figure in modern Cuban art. Throughout his career, he produced a substantial and stylistically diverse body of work, ranging from Neo-Classical figuration to abstraction. Carreño spent his formative years abroad, visiting Mexico in 1935 and later traveling extensively in Europe during the 1940s. There, he drew inspiration from contemporary avant-garde movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, and abstraction. Like many of his peers, his transatlantic experiences brought him into direct contact with the dominant artistic currents of his time.

In 1957, at the encouragement of his lifelong friend, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Carreño moved to Chile. He was offered a two-year contract to teach contemporary art at the University of Chile and was later invited to join the founding faculty of the art department at the Catholic University, where he remained for the next two decades. Although he returned to Europe in the 1960s, he never again visited Cuba. For Carreño, Chile became a quieter counterpart to the fast-paced life of New York, and he became a Chilean citizen in 1969.

The two works by Mario Carreño presented in this auction (lot xx and xx) date from the artist’s geometric period (1952–1962) and have a particularly compelling provenance. They come from the estate of Ambassador Harald Edelstam (1913–1989), who served as Sweden’s ambassador to Chile from 1972 to 1973. Edelstam was engaged in fostering cultural exchange between Sweden and Chile. At the initiative of President Salvador Allende, Edelstam—together with Nemesio Antúnez, then director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago—was planning to bring in an exhibition of Swedish art to Chile.

In connection with this project, Antúnez presented Edelstam with a gift on behalf of President Allende. Unbeknownst to him, the gift contained a hidden surprise that would not be discovered until several years later. In September 1973, Allende’s government was overthrown in a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, bringing an abrupt end to civilian rule. President Allende died in the presidential palace. Ambassador Edelstam was subsequently declared persona non grata by the new regime due to his efforts to protect the Cuban embassy in Santiago under Swedish authority and to organize asylum for thousands fleeing persecution.

Carreño, as a Cuban-born artist, also came under suspicion and was accused of harboring arms in his home, leading to his temporary exile. Through the intervention of lawyers, colleagues, and friends, this decision was later overturned, and he remained in Chile. In 1982, he was awarded the prestigious Premio Nacional de Arte by the Chilean government.

Ambassador Edelstam later recounted these events in a statement dated September 1986 (a copy accompanies this lot). Upon returning to Stockholm, the true nature of the gift was finally revealed: it contained not one, but two paintings (lot 932 and 933) by Mario Carreño, fitted into the same frame.

In 2026, Bonhams New York celebrated Mario Carreño alongside the 16 Cuban artists who exhibited at MoMA in 1944. The exhibition at the newly reopened Steinway House in New York was a retrospective and a tribute to the legendary exhibition "Modern Cuban Painters" from 1944.