Four original paintings by US playwright, poet and novelist Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) are shown for the first time in Cuba, in the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA by its Spanish acronym) in Havana. The works, the result of a little-known facet of the writer, belong to private collectors and Tennessee Williams Foundation, said Nance Frank, director of The Gallery on Greene, Key West (Florida).
The Gallery on Greene collaborates since 2013 with the NMFA in a project called “One race,” whose second phase is the exhibition Tennessee Williams: playwright and painter, said Frank.
The specialist welcomed the realization of this cultural action between institutions of the two countries after more than 50 years.
This exhibition comes to the island following the announcement last December of the restoration of diplomatic relations between the governments of Cuba and the United States, which were interrupted from 1961.
Among the paintings (acrylic on canvas) contains the portrait of Mr. Paradise, neighbor of a friend of the writer. The exhibition also includes information about the presence of Williams in Cuba and Key West; programs of his plays premiered in Cuba, costumes and sketches made in Havana for their works and pieces inspired by the work of the playwright.
Only between 1947 and 1960 went to the Cuban scene 15 pieces of the author of A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana, Zoo Glass and Sweet Bird of Youth.
Tennessee Williams is the pseudonym with which Thomas Lanier Williams III passed to posterity (Columbus, Mississippi, March 26, 1911- New York, February 25, 1983), playwright, novelist, screenwriter and artist.
