(b. Matanzas, Cuba, 1927; d. 2001).
Cuban sculptor, active in France. He studied under Juan José Sicre, and at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes 'San Alejandro' in Havana (1943-9). He along with the CUban artist Viredo were founding members of "los once" a group of painters, sculptors and writers in the Cuba of the 1950's.
He settled in Paris in 1955 and became involved with the Surrealists. He also started to consider his African heritage and to incorporate Dogon totems in his work. Brancusi and Arp were significant influences, and affinities can also be traced between Cárdenas's use of line to evoke magical transformations and the works of two other Cubans based in Paris, Wifredo Lam and Jorge Camacho. Working in marble, bronze and stone, he often used familiar images such as birds, flowers or the female nude as the bases for his lyrical abstractions (e.g. Engraved Torso, 1976). The combination of these images of life with patterns suggesting infinite
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