Perkins is one of the most well known Cuban painters. This mixed media work on paper was completed in 1997, it measures 21 3/8" x 27 1/4". It is framed and signed.
Perkins is one of the most well-known Cuban painters. Dionisio Perkins Milian (b.1929, Havana – d. 2015, Coral Gables, FL) was born to an English father and a Cuban mother, fluent in English and Spanish. He was primarily self-taught in art, with brief formal guidance from Cuban landscape artist Domingo Ramos (1894–1956).
Perkins is identified generationally as part of "The Old Guard" of Cuban art that followed the Vanguardia movement.
Perkins began exhibiting seriously in Havana in the late 1950s. He participated in group shows at El Vedado’s Lyceum in 1957, and in 1959 exhibitions at Museo Nacional honoring the Vanguardia leader Víctor Manuel.
He emigrated to Miami in 1960 following the Cuban Revolution, joining the Cuban exile art community and settling permanently in Coral Gables.
His style is characterized by cubist-inspired figures and emotionally saturated colors, interpreted through a Cuban cultural lens. Critics likened his works to Pablo Picasso, seen through Cuban heritage.
He was commissioned by Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York to create a Stations of the Cross series.