Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas (October 3, 1934 – June 2, 2015), also known as Michel Cardena, was a

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

New Realism New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

and Pop Art painter and a pioneer of

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. His works cover a variety of artistic media, including painting, drawing, video, photography, object assemblages and digital art.

Biography

Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas was born in Espinal,

in 1934. Between 1953 and 1957 he studied architecture at the

National University of Colombia The National University of Colombia () is a national public research university in Colombia, with general campuses in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, and satellite campuses in Leticia, San Andrés, Arauca, Tumaco, and La Paz, ...

in Bogota,

, and visual art at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Bogota. In 1961 the Ministry of Culture of Colombia awarded him a scholarship to study at the

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

School of Graphic Arts.
www.macardenas.nlA Short History of Dutch Video Art, , page 174 In 1962 he moved to the

and has been living there ever since. Shortly after his arrival in the Netherlands, Cárdenas got a solo exhibition in the

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

, and participated in the great exhibition "Pop Art and New Realism" (1964 -1965;

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) that also featured works by

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

and

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor best known for his public art installations, typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

. www.weteringgalerie.nl/tentoonstellingen/cardenas/persbericht.html Cárdenas was one of the ten artists invited by then Crown Princess, HM Queen

Beatrix of the Netherlands Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as List of monarchs of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix was born ...

for a series of cultural soirees at the

Drakesteijn Drakensteyn Castle (Dutch: ''Drakensteyn'', sometimes ''Drakesteijn'' or ''Drakestein'') is a small castle at 8 Slotlaan in the hamlet of Lage Vuursche, in the municipality of Baarn, Netherlands. It is the private residence of Princess Beatrix o ...

Castle in 1969.
www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?artist=11021109 His performance was called ''"Symphony for seven waiters"'', and it also included

Prince Claus Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Jonkheer van Amsberg (born Klaus-Georg Wilhelm Otto Friedrich Gerd von Amsberg; 6 September 1926 – 6 October 2002) was Prince consort of the Netherlands, Prince of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until his d ...

, Wim Beeren,

Marinus Boezem Marinus Lambertus van den Boezem (born 28 January 1934) is a Dutch artist. He is known for his radical view of art and his works in public space. Together with Wim T. Schippers, Ger van Elk and Jan Dibbets, Boezem is seen as one of the main rep ...

, Ad Dekkers,

Jan Dibbets Jan Dibbets (born 9 May 1941, in Weert) is an Amsterdam-based Dutch conceptual artist. His work is influenced by mathematics and works mainly with photography. Life and career In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he started as an art teacher at ...

and Peter Struycken.
kunstenaarsboeken.blogspot.nl/2012/02/schilderen-als-performance-michel.html Between 1963 and 1978 he was awarded several scholarships from the Ministry of Culture of the Netherlands, including a travel grant to travel to the US and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Cárdenas started working with video as an artistic medium in 1970. Two years later, teaming up with Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Pieter Laurens Mol and Ulises Carrión, he founds the 'In-Out Center'-First Credit Union of Artists in the Netherlands, the first Dutch artists' cooperative with its own gallery situated on Reguliersgracht in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

.
www.dewitteraaf.be/artikel/detail/nl/3603 The cross-border events held here were an important impetus for the development of body art, performance and new art forms in the Netherlands. Wies Smals was inspired by this center to initiate

De Appel De Appel is a contemporary arts centre, located in Amsterdam. Since it was founded in 1975 by , the goal of De Appel is to function as a stage for research and presentation of visual arts. Exhibitions, publications and discursive events are the ...

in 1975. In 1986, Cárdenas decided to return to his original form of art: painting. Throughout the 70's and the 80's, Cárdenas lectured at various Dutch art schools, including the

Rietveld Academy The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, also known as Rietveld School of Art & Design and Rietveld Academy, is an art academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded in 1924 and offers programs in fine arts and design. History The Instituut voor Kuns ...

, AKI, and the Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

. His works were featured at the exhibition ' Snapshot No.5' (1989) in the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

. The director of the

, Wim Beeren wrote into the exhibition catalog: :''"The Netherlands had barely heard of Pop Art, New Realism or Duchamp when Michel Cardena came from Colombia to our country with a huge baggage of knowledge about the new developments in art.”'' ('Snapshot No. 5' -

1989).
www.galeries.nl/mnexpo.asp?exponr=16268 In 1990 Cárdenas won the third prize at the First Triennial of Painting, in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. A year later he is awarded a study scholarship from the Foundation of Art, Design and Architecture in the Netherlands to study calligraphy in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

His work has been frequently supported by grants from the Dutch government and exhibited in solo and group shows in the

and around the world.
catalogue.nimk.nl/site/?page=%2Fsite%2Fartist.php%3Fid%3D18 In 2004 Cárdenas was elevated to the rank of Officer in the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...

by Queen

.
www.nrc.nl/redactie/binnenland/lintjesregen/LintjesregenNRC.xls -list of recipients of the Order of Oranje Nassau
andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bioc1/carden01.html

Video work

Cárdenas started working with video because of the new opportunities it offered. He created a large and varied body of video work that explores many themes including sexuality, desire and his own

Latin American Latin Americans (; ) are the citizenship, citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their Latin American diaspora, diasporas are Metroethnicity, ...

heritage. His videos range in approach from the grayscale real-time style typical of early 1970s recorded performances to elaborate narratives and montages that make use of more advanced editing techniques. Cárdenas' works often involve elements of campy humor, including frequent parodies of the masochistic attitude that some performance artists have towards their bodies. Cárdenas' videos sometimes employ figures of duality which contrast or duplicate one another. One of the central visual elements in Cardenas’ video works was heat.
www.kunstveiling.nl/veiling-suppliers/kunstenaar/513/michel-cardena.html His live performances were variations of the same theme: heating people or objects, in his attempt to melt away the cold detachment of the Dutch society. Since 1971, he has been operating under the name "Cardena Warming up etc. etc. etc. Company". Cárdenas authored a private publication titled ''“Black and white and sometimes colorful No. 2”''(

1980), consisting of 14 A4 pages folded and bound together. This publication extensively describes two of his performances released earlier that year, titled ''"Black and white and sometimes colorfoul No. 2"'' and ''"Peaceful new year, 108 years after Bertrand Russell"''. The publication also includes articles from Documenta 6 on video art, an interview with Wies Smals and two other performances (''"My name is beautiful"'' from 1978 and ''"I am waiting for you"'' from 1979). His video works were exhibited at several museums and galleries, including the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1981. In the same year he participated in the large retrospective exhibition in

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

Museums and exhibitions

Banco de la República, Bogota,

Museum Boymans-van Beuningen,

Gemeente Museum,

Bodenseemuseum,

Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Borås Konstmuseum,

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 114,556 inhabitants in 2024. It is widely known for being a textile city, home to worldwide brands and companie ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Het Princessehof,

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...

Amro Bank Collection,

Bessel and Pierrete Kok Collection,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Professor Shigenobu Kimura Collection,

Hara Museum,

Collectie Bouwfonds,

Hoevelaken Hoevelaken is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 5 km east of Amersfoort. Hoevelaken was a separate municipality until 2000, when it was merged with Nijkerk. History It w ...

Bonhefanten Museum,

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

Wetering Galerie,

External links

Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas official website

Collection of video works by Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardenas, Miguel-Angel 1934 births Colombian emigrants to the Netherlands Dutch male painters Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau People from Tolima Department 2015 deaths National University of Colombia alumni 21st-century Dutch painters 20th-century Dutch painters 20th-century Colombian painters 20th-century Colombian male artists Dutch video artists Nouveau réalisme artists Pop artists Colombian male painters 20th-century Dutch male artists

Biography

Video work

Museums and exhibitions

See also

External links

References