This program was sponsored by the George Washington University School of# Media and Public Affairs.

[Music] There are very few women that were born in Cuba# that have been considered important artists so far.

I find that Nella's work was very bold,# very forward, and that she will be ending up being a very significant figure in the art world.# Monella was born in Cuba in the year 1915 and from a very young age she showed interest in art.

She# took lessons with Armando Mariona who happened to be a very well-known artist in Cuba and she also# took classes in school.

She showed a very advanced talent for art from a very early age and she kept# journals from when she was in school in inmulada.

When she was in Cuba, Machado was in power and# young people were very rebellious and there were bullets flying everywhere in different parts# of Havana.

And one day a young man who was her suitor was in her house and Nella would play the# piano and she went to go to the window and this young man he pulled her back from the window and# at that moment a bullet hit him on the chest.

He fell back and his blood spattered on the piano and# he died and Nella never played the piano again.

So we have our [Music] She ended up in America because she met her#.. States because she was looking for schools, art# schools with her mom in New York.

She was looking at Trap Hagen.

She was looking at different# ways to further her art career.

On the way home, she met her husband, Willis Hesser Bird, who was a# widowerower.

And they got married two weeks later, and she came back to the United States with# her new husband, who was actually a member of the OSS.

But when the war broke out and# they had already had their first child, he was sent away to the China, Burma,# India theater.

And once the war ended, he wanted her to join him in Thailand, but she# decided that she was better off staying in the United States.

And she continued to study art# here.

She went to Traphagen.

She also went to the New York Student Arts League.

She used to# study with Leo Lentelli, who is best known for his freezes on the Rockefeller Center.

and he, you# know, he was one of the people that influenced her career.

One day she went to an exhibition# by Hans Hoffman and she was blown away and she knew that she wanted to be an abstract# expressionist for the rest of her life.

My mother surrounded herself with very interesting# people when she was in Province Town.

It was the ' 50s and she was surrounded by people like# um France Klene, Jackson Pollock, Hans Hoffman, her mother well.

So she was able to exchange# ideas and just live in that same environment.

She was showing in the Provincetown Gallery# and some young woman came in and painted uh in white the words so and a question mark# in one of her paintings and she defaced her painting.

It was a scandal of sorts.

Um you know# the newspapers wrote about it.

They asked Hans Hoffman what he thought and Hoffman said you# know a very nice painting has been made even better by the passion that this young woman# has shown.

She was interviewed later on in life and she said that one of the things that# prompted her to leave the United States.

[Music] Alan and Nella met one day when he was on vacation# from Harvard as a junior.

He decided to go to Provincetown for the weekend and he saw her# from far away.

She was 21 years older than him.

She was always described as being very tall, very# elegant, very thin with bewitching eyes.

She was hanging around with her friends in on the streets# and they were dancing and they were laughing and he came up to her and he asked her to dance.

He# said that that was it for him that he was he knew he was in love for the rest of his life.

She just# slid through my arms like a leopard or and ate my heart.

I was also enchanted by her painterly# artistic vision.

Didn't know anything about abstract expressionism.

She took me to all to see# all that.

That was very exciting.

And but you know more than the actual painters and paintings,# it was her this perception, this different way of looking uh at the world and this intuitive# her this sort of very pure intuitive approach.

Her spirituality was was amazing and wonderful.

We# were together.

The most wonderful years were seven years in Madrid, one year in Barcelona and about# seven in Madrid after we got married and we lived in Brussels for a year or two.

And then we went# decide to go back to the States.

I was working in Manhattan at the UN and uh so I'd be five or# six hours in in the city every day and I come back late, I leave early.

It wasn't the best.

It's# not the best thing, you know, and and our life did become more and more difficult.

Can be very deep# romance with an older woman.

I mean, people think the other way around, but it's not it's not simple# the relation between the sexes.

It's complex and and beautiful because there was rather much more# of a kind of polarity, you know, a tension between the two.

But with Naylor, fusion, a fusion of the# spiritual and the passionate.

Too bad that life can't be just frozen like a crystal at that given# moment and you forever joy.

But that's not the way we live unfortunately.

Their love was a great one.# They were a great influence on each other.

[Music] She moved to New York to an apartment and Alan# moved separately from her.

Their marriage fell apart.

She had a terrible car accident in# 1993 and couldn't paint anymore because her left arm became mangled even though she was# a righty.

She used her entire body to paint and that didn't allow her to go back to# to doing what she loved.

Years passed.

I wrote to her.

I thought I've got to get in# touch with N again.

And I couldn't bear the idea of her dying without talking.

And I# must say, trying not to be too emotional, the uh her answer I wrote to her with love# and she answered so beautifully right away.

So those three or four years we exchanged a# few letters and it was just it was wonderful and I'm so so happy about that.

On# July 17th at 2:00 in the morning, she passed away.

She was about six# weeks away from being 100.

[Music] I think Nella kept every single work of art that# she thought would be important to document her path later on in life.

I don't think she ever# parted with anything that was meaningful to her.

Her daughter was overwhelmed with all# the artwork and she asked Marcelo to come to her home and they found an incredible amount of# artwork in a very small two-bedroom condominium.

Foreign for condition.

Hansman sketch.

Fin York Hansman [Music] character.

Oh, I think my mother would be really happy that# um her work is being restored and taken care of.

um you know just for the last years of her# life I kept on saying mother we have to do something with all this art let me start let me# start figuring out what to do and she wouldn't let me do anything and she'd finally say# don't worry something will happen [Music] And Naylor certainly didn't set out to paint# some kind of angel.

She out of this void, this emptiness in her intentions in her head,# this creature appears.

this one, Wallace Sting, who was associated with Cobra because they would# visit her studio sometimes, people like like Wallace Ting and apparently um and other other# painters.

And this is Ting who um put this element and this is obviously Na.

It's a really typical# image for her.

This this u sort of oval and that is like a a Chinese character uh thing.

That's# kind of fun like that.

Anyway, and this of course a a work by team.

Well, but here we come to the# really wonderful works.

My old friend, how have you been?

Ah, well, crazy as usual.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I# know.

I know.

I know.

I know.

I know.

I know.

So, I met Na when I was 23, 24, introduced by Ellen.# I was editor of the Chicago Review at that time.

He sent me some pictures and I I saw and I said,# "Oh, she's really wonderful."

I I remember when I first saw her work, I was uh I was struck# immediately.

I mean, it it was um it was unlike anything that I I had seen before.

The originality# of it was startling to me.

you know, I was running a magazine of of of new fiction and new poetry and# so I was used to seeing avantguard work and things that were uh basically ahead of its time.

But in# terms of painting, I had never seen anything like it.

The shapes were extraordinary.

as a colorist,# the juxtiposition of the uh different colors, the way she mixed the paint, and you were just# drawn in.

You were drawn into the iconic figures.

She masters all of these different sort# of subcategories, abstraction, minimalism, color field, uh the the works, these little dots.# She does it so beautifully.

The craftsmanship is really excellent.

She was obviously a very very# gifted painter.

The the physicality of this work alone is something that most painters would dream# of.

But she has this ability to handle paint in ways that very few artists do or can or could.# This is the the latest last painting that I have in this show that Nella made in 1990.

And in 93# she had a a car accident and really didn't make paintings after after that point.

And I think# it's very important to see how she was still in a mode that Hans Hoffman had really promoted.# I mean, you can see she's painting directly into the wet paint.

She's scraping and physically# making shapes.

And you can see how the blues and the browns actually get mixed.

Hans Hoffman# was always pressing his students to understand the the the degree of realness to the physicality of# a painting and I think she probably is is the best example of that that I've ever seen and in fact# she probably surpassed the master in some ways.

The way people experience her is just like getting# hit very hard immediately with what's happening and the first question is usually why have I never# heard of this work?

uh because there's so much of it, because it's so sophisticated, and because# it does that that special thing of clearly being connected to a lot of other um questions around# painting in the 20th century American art world and even international art world, especially# around abstraction and the medium of paint itself and how it's dealt with.

Why I've spent so# much time working with this collection is because of the richness of the papers that Noah has left# behind.

She, you know, she kept everything, saved everything, all of the press clippings, uh, that# had to do with her.

Um, all of the correspondence, which is so rich and so great.

These are tourist# cards that, you know, have where Nell is coming from, her biological her biographical information,# uh, birth dates, address at the time, birthplace, Laabanakuba, she's married.

So, all of this# information is here.

And of course, the photograph is a nice thing as well.

This is certificate of# nationalization.

Again, speaking to that idea that American art really is composed and comprised of# people from all over um the world.

We also see her transnational kind of biography which goes from# Abiza to New York to Cuba to Miami.

Uh and that's that's kind of amazing and also just passionate# from in the very literal sense of the romantic affairs are incredible and amazing.

We have a lot# of Hunoffman's materials in the archives because he taught so many artists in the 20th century# including Nella.

So I think making it possible for researchers to find her legacy and how it's# so clearly tied to his um and thereby tied to that whole world that he created there in his school# in Province Town um is incredible because again um it's yet another woman abstractionist who you# know I thank God in the last 20 years or so have come to such prominence and dedicated exhibitions# and I hope there's more because Nella should be included in those from now on.

In those days# when you've got powerful men like a Hans Hoffman, these are really macho characters and they were# known for their hard drinking, hard womanizing, hard uh studio that that was their life.

So it was# very hard for a woman to break into it.

I think that part of why her story is not visible to us# and why we find this treasure trove of someone's entire life um without any context around it has a# whole lot to do with her being a woman born at the wrong time.

Born at a time where where art made by# women didn't matter no matter how good you were.

Nella's story is the story of immigration.# It's it's the story of many Cubanameans who went into exile.

In her case, I think that her# story is exuberant because she also managed to with great pache travel around the world and# make that exile experience also be very rich.

The way that I see Nella's story in the present is# how is it that a young Cuban American 7-year-old girl anywhere in the world can go to a museum# and see a work of art by somebody like Naam and look at it and say, "Oh, this is somebody# that has a similar narrative and history um as me."

I can imagine myself being# an artist in a museum when I see this uh rather than just someone who works in a museum# or cleans a museum.

Talent isn't given just to a race or to a kind of person or to a skin color.# Talent is universal.

Um, the ability to to take your feelings and put them on a canvas or on# a sculpture or on a photograph shouldn't be defined by where you come from.

It should be# defined by what you express.

So, I think it's important to be inclusive and art is not just for# one group of people.

Art is really for everyone.

Nella felt that she was divided between her# culture.

She was always torn between what to call herself.

She didn't really feel like she# was only from Cuba.

She didn't feel that she was only an American or that was just really just a a# person that was from Spain.

Her parents had been born in Spain and she had a very thick Spanish# accent.

She really came to the realization that she came for from everything that had influenced# her thoughts, her culture, her life and she was really of the world.

She was genuine to the core.# I mean there there was there was no artifice about Nan.

Uh she didn't compromise her her views about# painting.

She didn't want to talk about painting.

She didn't want to talk about art.

She didn't# want to talk about aesthetics.

We didn't want to talk about what inspired her or why she was# doing it or she just she just painted.

She was a painter.

Nella was really passionate about her# artwork.

I think more than anything she loved her work.

She loved painting above everything# else.

And she had more strength in, you know, in the expression of her art than in anything# else that she did.

She was never in a hurry to be recognized.

Uh even in when she was in# Provincetown, her artwork would always say NFS, not for sale.

Uh when she exhibited next to Hans# Hoffman and next to Klein and next to the Cooning and you know many of the anecdotes are that one of# them is that people would send her cartoons that said not for sale, not for sale, not for sale# on an artist's show because she really didn't want to sell.

She wanted to keep the lion's share# of what she thought was samples of her expression so that the world could see them later and the# world could appreciate what her path was.

She was very possessive about like her children really# possessive.

It's true.

She sort of wanted to sell her work.

I mean she was very happy when when# somebody really liked her work but no she didn't like to let go of it.

But I do understand that I# I believe she believed though she never quite said it uh that people would know her, discover her,# you know, after she was gone and she was happy with that.

She was she was content with that.# My mother really did isolate herself from the world of art in the latter part of her life.

She# didn't want to deal with the commercial aspects.

Every so often I would tell her you# know mother you know art really is also a business and she just wouldn't accept that.

Once scholars study her work they will be able# to understand that she was really influential and that she was ahead of her time in many# of the things that she did.

I'm very proud that my mother will be leaving a lot of# beauty behind.

She evolved and adapted to different art forms.

And even though# she was influenced by some artists, she made everything her own.

She wasn't# copying anybody.

And art will live on, you know, way after, well, obviously# after her, but also after me.

[Music] This program was sponsored by the George Washington University School# of Media and Public Affairs.