Conrado Walter Massaguer

Conrado Walter Massaguer y Diaz was a Cuban artist, political satirist, and magazine publisher. He is considered a student of the Art Nouveau. Self portrait of Conrado Walter Massaguer, depicted on a carrousel ride, with the devil over his left shoulder and an angel over his right. (1945) He created the magazine Social with his brother Oscar to showcase Cuban artistic talent. The duo later created the magazine Carteles, which became for a period the most popular magazine in Cuba, which was purchased by Miguel Ángel Quevedo in 1953.

In his life, he met and drew caricatures of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, the King of Spain, and many others. In sum total, he was the author of more than 28 thousand caricatures and drawings. Ernest Hemingway once had to refrain himself from punching Massaguer in the face after the artist drew an unflattering caricature of him. In 1892, his family moved to Havana.

In 1906, less than a year later, he returned to the family home in Mexico.

Career as artist

Early career While living in Yucatán, Mexico, Massaguer published his first caricatures in local newspapers and magazines. Massaguer, largely self-taught, honed his style using the avant-garde techniques he studied from the European and American magazines that were widely available in Cuba at the time. Social catered to a certain aesthetic in Cuba - that of the sophisticated elite socialite - but Massaguer would also use this magazine to ridicule and jibe against that same class of society when he found their personalities worthy of his contempt. This magazine showcased Cuban commerce, art, sports, and social life before the revolution.

In 1927, he published Sobremesa sabática, which featured Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, Fernando Ortiz, José Manuel Acosta, Juan José Sicre, Jaime Valls Díaz, Rubén Martínez Villena, Juan Marinello, Jorge Mañach, Alejo Carpentier, José Antonio Fernández de Castro, Antonio Gattorno Águila, José Zacarías Tallet.

In 1929, Massaguer exhibited at the Paris art gallery “Jean Charpentier.” He also toured Europe. From 1931 to 1933, he was exiled in the United States, and spent time writing for publications regarding the American government's response to the Great Depression.

While in exile, in 1933, he illustrated the book People Worth Talking About, by Cosmo Hamilton.

Cover Girls Caricaturas

Several of his original works have since been successfully auctioned on the art market.

In 2022, Massaguer's work was showcased by the Cuban Cultural Center of New York.