Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Born in Cartagena, Colombia, Lola Fernández Caballero moved to Costa Rica with her parents at a young age. She began her studies in 1941 at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas (Universidad de Costa Rica) in San José under artists that included Francisco Amiguetti. Between 1949 and 1950, Fernández completed courses in fresco and oil painting at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Bogotá. A subsidy from the Italian government allowed her to attend a graduate course (Laurea in Pittura) at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence from 1954 to 1958. While living in Italy, Fernández traveled throughout Europe, Morocco, and the Middle East. In 1961, UNESCO awarded her a grant that funded a study trip to Japan, India, China, and what was then Indochina. These experiences initially skewed her towards informalism, the catch-all midcentury style encompassing many of the predominantly European gestural trends that developed concurrent to North American abstract expressionism. By the 1960s, however, her range also included geometric abstraction and neo-figuration. Irrespective of style, many of Fernández’s works are characterized by a balance of form and color, utilizing them along with texture and painterly gesture to portray emotion. And, her work consistently attests to techniques that she acquired during her travels to Europe and the Far East. In Costa Rica, Fernández is credited with having been at the forefront of a localized mode of artistic expression reflecting nationalistic values and is noted for having been the first artist to exhibit abstract art in the country with a one-person show at San José’s Museo Nacional in 1958. Beginning in 1962, she was part of Grupo Ocho (est. 1961), the collective established by a number of artists—“Felo” García, Manuel de la Cruz González, Luis Fael, and César Valverde among them—that introduced Costa Rican audiences to abstractions through a series of provocative exhibitions.
Born in Cartagena, Colombia, Lola Fernández Caballero moved to Costa Rica with her parents at a young age. She began her studies in 1941 at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas (Universidad de Costa Rica) in San José under artists that included Francisco Amiguetti. Between 1949 and 1950, Fernández completed courses in fresco and oil painting at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Bogotá. A subsidy from the Italian government allowed her to attend a graduate course (Laurea in Pittura) at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence from 1954 to 1958. While living in Italy, Fernández traveled throughout Europe, Morocco, and the Middle East. In 1961, UNESCO awarded her a grant that funded a study trip to Japan, India, China, and what was then Indochina. These experiences initially skewed her towards informalism, the catch-all midcentury style encompassing many of the predominantly European gestural trends that developed concurrent to North American abstract expressionism. By the 1960s, however, her range also included geometric abstraction and neo-figuration. Irrespective of style, many of Fernández’s works are characterized by a balance of form and color, utilizing them along with texture and painterly gesture to portray emotion. And, her work consistently attests to techniques that she acquired during her travels to Europe and the Far East. In Costa Rica, Fernández is credited with having been at the forefront of a localized mode of artistic expression reflecting nationalistic values and is noted for having been the first artist to exhibit abstract art in the country with a one-person show at San José’s Museo Nacional in 1958. Beginning in 1962, she was part of Grupo Ocho (est. 1961), the collective established by a number of artists—“Felo” García, Manuel de la Cruz González, Luis Fael, and César Valverde among them—that introduced Costa Rican audiences to abstractions through a series of provocative exhibitions.
