En el parque (1942), a lively painting by Cuban artist Mariano Rodríguez, belongs to a pivotal period in his career when the artist consolidated his unique style, imbued with chromatic experimentation and a baroque sensibility. Rodríguez was an incredibly prolific artist who started painting and drawing at a very young age. He traveled extensively throughout his career and a trip to Mexico proved to be influential in his early development. During this time he studied under the Mexican painter Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, as well as investigating the Mexican mural movement, which became a continuous reference in his ouevre. One can readily see resemblances to Mexican modernism in this painting in the central figure of the sensuous, voluptuous woman. In later decades, Rodríguez’s figures and subject matter would become more abstract as he began to incorporate elements from Eastern cultures. Later he traveled to New York and was exposed for the first time to an incredible array of European Art. Rodríguez was particularly fascinated by the chromatic technique and intensity achieved in the use of orange, red and white by Van Gogh and Delacroix. He was highly influenced by Picasso’s Neoclassicism, as were his Cuban contemporaries. While in New York, his work was exhibited in museums and galleries alike. Yet, more importantly, it was during this period of time that he was invited to be part of the famous 1944 exhibition: Modern Cuban Painters at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, organized by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and curated by José Gómez Sicre. This exhibition helped place Rodríguez and Cuban art at the center stage of the international art world.