About the Artist

Flavio Emanuel Cabral (1918–1990) was an influential American painter, muralist, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. He is most celebrated for pioneering a unique artistic style known as "Spherism," which reinterpreted the geometric fragmentation of Cubism into smooth, rounded, and cylindrical forms.

Cabral was born in Born in New York City to Portuguese parents from Trinidad. His earliest art techniques were mastered as a young boy, when he would spend hours copying pictures of movie stars from fan magazines.

His family relocated to Los Angeles in 1936, where he settled for the remainder of his life. Most of Cabral’s formal training occurred at the Von Schneidau School of Art, through his work and affiliation with the Federal Art Project under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Federal Art Project supported future iconic artists like Jackson Pollock Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Louise Nevelson, and Grant Wood, as well as the great Mexican muralist/painters Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros, who became his mentor and who shared with Cabral a mutual Portuguese heritage. As a young teenager in 1930, Cabral attended the “Mexican Artists and Artists of the Mexican School” exhibition at the Delphic Studios, New York City, where he first encountered Siqueiros’ work and became an admirer.

The Federal Art Project in which Cabral participated supported future iconic artists like Jackson Pollock Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Louise Nevelson, and Grant Wood, as well as the great Mexican muralist/painters Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros, who became his mentor and who shared with Cabral a mutual Portuguese heritag. As a young teenager in 1930, Cabral attended the “Mexican Artists and Artists of the Mexican School” exhibition at the Delphic Studios, New York City, where he first encountered Siqueiros’ work and became an admirer.

By 1940, Cabral was firmly entrenched in the Los Angeles art scene. He was earning a living painting portraits and murals, working as an illustrator, executing art for building lobbies and store windows on Sunset, Hollywood, and Wilshire Boulevards.

For several years, Cabral, then fondly identified locally as “the Latin from Manhattan,” was exclusively responsible for all displays at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, as well as for the Egyptian and Hawaiian Theatres. It was during this period that the artist met his future wife, Louise Cohen, who was studying to be a concert pianist.

In 1946, at the invitation of Siqueiros. the Cabrals embarked on a 1500 mile automobile trip from Los Angeles to Mexico City.

In Siqueiros’ own words: “... (When) Flavio Cabral, thirty year old North American painter of Portuguese origin, showed me his works, I saw in them a subtle perception of poetic, subjective elements that constitute the primordial elements in the best painting of all time. Such an observation impelled me to approach Carlos Pellicer,” the master muralist continued, “to give him the opportunity of exhibiting Cabral's works in the Palace of Fine Arts.” Pellicer, an influential Mexican poet and contemporary of Octavio Paz, was heavily active in the promotion of Mexican art, and helped to establish a number of museums in Mexico City.

Thanks to Siqueiros’s unflagging support as well as to Pellicer’s enthusiastic response to his talent, Cabral apprenticed and received a fellowship to study in Mexico City at the esteemed Academy of San Carlos. While in Mexico, he was honored with several one man shows, including the aforementioned exclusive engagement at Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, the most important cultural center in the country, arranged by Siqueiros.

Cabral completed undergraduate and graduate studies at California State University, where he earned a B.A. in arts education (1955) and a Master of Arts in Painting (1956) from California State University, Los Angeles. He spent over 30 years as a dedicated professor of painting and art history at Los Angeles Valley College. and painted until the day he died of a massive heart attack on March 22, 1990.

Following his death, his widow Louise helped establish and fund the Agoura Hills Center for the Arts, inspired by his creative legacy.

Throughout his career, his works were exhibited at the San Francisco Art Association, San Francisco, CA; Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Laguna Beach Art Association, Laguna Beach, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Hollywood Art Center, Hollywood, CA; Chaffey Community Art Association, Ontario, CA; Glendale Art Association, Glendale, CA; The de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA; Dalzell Hatfield Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Collectors Gallery, Chicago, IL; Gallery D, Enchante, New York, NY; The Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; anf the Civic Arts Cultural Center, Thousand Oaks, CA, among others.

Cabral's works are held in such institutions as the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C.; The Hilbert Museum of California Art, Chapman University, Orange, CA; California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, CA; The Los Angeles Public Library, Los Angeles, CA; Robert Fulton College Preparatory, Los Angeles, CA; and the Agoura Hills Center for the Arts, Agoura Hills, CA.


Biographical sources include the Artist's Estate; Papillon Gallery, Los Angeles; others