Eduardo Abela was born in San Antonio de los Baños, then a province of Havana. His first job was as a cigar maker, but he soon abandoned it to pursue his artistic inclinations. He moved to Havana and enrolled at the San Alejandro Academy. He was not only a painter but also a draftsman and caricaturist, closely linked to national traditions and the social concerns that at times shook the republican sphere, a faithful exponent of “Cubanness”—but not in a reductive sense, as his work constantly drew on the best and major artistic movements of the world.

Distinguished Havana magazines and newspapers featured his famous cartoons, including Diario de la Marina, La Semana, and Información. He created the well-known character El Bobo, which reflected the excesses of Gerardo Machado’s government and remained in the press until the dictator’s fall. It perfectly reflected the sentiment of the people not only under Machado’s rule but also the republican frustration that had prevailed since 1902 and had grown stronger as corruption, social inequality, and the subservience of successive governments to American dictatorship took hold.

In the 1920s, he settled in Madrid. There, initially lacking financial resources, he had the idea of ​​entering a poster competition for Spanish magazine covers. Fortunately, he won first prize, allowing him to earn a living and continue developing his art, this time under the influence of great Spanish painters such as Goya, a period in which his work took on a more realistic connotation. He also had the opportunity to exhibit his work at the Galería de Arte Moderno in Madrid, which earned him greater recognition from the Spanish public.

During this decade and the following, he was also able to travel to France and Italy, which allowed him to come into contact with movements that were little known in Cuba at the time, such as Dadaism and Surrealism, which gave new impetus to his creative work. In 1934, he was appointed Cuban Consul in Milan, which provided him with an income that allowed him to devote himself more freely to artistic creation. Before returning to Cuba in 1942, he had exhibited at least his pieces Fiesta nocturna (Night Party), Guajiros (Guajiros), Santa Fe (Santa Fe), and La novia (The Bride).

In Havana, he returned to contributing humorous drawings to periodicals and won first prize in a competition held to commemorate the centennial of San Rafael and Galiano Streets. Later, he served for a time as Chargé d’Affaires in Guatemala, where he also had the opportunity to exhibit his works and even won a prize for one of them, The Lady of the Lake, in the APEBA painting competition. His pieces would also reach Mexico and the United States, enjoying great success. Abela was one of the most universal creators of the Cuban avant-garde, a precursor to various art forms that would later take shape on the island.