Mario Carreño was a Cuban-born Chilean artist best known for his depictions of classical architecture and surrealistic landscapes. His unique style merges cubist abstraction, Mexican muralist painting techniques, and the high renaissance imagery—disjointed styles which are united by planes of overlapping color. Carreño is commonly associated with his still life painting Naturaleza Muerta, in which he stages a guitar and fruit on a sandy beach. Born on May 24, 1913 in Havana, Cuba, Carreño studied at the Academia de San Alejandro in Havana and later at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he worked under Dominican painter Jaime Antonio Colson. After traveling to Chile with poet Pablo Neruda, Carreño set up residence in Santiago de Chile and later gained Cuban citizenship. He gained critical attention after presenting his work at the São Paulo Biennial in 1951 and at XXVI Venice Biennial in 1952. The artist died on December, 20 1990 in Santiago de Chile, Chile. His works are currently held, among others, in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.