Cuban Art in the Twentieth Century

Jennifer Josten

The Spanish-American War of 1898 shifted governing power of Cuba from the hands of its Spanish colonizers to U.S. imperialists, who consolidated their political and economic control of the island throughout the first half of the century. During the 1920s and ?30s, artists such as Victor Manuel and Amelia Peláez rejected the Spanish academic tradition in which they had been trained and moved to Paris to study with avant-garde artists. Returning to Cuba, these artists used European modernist ideas to convey a strong sense of regionalism in their paintings. Wifredo Lam also studied in Spain and Paris in the 1930s, participating in the Surrealist movement led by André Breton and returning to Cuba in the 1940s to produce works that incorporated Surrealist, Cubist and African-Cuban visual elements. During the 1950s, a group of painters called Los Once (The Eleven), including Raúl Martínez and Tomás Oliva, broke with modernist traditions that had emphasized figuration, instead mounting underground exhibitions of arte informal or abstract expressionist paintings as a form of protest against the corrupt regime of Fulgencio Batista.

The first decade of the Cuban Revolution following the victory of Fidel Castro?s forces on January 1, 1959 was marked by eclecticism and experimentation. Though the Marxist-Leninist character of the Revolution was declared in 1961, throughout the 1960s the dominant policy toward culture was one opposed to Socialist-Realist forms of expression. In the first years of the Revolution, the regime supported a massive literacy campaign and gave strong financial and ideological support to a nationwide system of art schools as well as community theatre, film, and ballet groups. Significantly, programs were designed in which performers and film projectionists travelled throughout rural Cuba, introducing the population at large to art forms that had previously only been known in Havana. In these exuberant, dynamic early years, the poster and photograph, forms that were at the same time pragmatic and thoroughly modern, took precedence in the visual arts. Young graphic artists who had previously designed posters for Hollywood films began working on posters for a multitude of political and cultural events. Working alongside established artists such as Martínez and René Portocarrero, these designers brought the latest international aesthetic trends, from abstract expressionism to Pop- and Op art, into the streets. Meanwhile, photographers such as Korda and Raúl Corrales shot iconic black-and-white images of revolutionary leaders and moments, while filmmakers such as Tomás Gutiérrez Alea worked with the national film institute, or ICAIC, on documentaries and films. At the same time, Manuel Mendive emerged as an important artist working in an African-Cuban vein.

The 1970s were characterized as a grey period, as the island moved into the Soviet sphere of influence. In 1981, however, a new sense of openness emerged in the visual arts, heralded by an exhibition titled Volumen Uno (Volume One) which included works by José Bedia and Juan Francisco Elso, among others. This new generation of young artists, many of whom were African-Cuban, employed devices such as humour, appropriation, kitsch, and Santería aesthetics in their work. At the same time, artists such as María Marta Pérez Bravo, Tania Bruguera, and Sandra Ramos incorporated feminist ideas into their works, many of which fell into the intersection of performance and photography. Cuban-born artist Ana Mendieta, who made multiple trips to Cuba from the U.S. during this period, was an important influence for this generation of artists as they began to re-engage with international currents and moved beyond medium-specificity (Mendieta?s role has been played more recently by Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco.) In 1984, the first Bienal de la Habana, a biennial exhibition focused on Latin American and Caribbean art, was held, demonstrating the regime?s renewed interest in regional solidarity and increased tolerance for internationalism. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba entered a period of extreme economic hardship called the 'Special Period'. Addressing their economic and socio-political conditions using the terms of international contemporary art, artists such as Kcho and Los Carpinteros produced installations from found objects and recycled materials that subtly yet profoundly articulated the experience of life in contemporary Cuba.