Page 101 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

CENTRO HABANA AND PR ADO  99

richness to the permanent
collection, which has works
by the great masters of
contemporary Cuban art.
Two of the major figures are
painter Wifredo Lam (La Silla,
1943) and sculptor Agustín
Cárdenas, who were both
influenced by the European
avant-garde and African art.
The free play of volumes in the
wooden sculpture Figure, less
than 1 m (3 ft) high, expresses
to the full the African-derived
sensuality that informs
Cárdenas’s style.
Cuban art in the 19th century,
characterized by its technical El Malecón by Manuel Mendive, an extraordinary Naive painting
skill, is represented by the
portraits of Guillermo Collazo, barren landscape, which has victory of the Revolution in 1959,
an academic and painter, and become a symbol of Cuban Cuban art embraced extremely
landscapes by the Chartrand painting (see p30). There are varied styles. Servando Cabrera
brothers. Other artists with an several works by Amelia first took guerrillas as his subject
academic background are Peláez, who revived the still- and then made an erotic series.
Armando García Menocal life genre by merging Antonia Eiriz was a particularly
and Leopoldo Romañach, Cubism and specifically powerful Neo-Expressionist,
a painter and lecturer at Cuban motifs; among these and Raúl Martínez began with
the Academy. are Naturaleza Muerta sobre abstract art and then absorbed
The pioneers of modern Ocre, executed in 1930 in elements of Pop Art.
Cuban art are particularly Paris, and Flores Amarillas, Another renowned contem-
interesting. One of these is a mature work that marks porary artist is Manuel Mendive
Víctor Manuel García, an a return to more simple who, in embracing Cuba’s
exceptional landscape compositions after a African heritage, searches for
painter who conveys “Baroque” period. the hidden depths of existence.
peaceful atmospheres with El Rapto de las El Malecón (1975), one of his
silently flowing rivers Mulatas (1938), by most significant works, depicts
and figures with sinuous Figure (1953) by Carlos Enríquez, is a the city’s famous promenade as
movements. García is Augustín Cárdenas dream-like “tangle” of if it were an almost sacred site
the creator of the human figures, horses where people mingle with
“mestizo” archetype: Gitana and landscape that echoes the African gods. The style here is
Tropical (Tropical Gypsy, 1929) classical theme of the rape at once naive and sophisticated.
includes a figure of a woman of the Sabine women. It is Of the leading artists of
against the background of a considered emblematic of the 1970s there are works
Cuban painting and by Ever Fonseca, Nelson
of this artist’s oeuvre. Domínguez, and illustrator
The sensuality of Roberto Fabelo, who has a very
the human bodies unique style. Among the
and the tropical younger artists (all graduates
atmosphere in this of the historic San Alejandro
work provide a key Academy and Escuela Nacional
to the interpretation de Arte), Tomás Sánchez,
of the motifs of with his archetypal landscapes,
traditional art. and José Bedia, with his bold
The chronological installations, stand out. The
display of works artists who continue to emerge
illustrates the on the Cuban art scene – thanks
development of to the Biennial Art Fair – exhibit
Cuban art. In the their works in the many
1950s there was a temporary shows.
move away from Of the considerable number
figurative art, as seen of works in its possession,
in the work of Guido the museum now exhibits
Flores Amarillas (1964), a still life dating from Amelia Llinás and Hugo many paintings, drawings,
Peláez’s mature phase Consuegra. After the prints and sculptures.

098-099_EW_Cuba.indd 99 14/02/17 11:35 am