Creativity from Cuba: Modern Art History
Cuban-style art is a contrasting cultural blending of African, European and North American aesthetic design telegraphing the multiethnic demographic of Cuba. Artists from Cuba developed the European modernist movement and the 1920-1930 era witnessed an expansion in Cuban vanguardism trends; these movements were identified by a diversity of modern aesthetic genres. Notable Cuban artists were likely to come from the earlier 1900s (e.g. Wifredo Lam).
It’s been argued that the most legendary piece of art to come out of the island of Cuba was THAT photo of Che Guevara (shot by Alberto Korda) which went onto become one of the most recognisable photos of the last century.
The indigenous Cuban art movement accumulated some pace after the opening of the art academy (San Alejandro) back in 1818, which was designed to gratify the European predilection of the bourgeoisie population of Cuba. Towards the end of the 1800s, landscape paintings dominated the Cuban art movement and classicalism dominated as the main art style.
Nevertheless, the pioneering Cuban modern artists of the late 1920s had scorned the theoretical conventions of the national art academy of Cuba. During their formative years, many artists had lived in France, where they learned and engaged in the founding rules of modernist primitivism, surrealism, and cubism. Once back in Cuba, they became dedicated to innovative aesthetic styles and were eager to mix this new artistic persuasion with a Cuban twist. The vanguardia Cuban artists achieved worldwide recognition in 2003 when the Museum of Modern Art displayed the the Modern Cuban Painting show.
