Diversity, Identity, and Renovation
Overall, art education and cultural dissemination flourished during the Republican period. Since the founding of the republic in 1902,artist interpreted, exemplified, and demonstrate all things Cuban, and along with and other intellectuals, concerned themselves above all else with the forging of a national identity. The pictorial historical painting, and still life continued their development during this period works portrayed a society whose everyday urban and rule life seemed to be in a continual process of defining itself. This definition fluctuated within its diversity while it established its identity and assimilated, step by step, its own renovation. Hence, although some of the art works continued to exhibit traces of realism and romanticism, for the most part, artists also adapted and translated the concepts they had learned abroad to their distinct reality. the subjects and themes also began to reflect the genuine state of affairs of the time. During the 1920, various artists inspired by international trends toward modernism, started a national cultural renovation movement that came to be known as the Cuban avant-garde. It unleashed a debate, along the line of the one that began in France during the nineteenth century, and which dealt with the virtues of academic traditional style art versus those of the modernist movement. As in France, Cuban artist had to accept or reject modernist movement, and , in a sense , "choose sides" in the debate. Hence, it was during this process, that many painting began to reflect changes in the style and composition as well as a marked decrease in the rendering of conventional forms. Increasingly, the brush strokes became looser and more pronounced, and their color schemes and use of light more audacious. these changes also occurred as each artist was able to freely choose his or her themes and the style in which to depict them.
The landscape painting genre reflected stylistic and compositional changes during the Republican era. Artists continued to follow the traditions established by their predecessors from the colonial period, and produced in the open air landscape works. However, these works also increasingly contained complementary and realistic details that were more intrinsically Cuban, Examples of this trend apparent in the collection's landscape works from Jose Juaquin Tejada Revilla, Juan Emilio Hernandez Giro, Antonio Rodriguez Morey, Hipolito Canal Ripoll, and Maria Ariza y Delance.
These artists were captivated by Cuba's rural landscapes as well as by the endless amount of field, ponds, brooks, rivers,valleys, and mountain ranges which provided their inspiration.The artists often included the typical royal palms, ceiba trees, and sometimes the bohio (rural dwelling). which they used to express the distinctive characteristics of the Cuban countryside.
The landscape works of other artists exhibited a sharper turn toward modernity as artists employed looser brush strokes and visible texture in open compositions with emphasis on the changing qualities of light, and on elaborate perspectives. Examples of these trends are the amplified brush strokes and white color stains inspired by the Italian macchiaioli and seen in castiglioncello by Jose Antonio Bencomo Mena as well as in the brilliant color palettes employed in the works of Victoria Nanson Gonzalez de Gutierrez, Universo Picazo Carrera, and Tiburcio LorenzoSanchez, Lastly, other artists produced works exhibiting landscape reflections on water surfaces that appeared as secondary objects within the landscape, but that also attested to the way artistic trends were moving away from realistic depiction. Such is the case in the Collection's works by Roberto Vazquez y Fernandez and Domingo Ramos Enriquez as well as in the intimate river scene depicted by Augusto Garcia Menocal y Cordova in Rio Saugua. Emilio Rivero Merlin also moved away from the realistic depiction in his work Bacuranao Beach , a seascape filled with bright, intense color and light and exhibiting a much more modern expression.
Another relevant change in the use of artistic style is found in the Collection's history painting genre works. The paintings that depict Cuban National heroes by Armando Garcia Menocal y Miguel Diaz Salinero, Mirta Diaz Betancourt, were executed using a more academic and realistic style. However, other history painting works from the collection reflect changes that were brought about by modernist trends. These works abandon the large formats traditionally found in Cuban historic compositions and, instead, are rendered in smaller formats, employing, softer palettes and gentle use of light to convey only glimpses of scenes. These paintings are no less dramatic because of this new style. Artists achieve the desired emotional effect, influencing the observer's reality in a way that clearly demonstrates that copious details are no longer necessary to understand the historic moment. Examples of this style are found in the works of Oscar Garcia Rivera y Gutierrez, Enrique Caravia y Montenegro, Antonio Sanchez Araujo, Manuel Mesa Hermida, and Juan Emilio Hernandez Giro and Enrique Crucet y Willermes as well as in Pastor Argudin Pedroso's Portrait of Maximo Gomez.
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