MODERN CUBAN PAINTING

                    THE VANGUARD

                    About the emergence of Modern Art in Cuba

Tradition and Modernity

The strengthening of modern art in Cuba expresses the strengthening of national self-consciousness in the "Critical Decade", which runs from 1920 to 1930. Alejo Carpentier said "was therefore to be nationalist, treated, at once, to be edgy. Purpose hard nationalism since everything rests on tradition and modernism necessarily mean a break with tradition." The crisis of the neocolonialist system, covering all spheres of social life of the country, gave impetus, in the peculiar historical conditions of the moment, a powerful reform movement that, in terms of political and social struggle was outlined in tasks of democratic character, in terms of the cultural life demanded, among other things, the transformation of thought and artistic and literary practice, in this context arises the artistic vanguard.

The Vanguard, mean a break with tradition, giving the possibility of emergence of new forms of appreciation of the manifestations of Afro-Cuban folk or peasant, aspects of daily life and social contradictions of the times. The Cuban modern art also express the new artistic trend of Cuban culture .Since then tradition and modernity are the basis of the fundamental direction of the history of Cuban art to the present.

Historic-cultural panorama of the emergence of modern art in Cuba(1923-1938)

1923

• The illustration reinforces its role as a link new artistic ideas in Cuba.
• Jose Manuel Acosta began to collaborate in the journal Social
• The painters Gatorno and Sicre  continue in Europe.
• Marcelo  Pogolotti studie at Art Students League of New York.
• Ramon Loy back from europe and exibits his work in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba.

1924

• Amelia Pelaez exhibited alongside Maria Pepa Lamarque in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba; He concluded his studies at the San Alejandro Academy and goes to America to study for 6 months at the Art Students League of New York.
• Eduardo Abela exibe his work in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba on his return to Cuba from Spain.
• Carlos Enriquez concluded his studies in commerce and tuition for a short time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
• Victor Manuel makes his first solo show at Havana Gallery.
• Rafael Blanco was promoted to Inspector General Drawing and Modeling Instruction publicay Secretary of Fine Arts.
• The Venezuelan painter Luis Lopez Mendez is set to Cuba later this year.

1925

• Carlos Enrique returns to Cuba accompanied by American painter Alice Neel, who would be his wife that same year.
• Victor Manuel march to Paris.

1926

• Exhibition in Paris of Juan Jose Sicre in the Association Paris-America Latina.
• Domingo Ravenet concludes his studies at San Alejandro.
• Alberto Sabas exhibits his work in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba.

1927

• The "New Art Exhibition" held in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba, sponsored by the magazine Avance, which involved:
• Eduardo Abela, Rafael Blanco, Maria Capdevila, Gabriel Brown, Carlos Enrique, Victor Manuel, Antonio Gattorno, Maria Josefa Lamarque, Jose Hurtado de Mendoza, Luis Lopez Mendez, Ramon Loy, Alice Neel, Amelia Pelaez, Rosado Rebecapeinck Avila, Marcelo Pogolotti Domingo Ravenet, Arciaga Lorenzo Romero, Alberto Sebastian, Jose Segura, Jaime Valls and Adiam. Yunkers.
• Amelia Pelaez, Domingo Ravenet and Eduardo Abela  travel to France.
• Carlos Enrique travels to America where live until 1930.
• Ramon Loy Exhibition in the Journal of the Navy.

1928

• Domingo Ravenet, André Nogueira and Alberto Sabas exhibit their work in the Paris-Latin America ,Association, in Paris.
• Hernandez Cardenas exhibits his work in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba.
• Alberto Sabas Exhibition at the Sports Communication Company.
• Marcelo Pogolotti travels to Europe and lived there for many years.
• Eduardo Abela exposure in Zak Gallery, Paris.

1930

• Eduardo Abela exhibition at the Lyceum.
• Exhibition of Moroto, Spanish painter in the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Cuba (APE)
• Exposure of Carlos Enriquez in the APE. Sponsored by Progress Magazine, it is suspended at the request of the institution and transferred to the firm of Emilio Roig.
• Ernesto Navarro returns to Cuba without having completed their studies, upon withdrawal of the state pension.
• Rita Longa interrupted his formal studies in sculpture at San Alejandro and takes classes at the Lyceum of Professor Isabel Chapotin.

1931

• Pogolotti participates in italy in various futuristic exhibitions.
• From Europe, Ramos Blanco forth in the Circulo de Bellas Artes and the Club Athens.
• Carlos Enrique exhibits oil paintings and drawings in the Popular Ateneo de Oviedo.
• Exhibition of Jose Segura at the Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid.
• Back in Cuba, Hernandez Cardenas forth in Mere house and Rico.
• Victor Manuel exhibition at the Lyceum.

1932

• Ravenet makes solo exhibitions in the city of Leon and the Salon of Modern Art Heraldo de Madrid.
• Pogolotti exibe in Paris
• The exhibition with drawings Bobo Abela, Lyceum.
• Rafael Blanco exhibition at the Lyceum.

1933

• Exhibition Amelia Pelaez in Zak Gallery, Paris
• Blanco Ramos exhibition of the Lyceum
• Pogolotti involved in aeropittura ed exposure art futuriste sacred, Italy
• Carlos Enrique shows his work in the National Tourist Board of Madrid.
• Abela shows new cartoons Bobo

1934

• Amelia Pelaez illustrates the French edition Sept Poemes, Leon-Paul Fargue.
• Exhibition Fidelio Ponce de Leon in the Lyceum
• Florencio Gelabert graduated from the San Alejandro Academy
• Aristides Fernandez died on August 21
• Ravenet Exhibition at the University of Havana.

1936

• Exposicion de pintura Moderna  III, incluye a Amelia Pelaez, Carlos Enriquez  y   Domingo Ravenet , en el Circulo de Amigos de la Cultura francesa .

1937

• Se Inaugura el Estudio Libre de Pintores y Escultores , dirigido por Eduardo Abela y los instructores Rita Longa , Mariano Rodriguez, Rene Portocarrero, Jorge Arche, Alfredo Lozano  y Domingo Ravenet.
• Se ejecutan los murales de la escuela Jose Miguel Gomez, de La Habana, por Amelia Pelaez, Fidelio Ponce de Leon,Carlos Enriquez, Peñita, Lorenzo Romero Arciaga.

Wifredo Lam

Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by and in contact with some of the most renowned artists of the 20th century, Lam melded his influences and created a unique style, which was ultimately characterized by the prominence of hybrid figures. Though he was predominantly a painter, he also worked with sculpture, ceramics and printmaking in his later life.

He was born and raised in Sagua La Grande, a village in the sugar farming province of Villa Clara, Cuba. He was of mixed-race ancestry: his father, Yam Lam, was a Chinese immigrant and his mother, the former Ana Serafina Castilla,  Through his godmother, Matonica Wilson, a Santería priestess locally celebrated as a healer and sorceress, he was exposed to rites of the African orishas. His contact with African celebrations and spiritual practices proved to be his largest artistic influence.

In 1916, Lam moved to Havana to study law, a path that his family had thrust upon him. Simultaneously, he also began studying tropical plants at the Botanical Gardens. From 1918 to 1923, Lam studied painting at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. However, Lam disliked both academic teaching and painting. He left for Madrid in the autumn of 1923 to further his art studies.

In 1923, Lam began studying in Madrid under Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor y Zaragoza, the curator of the Museo del Prado and teacher of Salvador Dalí. In the mornings he would attend the studio of the reactionary painter, while he spent his evenings working alongside young, nonconformist painters. At the Prado, Lam discovered and was awed by the work of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel I. While his early paintings were in the modernist Spanish tradition, his work soon became more simplified and decorative.

In 1938, Lam moved to Paris. Picasso quickly became a big supporter of Lam, introducing him to many of the leading artists of the time, such as Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque and Joan Miró. Picasso also introduced him to Pierre Loeb, a Parisian art dealer; Loeb gave Lam his first exhibition at the Galerie Pierre Loeb in 1939, which received an enthusiastic response from critics.Picasso and Lam also exhibited their work together at the Perls Galleries in New York in the same year. Lam's work went from showing the influence of Matisse seen in his still lifes, landscapes and simplified portraits to being influenced by Cubism.Mainly working with gouache, Lam began producing stylized figures that appear to be influenced by Picasso. Much of his work in 1938 possessed emotional intensity; the subject matter ranged from interacting couples to women in despair and showed a considerably stronger African influence, seen in the figures’ angular outlines and the synthesis of their bodies.

Upon Lam's return to Havana, he developed a new awareness of Afro-Cuban traditions. He noticed that the descendents of the slaves were still being oppressed and that the Afro-Cuban culture was degraded and made picturesque for the sake of tourism. He believed that Cuba was in danger of losing its African heritage and therefore sought to free them from cultural subjugation. In an interview with Max-Pol Fouchet, he said,

"I wanted with all my heart to paint the drama of my country, but by thoroughly expressing the slave spirit, the beauty of the plastic art of the Afro-cuban. In this way I could act as a Trojan horse that would spew forth hallucinating figures with the power to surprise, to disturb the dreams of the exploiters.

Additionally, his time in Cuba marked a rapid evolution of his style. Drawing from his study of tropical plants and familiarity with Afro-Cuban culture, his paintings became characterized by the presence of a hybrid figure—part human, animal and vegetal elements. His style was also distinctive because of its fusion of Surrealist and Cubist approaches with imagery and symbols from Santería.In 1943, he began his best-known work, The Jungle. It reflected his mature style, depicting four figures with mask-like heads, half-emerging from dense tropical vegetation. Later that year, it was shown in an exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York where it created controversy. The painting depicted the tension between Modernism and the vibrancy and energy of African culture.The Jungle was ultimately purchased by the Museum of Modern Art N.Y. It is often compared to Picasso's Guernica, which is hung in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Wifredo Lam with fellow artist Manuel Carbonell (1952)

Lam continued to simplify and synthesize abstraction yet continued painting figurally; he also kept on developing the mythology and totemism that defined his style. In 1944, he married Helana Holzer, whom he divorced in 1950. In 1946, he and Breton spent four months in Haiti, enriching his already extensive understanding and knowledge of African divinity and magic rituals through observing Voodoun ceremonies. Although he later said that his contact with the African spirituality that he found throughout the Americas did not directly impact his formal style. African poetry, on the other hand, was said to have had a broadening effect on his paintings. In 1950 Wifredo Lam worked together with René Portocarrero and others in the village Santiago de Las Vegas, the group of painters worked on ceramic. In 1952, Lam settled in Paris after having divided his time between Cuba, New York and France.

The Jungle

Wifredo Lam, The Jungle, gouache on paper, 1943, Museum of Modern Art

The Jungle, which is considered Lam's masterpiece, is exemplary of the artist's mature style. The polymorphism, for which Lam is well known, juxtaposes aspects of humans, animals and plants, creating monstrous, hybrid creatures. The dense composition creates a claustrophobic feeling while the forms remain difficult to differentiate. The figures’ elongated limbs lack definition, while much emphasis is placed on their large feet, round buttocks, and African-inspired masked heads. Additionally, the iridescent quality of the forms enhances the painting's tropical feeling.

The Jungle was not, however, intended to describe the primitivism of Cuba. Rather, Lam's intention was to depict a spiritual state—that which is surely inspired by Santería; he sheds light on the absurdity that has become Afro-Cuban culture and more specifically on the way their traditions were cheapened for tourism. He sought to describe the reality of his people through the powerful work and gained acclaim and fame for doing so.

The Eleven Group. 

The fifties universally represents the domain of abstraction in the most important artistic centers in the United States and Europe. In Cuba the influence of American abstract artists in the national movement became known. Among the most prominent trends are informalist abstract and concrete. The most prominent figures of this current abstract joined the group Los Once, as they were called by the initial number of participants.

Eleven (1953-1955) Cuban Group consists of seven painters and four sculptors, whose name was determined by the number of participants in the first joint exhibition in the gallery La Rampa in April 1953. Since then, the numerical term It was his letter.

Members

Guido Llinás

Hugo Consuegra

Rene Avila

Antonio Vidal

Fayad Jamis

Tomas Oliva

Agustín Cárdenas

Jose Antonio Diaz Pelaez

Francisco Antigua

Espinoza Viredo

Jose Ignacio Bermudez.

At the exit of the latter he joined the group Raul Martinez Gonzalez, who had returned from studying at the Institute of Design in Chicago and quickly became one of its most important figures.

The group remained active until 1955, when for several reasons disintegrated, setting themselves up as one of the catalysts reasons for accepting the sculptor Agustin Cardenas a scholarship granted by the government. Bermudez had gone before, Fayad Jamis had traveled to Paris, Diaz Pelaez United States and other members decided to exercise their creative activity independently. Given the resulting modification of the set continued working together Vidal, Consuegra, Llinás, Raul and Thomas Oliva, in what many critics and experts believe the core of the Eleven from its original conformation.