A Historical Look at the Cuban Vanguardia
Cuban artistry is a contrasting cultural blending of American, African and European aesthetic design mirroring the contrasting population make-up of Cuba. Cuban creatives espoused European modernism and the 1920-1930 era witnessed an expansion in Cuban modernist trends; these trends were characterized by a potpourri of contemporary esthetic genres. Some of the more celebrated 20th century Cuban artists tended to come from the earlier part of the 1900s.
Perhaps the most renowned art (of sorts) to come out of the island of Cuba was THAT photograph of a certain Che Guevara (by Mr Alberto Korda) which actually became perhaps one of the most famous photos of the last century.
The indigenous Cuban artist cause amassed some pace following the opening of the the art academy (San Alejandro) back in 1818, which was developed to live up to the European taste of the Cuban middle class. In the late 19th century, landscapes were very popular within the art movement of Cuba and classicism dominated as the main art genre.
However, the Vanguardia Cuban contemporary artist of the 1920s had rejected the academic formulas of Cuba’s national art academy. During their early years, numerous Cuban artists had lived in Paris, where they studied and assimilated the fundamentals of surrealism, cubism, and modernist primitivism. They returned to Cuba committed to innovative artistic styles and were eager to merge this new artistic persuasion with a Cuban influence. The vanguardia artists attained worldwide acknowledgement back in 2003 when the Museum of Modern Art displayed the the Modern Cuban Painting show.
