The first cultural exchange between museums in Cuba and the United States in the past five decades, will take place through the exhibition “One race “. It will open to the public on January 17 in one of the transitional rooms of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana.
Previously they had exposed contemporary art from galleries of New York’s famous Chelsea neighborhood, in a 2009 exhibition rightly called “Chelsea visits Havana ” . But “One race” can be already considered from an event in Cuban art, regarding cultural project between the two concerned countries. The exhibition brings together a set of thirty intaglios, pieces made through the art of carving and painting wood. All were made by Mario Sánchez (1908-2005), who was considered a master in the discipline.
Mario Sanchez is a self-taught artist of Cuban origin because his grandparents were born in the island and migrated to Key West during the Ten Years’ War against the then Spanish metropolis (1868 -1878 ) .
According to the Folk Art magazine, is the most important folk artists of the twentieth century in America, with a work that is characterized by social and testimonial commitment, in addition to its refined visuals and technical values. Sanchez was also the first painter of Florida with a solo show in a museum in New York, the South Street Seaport Museum.
Hortensia Montero, curator of the institution, said the exhibition includes wooden colonial houses, cigar factories, representations of popular celebrations, ñáñigos dances, cockfights, and reproduction of typical characters as street vendors and readers of cigar factories, reasons that abound in the pictures. The pieces reflect social equality achieved in Key West even before the civil war in the United States, when in that community lived men and women, whites and blacks, Catholics and Jews harmoniously, without differences of class, race, religion or sex.
The set, consisting of works of small and medium formats are a chronicle of everyday scenes in that place between 1920 and 1950. All come from private collections and the Old Island Restoration Foundation, dedicated to preserving the architectural and cultural heritage of Key West.
Besides the exhibition will remain open until March 23, and includes a programme of American teachers giving conference in Havana and demonstrate how to perform the art of intaglio. Part of the exchange includes that in February this year, Cuban artists such as Manuel Mendive, Roberto Fabelo, Rocío García and Sandra Ramos among others, will display their works in the locality of South Florida.
Cuba and Key West have strong historical and cultural links. Thither a segment of the working migration of the island in the nineteenth century, which later supported and financed the Cuban independence movement under the leadership of José Martí. Part of this microcosm race we will see in the scenes by Sánchez, capturing people in their environment to detail in scenes and a touch of humor.
