{"id":291752,"date":"2023-11-16T17:36:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T22:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=291752"},"modified":"2023-11-17T07:47:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T12:47:41","slug":"havana-art-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/havana-art-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Havana is an art city?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Step aside Paris and Florence. Havana is an art destination par excellence that deserves far more international recognition. From the longstanding San Alejandro art academy \u2014the oldest of its kind in Latin America\u2014 to the budding San Isidro art district that made international headlines in 2020, the evidence is everywhere.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll see it painted on walls, enshrined in community art projects, exhibited in illustrious galleries and \u2014in the case of Fusterlandia\u2014 plastered across a whole neighborhood.<\/p>\n

There are many unique contemporary styles for locals and visitors to admire. Fusterlandia, a neighborhood known for its vibrant mosaics, is characterized by the folksy almost cartoonish images popularly known as \u201cna\u00efve art\u201d, the modus operandi of local master, Jos\u00e9 Fuster. The Callej\u00f3n de Hamel in Centro Habana is distinguished by a sharp, bold Afro-Cuban style pioneered by Salvador Escalona in the early 1990s that often uses recycled materials. Of more recent provenance is the subversive street art of envelope-pushing graffiteros<\/em> like 2+2=5 that was unheard of in Cuba until the 2010s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
2+2=5. Photo: Brendan Sainsbury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The high quality of Cuban art reflects its importance as a provocative cultural weapon. In a country of widespread censorship, art is a crucial nonverbal form of communication. Amid the sometimes-drab streets and buildings of contemporary Havana, public art doesn\u2019t just draw your attention, it talks to you in bold, thought-provoking language.<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s artistic pedigree first gained traction in 1818 when the French-born painter Jean-Baptiste Vermay founded the San Alejandro Arts Academy in Habana Vieja. Initially invited to Cuba on a painting commission at Havana cathedral, Vermay went on to craft the three large canvases that adorn the walls of the diminutive Template in Plaza de Armas.<\/p>\n

The Academy, which operated under the directorship of Vermay until his death in 1833, has since produced many illustrious alumni, including Victor Manuel (painter of \u201cLa Gitana Tropical\u201d, sometimes called Latin America\u2019s Mona Lisa) and most notably Wifredo Lam.<\/p>\n

Lam (1902-80), a surrealist who forged an important friendship with Picasso in Paris in the late 1930s, is far and away Cuba\u2019s most acclaimed artist. In 2020, his Santer\u00eda-inspired \u201cOmi Obini\u201d fetched $9.6 million at a Sotheby\u2019s auction, then the second highest fee ever recorded for a Latin American painting. His most celebrated canvas, \u201cLa Jungla\u201d hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but a much larger collection of his work can be seen in Havana\u2019s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes<\/a>, including the seminal \u201cEl Tercer Mundo\u201d (1966).<\/p>\n

Still revered in Cuba today, Lam is memorialized in the Centro de Arte Contempor\u00e1neo Wifredo Lam<\/a> in Habana Vieja, a cultural center whose exhibition rooms showcase modern Cuban artists and co-host the prestigious Havana Biennial, the country\u2019s biggest art festival.<\/p>\n

An avant-garde city<\/h3>\n

Like all great art cities, Havana was responsible for nurturing its own art movement. The Vanguardia was a group of painters and sculptors active in the 1920s and 30s who rejected the classical teachings of the San Alejandro Academy and sought instead to re-establish Cuba\u2019s national identity through avant-garde influences from expressionism to surrealism. Most of the Vanguardia spent time in Europe where they painted traditional Cuban themes such as guajiro life, tropical vegetation and Santer\u00eda through a foreign prism. You can see vivid renditions in Carlos Enr\u00edquez\u2019s \u201cVirgen del Cobre\u201d, Eduardo Abela\u2019s \u201cGuajiros\u201d and Amelia Pel\u00e1ez\u2019s \u201cNaturaleza Muerte con Pitahaya\u201d, all on show in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes whose large campus on Calle Trocadero contains the finest collection of Cuban art in the world.<\/p>\n

The Vanguardia spirit lives on in Havana\u2019s contemporary shops, galleries, and street art projects, where local artists, experimenting with abstract ideas, have transformed mildewed tenements into vibrant community projects.<\/p>\n

Art in the neighborhood<\/h3>\n

Jos\u00e9 Fuster created Fusterlandia, wall by wall and block by block, using the influence of Gaud\u00ed and a large stockpile of mosaic tiles to craft an urban streetscape that has become one of Havana\u2019s most popular tourist attractions. Many of Fusterlandia\u2019s abstract figures evoke Picasso, while its ubiquitous curves are unapologetically Gaud\u00ed-esque. Conversely, the artistic motifs – including flags, palm trees and se\u00f1ores in sombreros – are strongly Cuban in nature.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Photo: Kaloian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The smaller-scale Callej\u00f3n de Hamel has a more DIY bent, utilizing old bathtubs, plastic bottles, and reclaimed machinery to beautify a one-time back-alley. Tourists flock to the area on Sundays when live rumba fills the air.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Callej\u00f3n de Hamel. Photo: Brendan Sainsbury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The San Isidro art district grew up around Galer\u00eda-Taller Gorr\u00eda<\/a>, a modern art gallery owned by Cuban actor, Jorge Perugorr\u00eda that opened in 2016. Situated in a downbeat corner of Habana Vieja, it\u2019s become the go-to quarter for graffiti artists whose subtle pop-up images cleverly evade censorship to deliver potent modern-day messages.<\/p>\n

While plenty of private galleries and shops line Habana Vieja\u2019s arterial streets, the high church of Havana\u2019s modern art scene is the F\u00e1brica de Arte Cubano<\/a>, a combined gallery and performance space encased in an old cooking oil factory in Vedado where you can meet the artists and chat about their work.<\/p>\n

Less known than the F\u00e1brica but equally compelling are the various private galleries that have sprouted up in Havana over the last decade. El Ojo del Cicl\u00f3n in Habana Vieja is one of the best, the domain of resident artist Leo D\u2019L\u00e1zaro whose eccentric work draws on the classic Cuban tradition of using reclaimed materials to make beautiful things.<\/p>\n

Many caf\u00e9s and accommodations also double up as de facto galleries. El Dandy<\/a> is hailed for its photo-art; HAV Coffee & Art<\/a>, in the San Isidro quarter, exhibits bold, sweeping canvases; and Malec\u00f3n 663<\/a> is a boutique hotel cum coffee lounge cum concept store where creatively runs amok from the giant murals to the bicycle-seat bar stools.<\/p>\n

Amid all the modernism, it\u2019s worth rewinding back to the start to discover the work of Jos\u00e9 Nicol\u00e1s de la Escalera, one of Cuba\u2019s earliest painters and the first to leave behind a significant body of work. Escalera was active in Havana from the mid-1700s and was important on many levels, not least because he was the first national artist to depict a black person in a Cuban painting. His baroque oil canvases can be found in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, but he also painted the triangular vaults in the gorgeous but rarely visited church of Santa Mar\u00eda del Rosario, 16km southeast of the city center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you visit Havana you will see painted on walls, enshrined in community art projects, exhibited in illustrious galleries and plastered across a whole neighborhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3865,"featured_media":291757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[291,19256],"ppma_author":[34078],"class_list":["post-291752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-art","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Havana is an art city? | OnCubaNews English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Painted on walls, enshrined in community art projects, exhibited in illustrious galleries and plastered across a whole neighborhood.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/havana-art-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Havana is an art city? 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