The emancipation of the
80s
In the 80s, emancipation had been researched and
announced in terms of collective approaches. In the present decade
it is difficult to form groups for the very reason that it is a time
of individualism and subjectivism. The openness and flexibility of
power makes diversity possible. The generation of the 70s remains
latent and, together with well-known names, a whole series or younger
artists appear, amongst whom are: Pedro Alvarez with his observations
on the conquest and his island world;
Sandra Ramos with her poetics on exile; Fernando
Rodríguez, who works in polychromatic wood, in order to be
a speaker for the blind artist Franciso de la Cal; Osvaldo Yero and
his symbols in multicolored plaster, as well as Esterio Segura with
his sculptures - altars, where pictures of all types and characters,
alternating with sketches and metal engravings, meet.. Douglas Pérez,
Aimee García, Rubén Alpízar, Elsa Mora and many
others, and in alternative positions an even longer list of even greater
diversity of forms of expression, emphasize opinions which assert
the prestige of sculpture in Cuba. There is even a risk that, by naming
a few, others may be offended at being excluded. As the change to
esthetic painting became consolidated – the best example being
Los Carpinteros, - without, however, completely supplanting the spirit
of the installations, pre-conceptualism and the "ephemeral art"
which characterized the 80s, and other ballast of previous decades,
some of the forms of this era fuse together. In previous years the
postmodernist language took over from the Modern the will of the avant-garde
to transform society by means of art. But today this biting and hurtful
criticism is balanced by irony, indirectness, a language full of conceptual
and formal sharp-wittedness. In graphic art, the figure of Belkis
Ayóns. who has been outstanding for several years, is now joined
by Abel Barrosos, an innovator in the use of wood-block as a medium,
breaking through the two-dimensional by constructing objects around
which slogans of Cuban reality circle, announcing a glory at the end
which, to a great extent, is created by the opportunities presented
by the existence of the experimental workshops.
Painting in exile
The history of Cuban art would be incomplete if art
in exile, centered mainly on the USA and Paris, were to be excluded.
It encompasses the production of the old masters who left the country
(Mario Carreño, Cundo Bermúdez, Agustín Fernández,
Jorge Camacho, Joaquín Ferrer, Gina Pellón…) as
well as those of Arte Calle of the eighties, the so-called generation
of Mariel and others (Tomás Esson, Luis Cruz Asazeta, Miguel
Padura, Vicente Domínguez, Heriberto Mora, Juan Carlos García
Lubín), who had to adapt their works to suit the requirements
of the market. Also those living in Mexico, Paris or Madrid who traveled
to Miami after the fall of the Berlin Wall (Torres, Llorca, Aldo Menéndez,
José Bedia, Arturo Cuenca, Tomás Sánchez), and
the generation which trained abroad (Mario Bencomo, María Breto,
Arturo Rodríguez, Juan González and Hernán García
from the generation from Miami). We know nothing of the development
and fate of any of these.
Cuban art is the focus in different contexts: the past because of
the protagonism of many of its figures; present day art because perhaps
in the high artistic consciousness of each creator, transcending the
anecdotal, the descriptive and the superficial, lies his power and
his principal interest.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
History
