www.aviscacaribbeanart.com

The Caribbean Collection

Cuban Art Gallery

CUBAN ART

While diverging widely in styles, influences, methods, materials, and even locations, an art identified with Cuba and Cuban culture grew and developed to international acclaim in the last decades of the twentieth century. In 1984 when Cuba established the Biennial of Havana - an event designed to showcase contemporary art from Latin America (and later the Third World), the art world was taken by surprise.
Artists and critics from North America and Europe who visited Cuba in the 80’s were startled by the fact that a communist country, still embroiled in Cold War politics and suffering an embargo imposed by the U.S., could produce a group of artists who could create, as one critic put it, “a new exuberant art that builds bridges between kitsch, folklore, popular religion, and postmodernism...”.
It is surprising and revealing that a small island, lagging in global communication, can produce so many excellent contemporary artists of such high technical accomplishment and with an altogether fresh voice.
Part of the explanation lies in post-revolutionary attitude towards the arts. Art literacy was an integral part of the cultural program and was seen as a crucial vehicle to achieve cultural change. The founding in 1976 of the Instituto Superior de Arte, a five year graduate school offering degrees in the visual arts, theatre and music, represented a major investment in education and helped to produce one of the best-educated populations in the Caribbean.
Contemporary Cuban art is riveting, magical and  full of surprises. It is a rich interplay of European traditions and native cultures - fusing the religious beliefs and cultural traditions of the African presence, incorporating all the dimensions of the imagination; celebrating the body, the senses and relations between humans; and exploring the reality of the revolution and the endless struggle for a political ideal.

The diversity of the work shown here attests to the creative and technical achievement of the artists on this island nation.
The works range from hand-pulled prints that utilize a range of Printmaking techniques, to drawings, to oils, and a variety of mixed media.
By today’s market standard, many of these works are vastly undervalued due largely to the relative isolation of the Cuban art market. We hope you enjoy the value and selection we offer here.