Arts and Literature of Cuba

New Perspectives Several of the Vanguardia artists mounted one-person shows in the mid-1920s. But the Vanguardia really burst onto the scene—and assaulted the staid conventions of Cuban academ- ic art—with a major exhibition in Havana in 1927. Among the artists represented at the Exposición de Arte Nuevo (Exposition of New Art) were Víctor Manuel García (1897–1969), Marcelo Pogolotti (1902–1988), and Antonio Gattorno (1904–1980). Victor Manuel would become known especially for his head-and-shoulders and head-and-upper-body renderings of women. His 1929 painting La gitana tropical (The Tropical

Gypsy), a sensual portrait of a mixed-race woman, has been described as a Mona Lisa of the Americas. It’s considered one of the premier works of the Cuban Vanguardia. Pogolotti, influenced by a European art movement called futurism, frequently incorpo- rated industrial and mechani- cal imagery in his work. But whereas European futurists celebrated technology and the energy and speed of modern life, Pogolotti had a darker vision. His paintings and draw- ings are inhabited by toiling,

La gitana tropical , by Víctor Manuel García.

Painting and Sculpture 47