Arts and Literature of Cuba

Did You Know? The work of Cuba’s Vanguardia remained little known outside of their homeland until 1944. That year, New York’s Museum of Modern Art pre- sented an exhibition called Modern Cuban Painters . It featured 80 paintings and drawings from a dozen of the Vanguardia’s leading figures, including Victor Manuel, Fidelio Ponce, Amelia Peláez, Mario Carreño, and Cundo Bermúdez.

Arte Nuevo was Amelia Peláez (1896–1968). Her paintings drew heavily on architectural elements, both from her own Havana home and from the capital city at large. She often painted interior scenes, in abstract or semi-abstract fashion. She’s also known for her murals, the most famous of which covers a façade of the Havana Libre Hotel. Fidelio Ponce (1895–1949) was unusual among the early members of the Vanguardia in that he never traveled to Europe and thus was never directly exposed to the avant-garde art movements there. Ponce, as his Cuban peers recognized, was highly original. He usually painted with drab colors, and many of his canvases have a haunting quality. Classical Period of Cuban Modernism By the late 1930s, a “second generation” of the Vanguardia had emerged. Few of these artists had strong connections to San Alejandro. They’d absorbed, and they sought to build on, the modernist lessons of their Vanguardia predecessors.

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Arts and Literature of Cuba