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Painting and Sculpture 53
The rise of the second generation of the Vanguardia, and
the continuing activity of members of the first generation, ush-
ered in what some art historians have called the classical peri-
od of Cuban modernism. The artwork produced during the late
1930s and 1940s, in the view of various critics, tended to be
more mature, and the exploration of what it meant to be Cuban
more nuanced. The “assimilation of modern forms,” argues
Abigail McEwen, an art history professor and scholar of Latin
American art, “resulted in more painterly and metaphorical
The Fountain of the Antilles in Las Tunas represents an ancient legend about the
Caribbean islands. It was created in 1977 by the sculptor Rita Longa. She also promoted
the installation of more than 120 pieces of sculpture in her hometown of Las Tunas,
including a monument in front of the city’s Communist Party headquarters (opposite page).