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Painting and Sculpture 57
realism, whose express purpose
was to further the goals of com-
munism. In a representational
if idealized manner, socialist
realism depicted leaders or
ordinary people (often farmers
or factory workers) resolutely
and happily working to build
or defend socialism.
Many established artists left
Cuba in the early years of
Castro’s revolutionary govern-
ment. Some who remained
continued to work in avant-
garde styles (like abstract art),
but they were mostly ignored.
From the 1960s into the
1980s, much of the art pro-
duced in Cuba carried pro-revo-
lutionary and pro-regime messages. There was some socialist
realism. But stylistically, pop art was a bigger influence. An art
movement that arose in the 1950s in Great Britain and the
United States, pop art found subject matter in everyday objects
and popular culture, and it characteristically used flashy color
and bold lines. It was seen in part as a reaction against the pre-
tensions of “high art.” In Cuba, however, artists repurposed the
style of pop art for political purposes. Especially common were
colorful posters, depicting Castro or other heroes of the Cuban
Revolution or showing the progress of socialism.
Under the Castro regime, artists and writers
were funded by the government. Those who
portrayed the regime in a negative light were
often arrested and their works banned.