Cuba: A History in Art (review)

Gary Libby's study is based on Cuban paintings that are part of The Cuban Foundation Collection at The Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida. Although the book contains numerous images from the collection, the book centers around a compilation of essays reflecting on the most important moments in Cuban art.

In the opening essay, "The Rise of a Cuban Style," Libby argues that the origin of modern Cuban painting stems from two main influences. The first is the European tradition of painting taught at the Academia de San Alejandro (founded in Havana in 1818) during the 19th and early 20th century. The second influence originates from the native Taino objects and African folklore (These latter elements were resurrected as fundamentals of Cuban modernity, or art renovation, after 1920, when students of the Academia were awarded grants to travel to Europe and were influenced by European modernist artists). Although the author offers a deep analysis of the painters trained at San Alejandro and their European-inspired works, he never provides real insight into the Taino and African elements which he mentions briefly in the earlier part of the essay. Stronger input on this latter aspect would greatly contribute to fuller understanding of modern Cuban painting.

The second essay, "Cuban Painting in the Republican Period, 1902-1959," by art historian Juan A. Martínez provides background on the private and public institutions founded after Cuba gained independence from Spain in 1902, which significantly contributed to the enhancement and appreciation of Cuban art. The immediate post-independence era was marked by hopeful and serious attempts not only to renovate society, but also to transform culture. Through an analysis of the main topics used in Cuban art of this period, Martínez traces the evolution of this spirit of renewal. As he puts it:

"this period, which actually begins in the 1920s and lasts into the early 1960s, is highly dynamic and characterized by a movement from academic to abstract art, from the adaptation of European artistic models to North American ones, and from the representation of a collective-oriented subject matter to the making of introspective signs.

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Martínez concludes by summarizing the links between cultural and social ideas in Cuba and by drawing specific attention to particular paintings in The Cuban Foundation Collection.

Surprisingly, the third essay is about photography. After having traced the development of painting in Cuba up to the 1959 Revolution, Libby shifts to photography on the grounds that its contribution to culture is as important as any other in the contemporary period. Even though the inclusion of photography in the book appears somewhat artificial, Libby's use of the photos as historical documents justifies their inclusion. Nevertheless, the abrupt change could have been softened perhaps by a comparison of Cuban painting and photography and their respective evolutions.

In addition to the three essays, Libby also includes a chronology of the expansion of photography in Cuba, a "Note on The Cuban Foundation Collection," and an excellent catalog of the paintings as well as biographies of the artists mentioned, all of which make the book a useful resource for students and scholars of Cuba. Finally, it is important to recognize that the book contains only paintings found in the Daytona Beach museum while necessarily disregarding Cuban art in Cuba. While this absence leaves the reader somewhat hungry, it also makes the book particularly worthwhile. After all, the Daytona Beach collection is the only collection of Cuban art currently available to the U.S. public.