Reviews from the first edition: "Inform[s] the reader of various
factors, influences, and historical developments that contributed to the
art of Cuba . . . an important resource pertinent to our field's
continued emphasis regarding cultural diversity."-- National Art
Education Association News "This very special selection from the Cuban
Foundation Collection traces the development and flowering of the arts
in Cuba from the 1600s to 1959 and helps to establish a link for
Floridians of Cuban heritage with their rich Cuban culture."--Sandra
Mortham, Florida Secretary of State
The history of fine art in Cuba began in the colonial period and burst
onto the international scene near the end of World War II with a
groundbreaking show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Now
available in a revised edition, Cuba: A History in Art offers one of
the most comprehensive surveys of Cuban art available anywhere.
Richly illustrated in full color, this volume is the first to present
many of the most important Cuban paintings in the collection of the
Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach--called the "best of its
kind" by Miami El Herald editor Roberto Fabricio. Featuring highlights
on permanent exhibition, it includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits,
genre and abstract works by the most important Cuban painters active
between 1725 and 1959. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these
masters developed a unique tropical style based on European prototypes.
After the First World War, Cuba blossomed with a new vision, full of the
color and rhythms of a sophisticated modernism.
Essays by renowned art historians Gary Libby and Juan Martínez offer a
general aesthetic, historical, social, and cultural overview of Cuban
art, providing context for their insights on these particular
masterpieces. Especially interesting is the explanation of the
convergence of cultural and political forces early in the twentieth
century that made Havana and Cuba a center of modernism.
A concise overview of a magnificent artistic tradition, this volume is a
must-have addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in how the
Americas influenced the history of art.
