Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18035

Modernism in Havana reached its climax during the turbulent years of the 1950s as a generation of artists took up abstraction as a means to advance artistic and political goals in the name of Cuba Libre. During a decade of insurrection and, ultimately, revolution, abstract art signaled the country’s cultural worldliness and its purchase within the international avant-garde. This pioneering book offers the first in-depth examination of Cuban art during that time, following the intersecting trajectories of the artist groups Los Once and Los Diez against a dramatic backdrop of modernization and armed rebellion. Abigail McEwen explores the activities of a constellation of artists and writers invested in the ideological promises of abstraction, and reflects on art’s capacity to effect radical social change. Featuring previously unpublished artworks, new archival research, and extensive primary sources, this remarkable volume excavates a rich cultural history with links to the development of abstraction in Europe and the Americas.

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Print publication date November 2016 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780300216813

EISBN 9780300246995

Illustrations 120

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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List of illustrations

Memorias de subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment), film stills
Cover illustration for "Origenes: reviste de arte y literatura" 11, No. 36
Impressions of a Vista to Gay Havana, "The Paris of the Western Hemisphere"
Urbanismo y planificación, "Revista del Instituto Nacional de Cultura" 1, no. 3−4
Eugenio Leal House
Mural
Apartment building of Emelina Fernández
Inventario 1, no. 9, cover
Noticias de Arte 1, no.1, cover
Cuban artists
Presentación, "Noticias de Arte" 1, no. 1
7 pintores cubanos en Washington
Arcquitectura: Integración, "Noticias de Arte" 1, no. 2
Fishes
Tropical Gypsy
Los campos magnéticos (Magnetic Fields)
Fuego en el batey
Persistent Forms
Conflict
Figure
Interior (Naturaleza quieta)
Ícaro
Contrapunto
Pintura
A propósito de la exposición de Los Once, "Información" (Havana), June 14th, 1953, p.28.
Flauta-fémur
Untitled
Sculpture cubaine
Indigno para Cuba que Franco rinda homenaje a Marti, "Tiempo," October 31, 1953
La Exposición de Plástica Cubana en Homenaje a José Marti, "Bohemia," February 7, 1954
Ultraja la Memoria de Martí la Blenal Hispanoamericana, bulletin no. 1, 1953–1954
Rotundo Fracaso de la Blenal Franquista, bulletin no. 2, June 1954
Cuarteto
Azul
Cover, "Primer festival universitario de arte, mayo 20"
Ships
Notas a la exposición de "Los Once" que esta vez fueron siete, "Información" (Havana), December 19, 1954
Memoria Febril
Gladys Lauderman, cover, exhibition brochure
Sin título (de la serie Afrocubanos)
Los Once, exhibition brochure
La Habana crece y se moderniza, "Revista del Instituto" 1, no. 3–4 (June–September 1956): 24–25
Una ciudad moderna, "Revista del Instituto Nacional de Cultura" 1, no. 3–4 (June–September 1956)
Las artes plásticas, "Revista del Instituto Nacional de Cultura" 1, no. 3-4 (June-September 1956)
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Historical Diagram of the Visual Arts in Cuba
Permanent Collection, Pallacio de Bellas Artes
Works by Agustín Cárdenas and Fayad Jamis at À l'Étoile scellée (Paris)
Couple antillais
Untitled
Cover, "Revista del Instituto Nacional de Cultura" 1, no. 2
The Central Area of the City
Proposed Design Controls for Old Havana
Anticipo a "El México de Diego," Nuestro Tiempo 4, No. 15
La ESSO estrena el mural Cubano, "Gente" 3, no. 8
Mural
Abstracción (Mural)
Mural (detail)
Escultura en la terraza de una residencia
Azul blanco
Photo of Cuban Installation, Tenth Inter-American Conference, Caracas
Awakening
Flight eight
Pastiche
Contemporary Cuban Group, November 11–December 1. Exh. brochure, Galeria Sudamericana, New York
Collages, Esculturas, abril 20 a mayo 1
Untitled
Form in Space
Installation photo, "Tomás Oliva: Esculturas; Guido Llinás: Pinturas" [September 19–25]
Composition
Installation photo, "Martinez Pedro, Sandú Darlé, abril 25 a mayo 10"
Pintura transformable Madí
Cielos del sur (Southern Skies)
Flor a contraluz
Composición
Untitled
Lo concreto en rojo
Unos cuadros y una casa junto al mar, "Noticias de Arte" 1, no. 9 (June–July 1953): 8–9
Installation photo, Luis Martínez Pedro, dal 5 al 14 agosto
Fresque "Luza"
Untitled (Abstraction)
Relieve luminoso
Iberic
Martinez Pedro, Sandú Darlé, abril 25 a mayo 10, exh. brochure
Untitled, Estructura transformable
Untitled
Pintura de hoy: Vanguardia de la escuela de Paris, ex. brochure
Exposición Inaugural, pintura y escultura cubana 1957, exh. Brochure
El arte abstracto europeo en la Galeria Color-Luz, "Información" (Havana), July 20th, 1958
Cover, "10 Pintores Concretos, 9–16 de enero," exh. brochure
Homenaje a Fidel [Diagonal Silence]
Untitled
Untitled
Cosmorama: electro-pintura en movimiento [Cosmorama: Electro-painting in Motion]
Untitled, from the series "Aguas territoriales"
New Year's Day in front of Havana Hilton, now Havana Libre
Cover from "Cición"
Cover, "Nuestro Tiempo" 5, no. 29 (May–June 1959): 1
Mural exterior sobre la agricultura cubana [outdoor mural on Cuban agriculture]
Mural on multifamily dwelling by INAV [Instituto Nacional de Ahorro y Viviendas; National Institute of Savings and Housing]
Milicias Campesinas
Burro no. 1
Lucía, poster for ICAIC to promote the film Lucía by Humberto Solas
El farol (Havana: Ediciones R[evolución], 1964)
Estudiando en el laminario
Artes plásticas: la forma de la verdad, "Boletin Interior de Obras Públicas" (August 30, 1959): 4–5
Cover for Juan Marinello, "Conversación con nuestros pintores abstractos" (Santiago de Cuba: Universidad de Oriente, Departamento de Extensión y Relaciones Culturales, 1960)

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Contents

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

Contents

Author

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18036

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Acknowledgments

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

Acknowledgments

Author

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18037

Introduction

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

~“Here everything remains the same. All of a sudden it looks like a set, a city made of cardboard. . . . Have I changed, or has this city...

Author

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.1-7

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18038

Chapter subject tags:Cuba--History--20th centuryArt, Cuban--20th centuryArt, Latin American--20th centuryCuba--History--1933-1959Modernism (Art)--Latin AmericaHavana (Cuba)--History

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1. The Horizon of Vanguards

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

“We were a group of idealists,” painter Antonio Vidal (1928–2013) said years later of the precocious group of artists and writers who congregated at the mythical café Las Antillas...

Author

Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Latin AmericaCuba--History--1933-1959Art, Latin American--20th centuryArt, Cuban--20th centuryModernism (Art)--Latin AmericaArt and society--Cuba--History--20th centuryCuba--Politics and government--20th centuryArchitecture, Cuban--20th centuryArt criticism--Cuba--History--20th centuryArt criticism--Latin America--History--20th century

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.9-33

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18039

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2. Los Once and the Polemics of Abstraction

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

The “horizon of vanguards” that appeared at the dawn of the 1950s fostered a climate favorable to artistic revolution, and the emergence of Los Once signaled a changing of the guard both in generational respect to Cuba’s historical vanguardia and, culturally, within the...

Author

Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Latin AmericaCuba--History--1933-1959Modernism (Art)--Latin AmericaModernism (Art)--CubaPainting, Cuban--20th centuryPogolotti, Marcelo, 1902-1988Cuba--Politics and government--20th centuryLam, WifredoGrupo Los Once (Artists' group)

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.35-65

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.005

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18040

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3. Anti-Bienal, Bienal, and the Dissolution of Los Once

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

By the end of 1953 and their eponymous exhibition at the Lyceum, Los Once appeared fully vested as a third-generation vanguardia, flush with recent critical success and increasingly adept in their promotion of abstract art. The martiano overtones...

Author

Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Latin AmericaCuba--History--1933-1959Grupo Los Once (Artists' group)Art, Cuban--Exhibitions--20th centuryModernism (Art)--CubaArt, Latin American--20th centuryCuba--Politics and government--20th century

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.67-93

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.006

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18041

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4. The Offices of Abstraction

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

“Havana Grows and Modernizes,” a striking, black-and-white photo essay, graces the...

Author

Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Latin AmericaCuba--History--1933-1959Architecture, Cuban--20th centuryHavana (Cuba)--HistoryModernism (Art)--CubaModernism (Art)--Latin AmericaCuba--Politics and government--20th centuryArt and society--Cuba--History--20th centuryArt, Cuban--20th centuryLam, WifredoGeometric abstraction--Latin America--20th century

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.95-135

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.007

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18042

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5. Cuba’s Concretos and the Constructivist Turn

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

“What is concrete art?” Mario Carreño raised the question as a lead-in to a short, art-historical lesson prompted by a recent show of works by Sandú Darié and Luis Martínez Pedro that...

Author

Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Latin AmericaCuba--History--1933-1959Constructivism (Art)Concrete art--Latin AmericaGeometric abstraction--Latin America--20th centuryArt, Latin American--European influencesDarié, Sandú, 1908-1991Carreño, MarioArcay, Wilfredo, 1925-1997Soldevilla, Dolores, 1901-1971

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.137-175

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.008

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18043

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6. The Endgame of Abstraction

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

“And the flood began,” Piñera wrote of the evening of December 31, 1958, as Batista fled Havana and the Revolution lay immanent in the air. “At the beginning, and in spite of...

Author

Chapter subject tags:Avant-garde (Aesthetics)--Latin AmericaCuba--History--1933-1959Cuba--Politics and government--20th centuryArt, Cuban--20th centuryCuban periodicals--20th centuryModernism (Art)--Latin AmericaMural painting and decoration, Cuban--20th century

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.177-214

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.009

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18044

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Illustration Credits

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

~The photographers and the sources of visual material other than the owners indicated in the captions are as follows. Every effort has been made to supply complete and correct credits; if there are errors or omissions, please contact Yale University Press so that corrections can be made in any subsequent edition.

Author

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.010

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18045

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Index

Revolutionary Horizons: Art and Polemics in 1950s Cuba

Index

Author

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00104.011

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18046