Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 78

Fig. 3a. Teodoro Ramos Blanco.
Fig. 3b. Jaime Wall. Dibujo
1935. “Vida Interior”. [Interior Life] 1927. “Black Man’s Head”

Sculpture. Marble

Drawing. Charcoal on cardboard

Nevertheless, the blackness theme in art preserved a certain picturesque perspective identifiable by its humor, mockery and cockiness as part
of the identifying stereotype compatible with the
social view of blacks at that time in history. It was
adverse context for the black Cuban population,
which would somehow manage to reflect itself in
art.
The Revolution
When the Revolution triumphed in 1959, Cuba
arrived on the international stage. The eyes of the
world were on her and followed - in horror, illusion or skepticism - the events as they unfolded
on the remote, Caribbean island, which could
suddenly transform the normal state of things.
The new governmental system and lifestyle
erupted on the scene and showed time and time
again its originality and au tonomy: it pronounced
laws regarding equality and racial integration.
Yet, the reality still persisted: religious practices
of African origin were seen with skepticism, even
prejudice, and subjected to certain supervision.
Products used in ceremonies could only be obtained in the black market; other restrictions regulated the participation of minors in addition to
controlling participants with criminal leanings,

78

Fig. 3c. Agustín Cárdenas

1956. N/T..
Sculpture. Marble

tough guy attitudes, machismo and other forms of
marginalization.
A rereading of the nation’s past and the impact of
the kind of future that was being proposed by political rhetoric faced the difficult task of creating
a new culture that represented sharp opposition
and marked difference from the reigning capitalism of the time. It needed to change its content
and, with it, the way cultural identity had been expressed during the time of the Republic. Stemming from a nationalist mission, social devotion,
and freedom of thought and action, the Revolutionary in art, literature, and politics spawned a
conceptual fingerprint deeply linked to the vision
of national hero José Martí’s, to be seen as a constitutive part of a liberal cultural view for Cuba.
Beginning with the first Annual Plastic Arts Salon (1959), a series of retrospectives of Cuba’s
Avant-Garde plastic artists were organized
throughout the sixties. This notion of continuity
made it so that the plastic arts were able to adjust
to the new political situation without losing much
autonomy, bringing about a period of productive
experimentation that adjusted to the new circumstances.
The influence of the neo-figurative idiom and the
international art world’s language on Cuban art