Modern Art in 1940s Cuba

The first book to explore the work ofavant-garde artists in Cuba during the nation's years as a democracy

Providing the first comprehensive historyof modern Cuban art during the 1940s, this book contextualizes the artisticpractices, values, and contributions of the first and second generations ofavant-garde artists on the island within the framework of the nation's onlydemocratic period.

Between 1940 and the 1952 coup byFulgencio Batista, Cuba experienced a democratic system of government as wellas a vibrant cultural renaissance, particularly in the visual arts. Arthistorian and curator Alejandro Anreus uses interviews with key figures as wellas previously untapped archival materials from this period to explorehow Cuban artists collaborated to create distinct visual languagesthat would become part of the canon of modern art in the Americas. Inthis decade, Cuban art was showcased in major exhibitions both domestically andinternationally, including the landmark 1944 exhibition Modern CubanPainters at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In addition to formal analysis ofspecific artworks, Anreus provides social art history to situate these artistsand their work within their political and economic context. Anreus drawsattention to an influential but overlooked decade in Cuba's political andartistic history that reflects postwar hemispheric solidarity and culturalexchange between democracies, highlighting the lasting impact of this time andplace on the global landscape of modern art.