| This
exhibition is the first of two parts that brings together work associated
with Cuba's most prestigious art school, the Instituto Superior de Arte.
(Part 1: Photography and Photo-based art.)
The two exhibits focus on the artists who teach and study there, as well
as those who have graduated from the school. ISA opened in 1976, to become
part of the national schools of art in Cubanacán, the site of the Havana
Country Club before the revolution. (The main clubhouse now houses the
university-level school of music.) At ISA students can learn computer
graphics and digital imaging, music, dance, set design, video and
television and most importantly, the visual arts. Unlike most
universities, the students who enter the five year university program, who
come to Havana from throughout the island, are already considered
professionals; they are selected through a rigorous examination of their
portfolios. A very high percentage of graduates from the school become
nationally and internationally known. Going through the roster of Cuba's
best-known artists, one finds very few who did not attend ISA. Sandra Dupret, curator of the first ISA show that the Cuban Art Space co-sponsored, at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery at Wayne State University, wrote on the occasion of the opening in September, 2004 that "there is a fine line of difference between the works of students and faculty/alumni, only defined by a sense of maturity in the work produced." In this first part of the exhibit we have chosen to show photography, which is not a major at the school, but which many students work at, and photo-based art. |