EXHIBIT OF CUBAN SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS

The exhibit showcases the work of 40 different artists, most of them still living and working in Cuba. The oldest, Ruperto Jay Matamoros, is considered Cuba’s leading primitivist and, at 92, still puts in many hours each week painting in his Havana apartment. He is part of a distinguished but tiny group of primitivists born in Cuba before 1930, and the only one still alive. Others were Benito Ortiz (1896-1989), a mailman who did not start painting until well into his fifties, Isabel de las Mercedes (1922-2002), both represented in this exhibit, and Gilberto de la Nuez.

The generation of those born in the 1930s produced very few known self-taught, in part because such art has not been highly valued by Cuban critics. Nonetheless, three of the best-known self-taught artists with a "naive" or "primitivist" or "outsider" style, became known within the context of the Cuban Revolution in the 1980s. They are Abel Pérez-Mainegra (born 1930); Juan Andrés Rodríguez (1930-1995), a farm worker who signed his paintings "El Monje," and Julián Espinosa, who signs his paintings "Wayacón," born in 1931. Very few of El Monje’s works are available in the U.S. or in Cuba. Several have been loaned to this exhibit by private collectors.

A ground-breaking book was written about Cuban "naive" art by critic Luisa Maria Ramirez in 2003. Her book, La pintura ingenua: reino de este mundo*, highlights art in Santiago de Cuba where her husband, Luis Rodríguez, and father-in-law form part of "El Grupo Bayate**," currently one of the best-known groups of self-taught artists working in Cuba; all are represented in the exhibition. The members, with the exception of Luis, Jr., live and work in the small town of Mella, the site of the only Swedish settlement in Cuba, originally known as Bayate, now home to many Haitian immigrants. Their professions include a baker, a driver, a policeman, a fisherman, and a carpenter (the oldest, Richar Bruff Bruff, born in 1928).

Another group of self-taught artists can be found working in the Cienfuegos area where Wayacón, who lives in Remedios, holds court. In his circle in the Cienfuegos area are the relatively sophisticated conceptual artist Juan Carlos Echeverría Franco (a doctor), the beautifully detailed artist who is inspired by Santeria symbols, José Montebravo (a geography teacher), the sculptor José Basulto, and the lawyer Arcadio Franco whose voluptuous females remind us of Botero.

Among the other exciting artists in the show are Mederox (José Mederos Sigler), who is in his fifties and lives in Batabanó, Havana Province; Lawrence Zúñiga, Santiago’s best-known primitivist, whose works draw on African religion, and Pelly (Pedro Blanco), a mechanic from Pinar del Rio whose works reflect daily life in the context of Christian religious spirituality.

Today, Cuban self-taught artists are starting to sell their art in galleries as well as on the streets. Self-taught art is still a hard sell in most professional art circles in Cuba, especially in Havana. But in Santiago and Cienfuegos, their art and the acceptance of their art has begun to flourish.

For us at the Cuban Art Space, the 200 pieces of this art on exhibit offers an amazing amount of information about Cuban culture, daily life in Cuba, spirituality on the island, and much much more. We invite you to see for yourselves.