Page 60 - Studio International - October 1967

Above Fernando Luis Mago 100
oil on canvas, 58+ x 48 in.

Right Amelia Pelaez Naturaleza muerta
oil on canvas, 48 x 37 in.

The other artists whose work is on view in London
practise a variety of styles almost as wide as that
which is currently to be found in Europe. Those
who strike me as being among the most interesting
have little in common with one another, except
perhaps for a leaning towards some kind of
expressionism— though even here one has to stretch
the definition of expressionism pretty far in order
to encompass them all. Amelia Pelaez, one of the
older artists, who was already established some
twenty or thirty years ago, takes her inspiration
from the stained glass panels which decorate many
of the older houses in Havana. Her bold brilliantly
coloured paintings have been quite extensively
shown on the international circuit—at the Venice
Biennale and at Sao Paulo, for example. In sharp iron, in an idiom which perhaps derives originally But this artistic expression has obviously suffered
contrast to her work stands that of Fernando Luis, from Julio Gonzalez. The other is Orfilio Urquiola, from the kind of quarantine in which Cuba has
who works in a style which seems to combine the who shows a pair of violent heads which seem to found itself placed. Clearly, one reason for bring-
early manner of David Hockney with that of have their stylistic roots in some of the more ing the Salon de Mai to Havana was to show that
Hundertwasser. His pictures have a pleasing primitive of the Voodoo cult objects to be found in the cultural blockade could be spectacularly
feeling for the textures of paint. Cuba. Some of these, incidentally, can be bought broken, even if the economic one remained. The
Two talented painters who suffer a bit from the in the shops in Havana which otherwise specialize Salon de Mai of this year is not an ideally balanced
fact that they remind the European spectator of in Catholic bondieuserie. exhibition of modern art, and at least a third of
artists who are more familiar to him are Umberto Like the emporiums I've just mentioned, the show it consists of work of inferior quality. On the other
Pella, who paints in a way which reminds me of which has been sent to London leaves the im- hand, Cuban artists are now being brought
some of Francis Bacon's more visceral works, pression of a culture which is still trying to sort directly into contact with original work by leading
and Fayad Jamis, who has obviously been much itself out. Modern paintings and sculpture only European artists who, in quite a number of cases,
influenced by Matta. Jamis supplies a good began to take root in Cuba in the nineteen- they only knew through reproductions in art-
example of the vitality of the Cuban cultural scene: twenties, so this is not surprising. What remains to magazines. This applies, particularly, to painters
besides being a painter, he is perhaps even better be seen is the effect that the government's enthu- of a generation even younger than the youngest
known as a poet. He is also the editor-in-chief of siastic support for the avant-garde is going to have. to be seen at the Ewan Phillips Gallery. The effect
the important literary magazine Union. Artistic expression in Cuba (like literary expres- may well be explosive. Meanwhile Cuba, though
There are also three sculptors on view, two of sion) has remained essentially free, despite the fact on present evidence without a painter of world
whom make perhaps the strongest impact of the that the revolution there has gone through several rank, is probably one of the places where the arts
entire show. One is Tomas Oliva, who works in phases, some a good deal less liberal than others. are at their liveliest in the modern world.
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