Cuba: A History In Art

Richly illustrated in full color, this volume is the first to present many of the most important Cuban paintings in the collection of The Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach—called the “best of its kind” by Miami El Herald editor Roberto Fabricio. It contains the work of 30 Cuban artists and includes an essay on each artist and painting that provides an aesthetic, historical, social, and cultural overview. Of particular interest to Cuban art aficionados are essays by art historians Gary Libby and Juan Martinez, who discuss the rise of a Cuban style, its flowering in the Republican Period from 1902 to 1959, and the convergence of forces that made Havana a center of New World modernism in the early 20th century. Gary Libby also discusses the development of photography as an instrument of commerce and art.

Gary R. Libby is former director of The Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach and author of Two Centuries of Cuban Art. He has taught at the University of Florida, Tulane University, and Stetson University. Juan A. Martinez is associate professor of art history at Florida International University and author of Cuban Art and National Identity: The Vanguardia Painters, 1927-1950 (UPF).