Political Disobedience in the Form of Art....

     One of the greatest accomplishments of the Revolution was the government's support of education and the arts. Castro strongly supported education and the arts, making it so that art could flourish. Once the Soviet Union fell, Cuba opened up more by letting artists sell their art to other countries. This brought a lot of business to the country. Because of Castro's support and the business that the Cuban art industry brought to the country, art has flourished. Also, because the government is considered to be oppressive it gives artists something to create art about. As the example below shows the artist's view of the government has become a part of their art. But artists also are limited in what they can produce because if the government doesn’t like the message that the artist is portraying the government can retaliate against the artist. The government can shut down any artists they don’t like. It is great that Cuba has “supported” art by letting artists sell their art, but the government only wants artists to produce art that they like. They want artists to follow the party line. I think that this is horrible because art is all about expressing yourself and you can’t do that if you can only produce art that follows the party line.

Art is an outlet that people use to express themselves and show how they feel about something. A group of artists that come from the same country and that have similar experiences, will more than likely have some similarities in their art. For the Cuban artists that I have learned about, the few common things I have seen is that most pieces are very abstract and different. For example Marco Castillo is an artist in Cuba that creates art with his partner that sometimes “pulls” at the Cuban upper class. They do this without doing it too much where they would get in trouble with the government. They do it through abstract art/comedy. As the art critic Gerado Mossquera with PBS art became an outlet for people to use art to show what is happening in Cuba and use it to criticize what is happening in the country. Another theme is the use of the famous Cuban lighthouse. I have seen it portrayed in a few different ways, one with it laying down showing that Cuba politics need to change or a sculpture of the lighthouse standing up.

You can clearly see politics at play in the art that Cuban artists make. For example the fallen down light house that was made by the group “the Carpenters” symbolizes that the government needs to change in Cuba. I love the pieces that are suddenly political and trying to get around the government by being more abstract. I see what some of the Cuban artists do as acts of defiance against the government and I think it is great.

Questions:

1- If the Cuban Revolution never happened, would the arts be as prevalent as they are now in Cuba?

2- As artists produce work that is political, do you think that the government will eventually start arresting artist for speaking out against the government through their work?