The exhibition Art Brut CUBA takes us back to Cuba four decades after Art Inventif à Cuba was held at the Collection de l’Art Brut in 1983. The earlier show was curated by Samuel Feijóo (1914–1992), a leading figure of Cuban cultural life – he was a writer, poet, publisher, ethnologist, painter, self-taught draughtsman and adviser to Cuba’s Ministry of Culture.
The 1983 exhibition stemmed from Jean Dubuffet’s wish to show, at the Collection de l’Art Brut, works by self-taught Cuban artists in the collection of his friend, Feijóo. It featured pieces by more than 30 artists from Villa Clara, all of whom were members of Signos, the group founded by Feijóo in the late 1960s to showcase popular Cuban art and literature.
But why is this particular country deserving of our interest once again? Because its insular nature, its history and its territory – long isolated from the rest of the world for political and economic reasons – make this island a fertile environment for the production of creations unaffected by outside influences. For those same reasons, it is also much more difficult in Cuba than elsewhere to depart from collective norms and establish artistic individuality. Go to Website
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