Sheldon Museum of Art

 

Date of this Version

2010

Citation

SHELDON MUSEUM OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN MAY 21 THROUGH JULY 18, 2010

Comments

All images are copyright by the original artists. Publication copyright 2010 The Regents of the University of Nebraska

Abstract

Flowers, Lies and Revolution surveys some themes that emerge in contemporary Cuban art, as revealed in three private collections in Lincoln, Nebraska. What a landlocked state and a sea locked nation share are the desires, comforts, and complexities of the other. This exhibition celebrates the transnational scope and vision witnessed in the breadth and focus of the three local collections: those of Karen and Robert Duncan, Kathy and Marc LeBaron, and Lisa and Tom Smith.

The collections represent the dominant trends of a new generation of Cuban artists that emerged in the last 30 years. Their work continues a tradition of testing the limits of artistic freedom in Cuban society-a critical practice consistent with the Cuban Revolution in 1959, but which fell under intense state scrutiny in the 1970s.

In recent decades artists have worked with increasing self-reflection in responding to life in Cuba. They have explored new representational strategies with which to frame their aesthetically and conceptual responses. The art they produce is less concerned with the standpoint of the collective-an earlier, revolutionary interest-than with the individual's response to the collective-a later, laissez faire interest. The island's contemporary art reveals an increasing sensitivity to individualism in its critical responses to Cuban society.

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