A detail from For Whom It Love (For Those Who Deserve Love) by Antonio Guerrero
The Guardian / Cubadebate , Yannis Tsal
Two of the artists featured in a new exhibition will definitely not be present on the opening night. Instead of mingling with fellow artists in London's West End, They Will Each Spending the time be in a high-security cell in a penitentiary in the U.S..
The pair, Antonio Guerrero and Gerardo Hernandez, are members of the so-Called Miami Five, who Were jailed in the U.S. in 2001 at the Conclusion of a controversial trial. The five Cubans Who Had Were infiltrated anti-Castro militant exile groups in Florida That Were Suspected of carrying out sabotage attacks destabilising Aimed at Cuba .
The men Were Sentenced in Miami to terms varying from 15 years to "double life" on the grounds That They Were acting in the U.S. as agents of a foreign power. Their defense Was That They Were seeking to disrupt terrorist attacks Which, the Cuban Government Claims, Have Caused Hundreds of deaths, Most recently in a bombing campaign in Havana 90s hotels and clubs Aimed at derailing the booming holiday industry.
Lawyers for the five argued unsuccessfully That a fair trial in the toxic atmosphere of anti-Castro Miami WAS impossible. In 2011, one of the five, Rene Gonzalez, WAS released on parole and Remains in Florida.
The art exhibition, Entitled Beyond the Frame , Which moves to Glasgow in May, will show the work of 26 of the best-known Cuban artists and international artists of 20 other donated Who Have work to draw attention to the case. It is the largest collection of Cuban artists ever to be Shown in the UK.
"The Art Itself is very surprising," says Dodie Weppler, an expert on Cuban art who is co-ordinating the exhibition. "There's not socialist realism, it's all things you might not expect. Culture've Always Been a vital element in Cuba's radical tradition, But The revolution made possible a cultural experiment on a scale never seen Before in the Americas . " A number of artists exhibited Being - " Kcho " Manuel Mendive , " Choco ", José Fuster ,Juan Roberto Diago - Already have international reputations.
Antonio Guerrero Learned to draw and paint while in jail in Florence, Colorado, as the pupil of a cellmate, an African-American artist. He works in watercolors, charcoal, oil and pastel, historical subjects latest exotic birds and butterflies Being, and has written That, Through Art, "I Have Overcome imprisonment." Was an amateur cartoonist Hernandez Before His Arrest, Remains historical cartooning Speciality.
Art WAS originally seen as a key part of the Cuban revolution. There are still 14 schools on the island art and to the university of fine arts in Havana. According To René Duquesne of Cuba's National Council of Visual Arts, there are 13.000 "registered artists" there. "With This number, there simply are not enough galleries or materials - most of the materials Have to be imported," I says. "The blockade Causes Enormous Difficulties. Artists who do not have a salary - who Are not book designers, art teachers or other related jobs - have to Rely on the salts of Their work. This Cuban forces artists to look abroad."
Weppler says the reputation of Cuban art has Increased steadily, as evidenced by an article four years ago in the Wall Street Journal - not great admirer of the Castro brothers - which Cuba Highlighted as "the next hot art hub" for investors. The U.S. still Operates to blockade Against Cuba and a near-total ban on Americans visiting the island, although there've Been A slight loosening of restrictions under Barack Obama. Cuban art, however, can be bought by Americans, provided it has not Been commissioned, Afro-Cuban artefacts s, such as drums or plates, but fall foul of the Because They Have to use and Malthus fail to Qualify as "artworks".
Other artists, Mainly UK-based, donated Who Have Their work in support of the show include John Keane , Mona Hatoum , Alasdair Gray , Derek Boshier , John Byrne , David Harding , the kennardphillipps collective and Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell .
"We Called the exhibition Beyond the Frame Because It ruptured the traditional role of the frame as a boundary and Acknowledged the Five Have Been ' framed 'by the U.S. government, "says Weppler, who put the show together With The Cuba Solidarity Campaign , in That the hope it will highlight the case of the Miami Five - a cause celebre on the island - as well as the scope of Cuban art.
"I did not know a great deal about the Miami Five Before," says Keane, official war artist of the 1991 Gulf war. "But I believe in using art to help the course of justice. If art can Provide some sort of conscience, it's preferable to Merely Being a currency for the super-rich." Boshier, the British artist now based in Los Angeles, Said That He Had Made His First artwork connected to the island, Entitled Situation in Cuba, back in 1961: "It was a reaction to the Bay of Pigs [the failed US-backed invasion Cuban exiles by]. " His contribution to the current exhibition is a 2011 reconstruction of That Work.
• Beyond the Frame - Contemporary Cuban Art Gallery is at 27, London W1, 23-28 April, and The Lighthouse, Glasgow, 7-13 May
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