Cuba: Concrete Exercises

CURATED BY OSBEL SUAREZ
Without manifestos or any fundamental acts at play, and with a short lifespan that reached about three years, the group known as the “Diez Pintores Concretos” was the only artist group in Cuba between 1958 and 1961 that embraced the principles of rigorous geometry. Using the gallery, Color-Luz, as their venue, the group was composed of Loló Soldevilla, Sandu Darie, Pedro Álvarez, Salvador Corratgé, Luis Martínez Pedro, José Mijares, Alberto Menocal, Pedro de Oraá, Rafael Soriano and Wilfredo Arcay.
In 1961, Color-Luz was forced to close its doors; consequently the group dismantled and until today there is still no document or manifesto that explains what   happened exactly. The new cultural politics of the revolution did not find in abstract art a compromise that was visible and easy for its people to identify with and so their proposals were attacked by the Marxist rhetoric and displaced by institutional apathy. After decades of neglect; however, today the importance of their legacy is recognized within the discourse of continental geometric ideals.