Cuban Bodegones Art Found in Miami, Florida

Latin American art is of cultural and historical importance. Diego Rivera is one fine example of Latin artists that have left their mark on the art world, depicting their heritage, political climate and social change. What is most interesting about Latin American art, aside from boldness and beauty, is the subject matter that was often defiant against government regimes. An artist as late as the early 1900's, such as Rivera, would have to conform to the political landscape to make money, and couldn't paint certain subject matter that the government officials, including Americans, deemed improper. Many artists, including Rivera, were commissioned by the local government to paint politically correct works, but like Rivera, many found a way to incorporate revolutionary symbolist art into frescos, murals and still-life's, or the Spanish term "bodegones". Some artists painted the daily strife of sugar-cane field workers in animated ways, perhaps to show the spirit of the migrant worker as not being corrupted by the governmental hierarchy and elite forces.

In Cuba, the pre-revolutionary Castro artists such as Jose Mijaris and Gil Garcia were inspirational even to the bodegones painters. Bodegones are still-life's that usually consist of three inanimate objects. The pre-revolutionary artisans found a way to make their art, down to the still-life's controversial, from painting in colorful, ethnic tiles in the background of a still-life scene, to disguising symbols and elements in the "new found" forms of art, including Cubism, like Diego Rivera did.

One can truly benefit from visiting areas where Cuban heritage can be experienced and forever captured through art, not through stereotypical popular imagery, such as Desi Arnaz playing Ricky Ricardo banging his bongo drums on classic episodes of I Love Lucy, with Lucille Ball. Miami has its roots planted in the Cuban culture; there are various places to experience Cuban art throughout Miami, including Coral Gables. There is a shopping district in Southwest Miami on 72^nd Avenue that has a small group of art shops, some dealing in old oil paintings that were done by various pre-revolutionary Cuban artists, including the above mentioned. Here are just a few of the galleries where one might spot contemporary Cuban art.

Elite Fine Art, Meza Fine Art Gallery Café, The Wallflower, Tower Theater (in Little Havana), and other various establishments with vintage and contemporary works. Here is a link to the Florida artist's registry.com, where various Florida galleries and artists are registered, and one can find the street address and phone numbers to various galleries, throughout the state, including the one's mentioned in this article.