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Considering the small
population of Cuba, of only a million and a half in
1900, it produced a remarkable number of talented
artists who flourished during the first 75 years of the
20th century.
Cubans everywhere have good reason to be proud of their
artistic heritage.
Of course, Cuba had talented painters long before the
early 1900s, and their paintings bring back the echo of
a quaint and distant past, the memories of which exist
only in our imagination. No one today, can quite imagine
what Cuba was like, and what it was like to live in
Cuba, in 1850.
These earlier paintings, precious as they are, windows
into the past, are nevertheless not so different from
other paintings, done in other lands, around the same
time.
What sets apart the generation that started to paint in
the first few decades of the 1900s is that for the most
part, their paintings were unlike anything painted
anywhere else.
This is not to deny that Europeans and various modern
art movements influenced Cuban painters, but precisely
this is all it ever was, an influence. The best Cuban
art produced during these golden years of the 20th
century is absolutely Cuban. It is nobody else's art.
Just look at it.
Cubans and lovers of things Cuban, have long recognized
the merit of these painters and aspired to own and enjoy
some of these paintings.
While most of these willing collectors live outside
Cuba, the largest stock of Cuban paintings is in Cuba.
There never was an exodus of Cuban paintings. See the
history of the past 50 years.
As a result, something bad happened to Cuban art in the
past couple of decades. Cuban paintings by the great
masters started to multiply, as if they all had their
studios in Miami, and as if they were all still alive
and painting from sunrise to sunset.
Chaos, lawsuits, gallery closings, great amounts of
money lost, disparaged collectors, loss of confidence,
were the results.
Seeing this situation, we decided to put together the
best possible team of Cuban art experts. We contacted
all the surviving members we could locate of all the
great Cuban artists and asked them if they would
cooperate with us.
We were lucky that we were able to make contact with the
Gattorno family members, and also the Carreno, Arche,
Rodriguez, Lam, Rivero, Eiriz and some others.
Considering that most of the archives, records, and the
largest collections, for most Cuban painters, are in
Cuba, we also made contact with art professionals in
Cuba and asked them if they would assist us in
authentication research.
The result of these efforts if that today we have the
finest team of Cuban art experts, Cuban art researchers
and Cuban independent art consultants ever put together.
We are not associated with any art gallery. We do not
buy or sell Cuban paintings. We have no vested interest
in the Cuban paintings we research.
We perform totally objective and independent research
and authentications.
If you would like to know if a Cuban painting is
authentic, we have the resources, the experience, and
the finest team of specialists to do so. Many of them
lived for decades with these artists and are intimately
knowledgeable about their paintings. |
