Cuba

The evolvement of sculpture art in Cuba can be traced in the works of major artists like Rita Longa. The place of choice to take a closer look at this manifestation is Havana’s Museum of Fine Arts where projects that saw the light of day are displayed. A case in point is the sketch of the monument to General Antonio Maceo, shaped by Italian artist Boni. General Maximo Gómez by Italian artist Aldo Gamba and other works in marble and plaster. Other exhibit pieces are the José Martí bronze bust by Carlos Sobrino y Rivero (1910); Los Venaditos (The buck deer) cast in plaster by Rita Longa (1910).Everyone can admire the composition in motion at the entrance of Havana’s zoo, where atop a grassy and flowered rocky knoll, a group of deer cast in bronze shows up all of a sudden. In the former Presidential Palace, such sculptures as that of José Martí can be seen, shaped in marble by Juan José Sicre y Vélez. This sculpture’s measures double the real-life figure.An Abraham Lincoln statue carved in marble by Teodoro Ramos Blanco, follows the former’s pattern.Benito Juarez, Mexico’s liberator, also made in marble by Fernando Boada.Some of the best spaces are reserved for the long-lived works of Cuban Sculptors. The city of Las Tunas, capital of the province bearing the same name, is known as the “Capital of Sculptures” due to development of that field and the amount of sculptures mounted around town.