Art Brut CUBA - December 6, 2024 through April 27, 2025

The exhibition Art Brut CUBA takes us back to Cuba four decades after Art Inventif à Cuba was held at the Collection de l’Art Brut in 1983. The earlier show was curated by Samuel Feijóo (1914–1992), a leading figure of Cuban cultural life – he was a writer, poet, publisher, ethnologist, painter, self-taught draughtsman and adviser to Cuba’s Ministry of Culture.

The 1983 exhibition stemmed from Jean Dubuffet’s wish to show, at the Collection de l’Art Brut, works by self-taught Cuban artists in the collection of his friend, Feijóo. It featured pieces by more than 30 artists from Villa Clara, all of whom were members of Signos, the group founded by Feijóo in the late 1960s to showcase popular Cuban art and literature.

But why is this particular country deserving of our interest once again? Because its insular nature, its history and its territory – long isolated from the rest of the world for political and economic reasons – make this island a fertile environment for the production of creations unaffected by outside influences. For those same reasons, it is also much more difficult in Cuba than elsewhere to depart from collective norms and establish artistic individuality.

Now, 41 years later, Art Brut CUBA brings together a selection of drawings and paintings by the artists who appeared in the original exhibition. It also features works by contemporary Cuban outsider artists promoted by Riera Studio in Havana and shown for the first time at the Collection de l’Art Brut. In all, the new exhibition contains 266 works of different kinds: drawings, paintings, collages, assemblages, finery and photographs.

The practice of recycling or repurposing materials and ordinary objects for creative purposes, which is a characteristic feature of Art Brut, is particularly evident in Cuba, where the artists featured here lack almost everything. Nonetheless, their endless imagination, ingenuity and creative drive allow them to exploit, transform and repurpose these assorted materials to create remarkable and incredibly expressive works. The themes they reflect echo their own experiences, the economic, social and political realities of their country, their personal worlds, and their obsessions. And what makes these creations so surprising is that they all present a facet far removed from standard conceptions of Cuba, which is still essentially controlled by the state.

Curated by Sarah Lombardi, director, Collection de l’Art Brut