A woman ahead of her time, Amelia Peláez (1895-1968) was a pioneer.  Peláez, with Wifredo Lam and Carlos Enríquez, belongs to a significant group of artists who began the modernist Cuban art movement in the 1920s. Often called Vanguardia painters, they were born around the turn of the 20^th Century and witnessed political turmoil engulfing Cuba as it sought to become a sovereign nation. They were pivotal members of a Cuban generation defining its identity.

Most Vanguardia painters studied in Europe before returning to Cuba to paint some of their most renowned works. They fused Modernist styles of such European masters as Matisse and Cézanne with imagery reflecting their homeland’s architectural and Afro-Caribbean cultural traditions, adding generous dollops of brilliant color and jazzy linear rhythms.  Old World Modernist movements such as constructivism and surrealism became part of this unique New World art historical mix.

Miami’s central role as a market for Cuban art reflects the financial and social growth of the city’s Cuban American community, says Alejandro Anreus, art history and Latin American studies professor of New Jersey’s William Paterson University.  Recently Anreus delivered packed lectures at Cernuda Arte on second generation Cuban modernists Mariano Rodríguez and René Portocarrero.

Miami is a must-see marketplace for Cuban art, he adds, thanks to “the work of curators and art historians and galleries.” Their combined efforts demonstrate that “Cuban modernist art is part of the larger story of modernism in the Western Hemisphere.”  Moreover, Latin American art, Anreus explains, “is no longer viewed as a step-child but as an integral part of modernism.”

A new wave of Cuban modernist artists currently catches attention with curators and collectors, dealers and auction houses.   They’re best known for geometric abstractions, exploring hard-edge, clearly defined or “concrete” forms. Generally, these artists do not exult in so-called “hot tropical colors” often pervading paintings by Peláez and Portocarrero.  “The concrete artists from the 1950s were totally forgotten,” says Cernuda, “until a recent museum exhibition in Madrid, called ‘Cold America.’ That movement has really taken off.  It is now being collected at the national level.”

Presented at Madrid’s Juan March Foundation in 2011, “Cold America” tells the story of Latin American geometric abstraction from 1934 to 1973. It brings together some 300 artworks by over 60 artists from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Uruguay, Venezuela.  They took cues from artists like Mondrian and Alexander Calder to refashion their own take on this elegant, pared-down aesthetic.  Representing Cuba in this show:  Sandu Darie, also women Lolo Soldevilla, Carmen Herrera.

Several years ago, Herrera was the focus of a superb exhibit in Miami. Once shamefully overlooked, art by both Herrera and Soldevilla gains impressive cachet. “We bought a painting by Soldevilla about four years ago for about $1,000. We now have one going to market at auction with an estimate of $20,000 to $25,000. It will probably sell at the high end,” says Cernuda.  Compared to five years ago, the demand for her art now, he says, is “enormous.

So it goes in the Miami marketplace for Cuban art.  New discoveries, prices, exhibits are ever imminent.  Second generation modernists Mariano and Mario Carreño make waves at auction.  Like Peláez, Carlos Enríquez is overdue for a major exhibition, Anreus says.

Cuba excels in the visual arts. “We can no longer go by conventional boundaries of conventional geography,” Anreus adds.  “Cuban art can be made in Miami, Cuba,  Mexico City, Madrid—anywhere there is a Cuban making art, it is Cuban art.”