Latest Internet Stuff

Art originating from Cuba is a contrasting multi-ethnic blend of American, African and European aesthetic design reflecting the multi-ethnic population make-up of the island. Creatives from Cuba embraced European modernism and the 1920-1950 era witnessed an expansion in Cuban modernist trends; these trends were known by an assortment of contemporary aesthetic genres. Legendary Cuban artists were likely to come from the early part of the 20th century.

Perhaps the most well-known art (of sorts) to hail from Cuba was THAT photo of a certain Che Guevara (shot by Alberto Korda) which actually became one of the most recognizable images of the last century.

The local Cuban artist movement amassed momentum after the opening of the art academy (San Alejandro) back in 1818, which was built to live up to the European taste of the middle class population of Cuba. Towards the end of the 1800s, landscapes were very popular within Cuban art and classicism prevailed as the main art genre.

Nonetheless, the pioneering modern artists of the late 1920s had rejected the academic norms of Cuba’s national art academy. In their genesis, numerous artists had lived in France, where they learned and absorbed the founding rules of cubism, surrealism and modernist primitivism. They returned to Cuba dedicated to innovative aesthetic methods and were motivated to merge this new aesthetic leaning with a Cuban twist. The pioneering artists achieved world acknowledgement back in 2003 with the Modern Cuban Painting show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Stencilling has actually been around for 25 years, even though many people think Banksy first did it. You can employ paper, cardboard or other types of surfaces (such as plastics) to produced templated graphics and text. You merely cut around the design from your paper/cardboard/other surface, place said surface onto a wall (example), then spray or roll-on paint.

The underlying rule of stencilling is making outlines via cutting shapes, and spraying paint within these cutout shapes - making defined graphics on the surface underneath. Sometimes multiple layers of stencils are used on the same image to add colours or give the image some depth.

There are innumerable causes for being a stencil graffiti artist. For some, it is an easy method to shout out a political message. Other stencil artists treasure the publicity that their art can acquire. Some just wish their art to be seen. Because the stencil remains uniform during its use, it is far easier for a stencil artist to rapidly duplicate what could be a complex artwork at a very quick pace, when compared to other traditional tagging methods, so without question, there is also a powerful self-promoting reason to choose stencilling.

Banksy has applied stencilling as a method to make a political statement, often rather succinctly, leaving the viewer to get the message themselves. This is oftentimes why people love his work so much, as they make the viewer think. Banksy artwork is being reprinted on canvas, t-shirts and posters, such is the popularity of the street artist.