To and from utopia in the new Cuban art

In this spectacularly illustrated volume, Rachel Weiss offers the definitive critical history of the new Cuban art, exploring its remarkable artistic accomplishments and its role as catalyst for, and site of, public debate. Weiss draws on two decades of engagement with Cuban art and on the statements of the artist themselves to read individual artworks against the complex relationships between artists, their local and global audiences, and the Cuban state. Tracing the shift from the optimism of the early 1980's to the cultural cynicism that paralleled the near collapse of Cuban society in the 1990's, To and from Utopia in the New Cuban Art identifies a renewed idealism among the artist about the potential role of culture in Cuban society. --Book Jacket.