INTERNACIONAL
Morocco museum hosts one of Africa’s first exhibitions of Cuban art
- The exhibition at Morocco’s Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art showcases Cuban art.
- It represents one of the first displays of Cuban artwork at an African museum.
- Themes explored in the exhibition range from isolation and economic embargo to heritage and identity.
When Morocco ‘s King Mohamed VI visited Havana in 2017, Cuban-American gallery owner Alberto Magnan impressed him with a «full immersion» in the Caribbean island’s art and culture, drawing a line between the cultural and historical themes tackled by Cuban artists and those from across Africa.
Seven years after that encounter, one of the first exhibitions of Cuban art at an African museum is showing at Morocco’s Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.
It’s part of an effort to give visitors a view beyond the European artists who often remain part of the school curriculum in the North African nation and other former French colonies, museum director Abdelaziz El Idrissi said.
MUSEUM WARNS HISTORIC LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS CAN EVOKE ‘DARKER SIDE’ OF ‘NATIONALIST FEELING’
«The Moroccan public might know Giacometti, Picasso or impressionists,» El Idrissi said. The museum has shown them all. «We’ve seen them and are looking for other things, too.»
The Cuba show contains 44 pieces by Wifredo Lam — a major showing of the Afro-Cuban painter’s work more than a year before New York City’s Museum of Modern Art will honor him with a career retrospective show in 2025.
«We’re kind of beating MoMA to the punch,» Magnan said.
The Morocco show also marks the first time that the work of another luminary, Jose Angel Toirac, is being displayed outside Cuba. Previously, his paintings depicting the country’s late anti-capitalist president Fidel Castro in the iconography of American advertisements and consumer culture were not allowed off the island.
Other works in «Cuban Art: On the other side of the Atlantic» — open until June 16 — show prevalent themes in Cuban art ranging from isolation and economic embargo to heritage and identity.
In Cuba, almost half of the population identifies as mixed race and more than 1 million people are Afro-Cuban. The island’s diversity is a recurring subject for its painters and artists, including Lam. That’s why it was important to show his work — including paintings of African-inspired masks and use of vibrant color — in Africa, Magnan said.
Morocco is among countries that have shown new interest in Cuban art since the United States restored diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2014 and Castro died in 2016. American art dealers and major museums flocked to the previously difficult-to-visit island.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
But the intrigue was curbed by the COVID-19 pandemic and former U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to redesignate the country as a «state sponsor of terrorism,» Magnan said.
Meanwhile, Morocco has increased funding for arts and culture in an effort to boost its «geopolitical soft power» in North Africa and beyond.
In both Morocco and Cuba, 20th century artists responded to political transition — decolonization in Morocco, revolution in Cuba — by drawing from history and engaging in trends shaping contemporary art worldwide.
But the current show does not touch on Moroccan-Cuban diplomatic relations, which were restored following King Mohamed VI’s 2017 visit to Cuba.
The countries had cut ties decades ago over Cuba’s position on the disputed Western Sahara, which Morocco claims. Cuba has historically trained Sahrawi soldiers and doctors and backed the Polisario Front’s agenda at the United Nations.
INTERNACIONAL
French elections: Riots erupt after left-wing coalition projected to win plurality of seats
Crowds of protesters and celebrators flooded the streets of Paris as French election results began pouring in on Sunday.
On Sunday, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced his intent to resign after a far-left political coalition was poised to win a plurality of French parliamentary seats. The coalition had unexpectedly assembled before the snap elections began.
Tens of thousands of left-wing demonstrators gathered in Paris’s Place de la République on Sunday night to celebrate the news. Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition is projected to take second place.
The results were a huge upset for conservatives in France, who had hoped that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally would take power.
FRENCH PM TO RESIGN AS LEFTISTS NAB PLURALITY OF PARLIAMENTARY SEATS IN SNAP ELECTION
Social media footage shows massive bonfires in Parisian streets as authorities confronted demonstrators while wearing riot gear.
Tear gas was released as rowdy protesters were arrested. Protesters were also recorded throwing Molotov cocktails in the streets and setting off smoke bombs.
TOURIST PLANE CRASHES ONTO HIGHWAY IN FRANCE, KILLING THREE: VIDEO
The left-wing coalition, which is called the Popular Front, is made up of France’s Socialist Party, the French Communist Party, a green political party called the Ecologists and France Unbowed.
The bloc has pledged to institute a number of measures if elected, including scrapping Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform and working towards establishing «a right to retire» at 60 years old.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The coalition also pledges to increase wages for public sector employees, establish a wealth tax and raise France’s minimum wage.
Reuters and Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
-
POLITICA2 días ago
Detuvieron a un hombre armado a metros del acto de Milei en San Juan
-
POLITICA2 días ago
El Gobierno busca bajar la tensión con el PRO y dice que cumplirá el fallo por la coparticipación a la Ciudad que reclamó Macri
-
POLITICA19 horas ago
En Brasil aseguran que el gobierno podría retirar a su embajador en Buenos Aires si Javier Milei ofende a Lula en su discurso en el encuentro organizado por los Bolsonaro
-
POLITICA3 días ago
Federico Sturzenegger es el nuevo ministro de Desregulación y Transformación del Estado
-
POLITICA2 días ago
Caso Loan: incidentes en la puerta del Juzgado Federal tras la detención de Laudelina Peña
-
SOCIEDAD2 días ago
Mundos íntimos. Vivimos medio siglo sin saber que éramos padre e hija: nos queda el presente y el porvenir para conocernos.