Clyde Hensley is an art enthusiast who discovered many Cuban artists. He found raw talent in artists who had very few supplies and provided them with the materials they needed. He founded the Eastern Cuba Cultural Exchange Association, which brought much of this Cuban art to the United States. This paved the way for more Cuban artists to be discovered.
"Crosstimbers" journal describes the Cuban art form as joyful and happy on the surface but when one looks deeper there is sadness and despair. One example of this is "Paisaje Montañas con Laguna by Rodriguez Cedeno." "Crosstimbers" magazine says the piece "produce(s) the feeling of tranquility and yet (is) executed with such detail, especially in light and shade, that an almost foreboding sense of loneliness and isolation pervades the landscape."
Cuban art is influenced by the surrounding beauty of Cuba. Pristine beaches and the lush tropical climate are portrayed in the bright and festive colors. The darker side of Cuba makes its way into the contemporary art through political statements and darker imagery portraying isolation and despair. Rodriguez Cedeno's "Paisaje con Laguna" is an example of this.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Cuban art had an explosion of magic realism. Art critic Franz Roh explains that magic realism "faithfully portrays the exterior of an object, and in doing so the spirit, or magic, of the object reveals itself." Both of Cedeno's works mentioned in sections 2 and 3 are examples of this magic realism.
According to "Crosstimbers" journal, "In the last 20 years, magical realism has taken another turn by removing mere overtones of the fantastic and replacing them with metaphorical oddities that attempt to explain everyday life." One example of this can be found in the piece "Cascada," by Alfredo Rodriguez, which depicts an oceanside landscape with an angel's wing rising up in the background. "La Fuga, La Opción Fatal" by Joherms Quiala Brooks is another good example of the more modern magic realism. In this painting, a simple urban scene is made surreal with the addition of a floating clock with a soda can dangling from it.
Cuban artist Wilfred Lam was known for his primitive paintings. Although he lived in Spain, New York and many other places across the world, his time in his home country of Cuba influenced him the most. According to the website "Alocubano," Lam searched out Afrocuban symbols in order to "express African deities and myths still active in Cuba."