Cuban artists Wilfredo Lam and Carlos Luna get a SoCal showcase

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They’re separated stylistically and generationally by a wide gulf. But an exhibition of work by Cuban artists Carlos Luna and the late Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982) at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach affords some striking comparisons.

‘The identity of being Cuban is not a one-way road,’ painter and sculptor Luna tells The Times’ Mindy Farabee in this story.

‘After all,’ Farabee writes, ‘modern Cuba is a conglomeration of Spanish, African and Indian elements, a mixed culture influenced by slave trading and the international sugar cane market. And though the works of Luna and the late Lam may differ in focus and style, Luna says, they both address ‘a very essential part of Cuban life, which stems from certain traditions and mixture.’ ‘

-- Reed Johnson in Mexico City