The Lost Generation: Women Ceramicists and the Cuban Avant-Garde

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU presents The Lost Generation: Women Ceramicists and the Cuban Avant-Garde, an exhibition running from June 29 to September 29. Organized by the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College and curated by Elizabeth Thompson Goizueta, this exhibition delves into the artistic contributions and influence of the Taller de Santiago de las Vegas, a ceramic workshop on the outskirts of Havana, active from 1949 to 1959. It highlights the pioneering work of little-known women ceramicists and their impact on the acceptance of ceramics as a fine art form in Cuba.

The workshop, led by physician Juan Miguel Rodríguez de la Cruz, featured a talented group of women, many trained at prestigious institutions like the Academia San Alejandro, who developed unique styles and gained both national and international recognition. Prominent ceramicists such as Rebeca Robés Massés, Marta Arjona, María Elena Jubrías, Mirta García Buch and Amelia Peláez played crucial roles at the Taller. They collaborated with renowned modernist painters including René Portocarrero, Wifredo Lam, Raúl Milián, Luis Martínez Pedro and Mariano Rodríguez, who visited the workshop to learn new techniques that they later incorporated into their own works.

The Lost Generation showcases a variety of ceramic pieces such as vases, mugs, water jugs, murals and plates, many of which are displayed for the first time. These works are presented alongside dozens of paintings by Peláez, Portocarrero, Lam, Martínez Pedro, and Mariano, highlighting the symbiotic relationship between the ceramicists and painters of the Cuban avant-garde. The exhibition also explores the trajectory of ceramics in Cuba following the 1959 revolution, noting how many former Taller artists went on to establish their own workshops, further advancing the art form.