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| Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana | |
|---|---|
| Name | Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana |
| Native name | Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Location | Havana, Cuba |
| Type | Printmaking workshop |
Taller Experimental de Gráfica de La Habana is a printmaking workshop founded in Havana in 1962 that became a central node for Cuban and Latin American graphic arts, hosting national and international artists, fostering techniques in lithography, etching, woodcut, and screenprinting. The institution developed collaborations with museums, universities, and cultural centers across the Americas and Europe and contributed to the circulation of prints by prominent figures in modern and contemporary art.
The origins trace to the early 1960s when founders and early associates connected with institutions such as Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Cuba), Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos, Casa de las Américas, Universidad de La Habana, and cultural programs tied to Revolución cubana. Early collaborators included printmakers influenced by Wifredo Lam, Amelia Peláez, René Portocarrero, Roberto Fabelo, Cundo Bermúdez, and exchanges with visiting figures like Eduardo Abela, Belkis Ayón, Antonia Eiriz, Vladimir Velázquez, Tony Capote, and Félix Beltrán. Institutional links expanded to accommodate artists associated with Galería Habana, Galería Servando, Instituto Superior de Arte, and international contacts such as Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Smithsonian Institution, Centre Pompidou, and National Gallery of Art. During the 1970s and 1980s the Taller engaged with cultural diplomacy involving delegations from Mexico, France, Spain, United States, Canada, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, and hosted workshops influenced by print shops like Taller de Gráfica Popular, Workshop Bilkheim, Tamarind Institute, and Grafica Uno. Later decades saw collaboration with collectors and curators from MoMA PS1, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Instituto Cervantes, and contemporary biennials such as Venice Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, Havana Biennial.
The mission emphasizes support for practitioners linked to Artes Plásticas, promotion of print media associated with figures like Lezama Lima and Alejo Carpentier, and dissemination through networks including UNESCO, UNICEF, OAS, and cultural institutes such as British Council and Goethe-Institut. Objectives include training artists connected to Instituto Superior de Arte, providing production services for creators affiliated with Casa de las Américas, preserving editions linked to collectors like Barbara Gladstone and institutions like Fundación Ludwig, and fostering exchanges with curators from Pierre Garo, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rita Elvira and critics from Artforum, ARTnews, and Flash Art.
Facilities house presses and tools comparable to equipment at Tamarind Institute, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne print studios, and workshops at Princeton University, Yale University School of Art, and Columbia University. The Taller's inventory includes etching presses, lithographic stones referencing techniques in École des Beaux-Arts, screenprinting frames used by artists associated with Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, woodcut benches recalling work from Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai collections, and conservation resources aligned with practices at Smithsonian Institution Conservation Center and Getty Conservation Institute. Technical staff collaborated with visiting technicians from Tamarind, Grafica Uno, Handwerker, Royal College of Art, and laboratory partners tied to Museo Reina Sofía and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The Taller practiced diverse print techniques including intaglio associated with practitioners like Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso’s print cycles, lithography in traditions of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Jasper Johns, woodcut echoing Katsushika Hokusai and Albrecht Dürer, serigraphy referencing methods used by Andy Warhol and Shepard Fairey, monotype and mixed-media editions reflecting approaches from Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler, and experimental photoengraving akin to processes used by Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy. Conservation protocols followed guidelines inspired by International Council of Museums and publications from Getty Conservation Institute and ICOM. The workshop also facilitated pigment research drawing on chemists and print conservators connected to Victoria and Albert Museum, Morgan Library & Museum, and British Museum.
Artists who worked in residence or collaborated include Cuban figures such as Raúl Martínez, Servando Cabrera Moreno, Félix González-Torres, Leandro Soto, Carlos Enríquez, Jaime Sarusky, José Fuster, Kcho, Tania Bruguera, and Yoan Capote, and international creators like Eduardo Arroyo, Antonio Saura, José Luis Cuevas, Rufino Tamayo, Fernando Botero, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Remedios Varo, Max Ernst, Wifredo Lam (as influence), Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois, Jorge Luis Borges (collaborative publications), Octavio Paz (poetry-plastique projects), Carlos Fuentes, Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, and printers from Taller de Gráfica Popular and Tamarind Institute. Institutional collaborations included projects with Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo del Barrio, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, Fundación Caja Madrid, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas, and universities such as Harvard University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, University of California, Los Angeles, and Goldsmiths, University of London.
Exhibitions appeared in venues like Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Cuba), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona, MoMA, Tate Modern, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Museo de Arte Moderno de México, Museo de Antioquia, Museo Tamayo, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Galleria Continua, and during events such as Havana Biennial, Venice Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, Bienal de la Habana, Frieze Art Fair, Documenta, and Art Basel. Publications, catalogues, and editions were produced in collaboration with editorial bodies including Editorial Letras Cubanas, Ediciones Vigía, Abrams Books, Taschen, Thames & Hudson, Skira, and journals such as Artforum, The Burlington Magazine, Archivo Revista, Revista de Avance, and Artes de Cuba.
The Taller's influence extended to collections at Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Guggenheim Bilbao, Museo Reina Sofía, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, British Museum, V&A, National Gallery of Art, Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and institutional archives such as Archivo General de la Nación (Cuba), Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí, and Smithsonian Institution. Recognition included acquisitions by curators from Renaissance Society, honors from panels associated with UNESCO, exchanges supported by Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and scholarly attention from academics at University of Chicago, Yale University, Columbia University, Brown University, and University of Cambridge. The Taller influenced contemporary print practices in Latin America, fostering generations linked to movements documented by critics from Ruben Gallo, Alfredo López, Zoila Lapique, and exhibited in surveys curated by Rita Eder, Teresa Ceballos, and Terry Smith.
Category:Art museums and galleries in Cuba