Cuba. Cuban art is an exceptionally diverse cultural blend of African, South American, European, and North American elements, reflecting the diverse demographic makeup of the island. Cuban artists embraced European modernism, and the early part of the 20th century saw a growth in Cuban avant-garde movements, which were characterized by the mixing of modern artistic genres. Some of the more celebrated 20th-century Cuban artists include Amelia Peláez, best known for a series of mural projects, and painter Wifredo Lam, who created a highly personal version of modern primitivism. The Cuban-born painter Federico Beltran Masses, was renowned as a colorist whose seductive portrayals of women sometimes made overt references to the tropical settings of his childhood. In Centro Habana, a small neighborhood of artists have transformed the walls around them. October 2002 Better known internationally is the work of photographer Alberto Korda, whose photographs following the early days of the Cuban Revolution included a picture of Che Guevara which was to become one of the most recognizable images of the 20th century. There is a flourishing street art movement influenced by Latin American artists José Guadalupe Posada and the muralist Diego Rivera. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, some artists felt it was in their best interests to leave Cuba and produce their art, while others stayed behind, either happy or merely content to be creating art in Cuba, which was sponsored by the government. Because it was state-sponsored, implied censorship occurred, since artists wouldn't want to make art that was against the revolutionary movement as that was the source of their funding. It was during the 1980s in which art began to reflect true uninfluenced expression. The rebirth of expression in Cuban art was greatly affected by the emergence of a new generation of Cuban, which did not remember the revolution directly. In 1981 Cubans saw the introduction of Volumen Uno, a series of one-man exhibitions featuring contemporary Cuban artists. Three years later, the introduction of the Havana Bienal assisted in the further progression of the liberation of art and free speech therein. Throughout most of its 400 years under Spanish rule, Cuba and specifically Havana functioned as the primary entrepôt of Spain's empire in the Americas, with a population of merchants, administrators, and professionals who were interested in supporting the arts. In the 16th century, painters and sculptors began arriving from Europe to decorate Cuban churches and public buildings. By the mid-1700s, native-born artists working in the European tradition were active in Cuba. Yeyo Yeyo, José Nicolás de Escalera, ca. 1770. Collection of the National Museum of Fine Art, Havana. The first of these to leave a substantial, identifiable body of work was José Nicolás de la Escalera. Though mostly absent of originality, his religious scenes-particularly those decorating the cupola and altar of the Church of Santa María del Rosario near Havana-are spectacular, and include the first fine art depictions of Black Cuban slaves. Vicente Escobar was a mestizo whose skill as a portraitist made him popular among Cuba's elite. Though having no formal art education himself, he opened what was possibly Cuba's first painting workshop/studio, and later graduated with honors from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. His portraiture was firmly in the European Classical style but had a distinctive freshness and energy. A slave revolt culminating in neighboring Haiti's declaration of independence in 1804 proved something of a windfall for Cuba, as refugee plantation owners and their slaves relocated to the underdeveloped, underpopulated eastern portion of the island. However, the success of Toussaint and Dessalines' slave uprising spread intense anxiety throughout the Caribbean, and one response to it was the growth of costumbrismo-realist yet romanticized views of day-to-day life-in Cuban art. Tipos y Costumbres de la Isla de Cuba, Victor Patricio Landaluze, 1881. A leading early artist in this genre was Spanish-born Víctor Patricio de Landaluze, whose paintings depicted plantation life as rough but essentially natural and harmonious. His political cartoons for the magazine El Almendares took a more satirical view of the urbanized Creole aristocracy. Opposed to Cuban independence, Landaluze eventually fell out of favor with the public, but his work remains valued for capturing the atmosphere and attitudes of his time. On January 11, 1818, the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro was established in Havana, under the direction of Frenchman Jean Baptiste Vermay. The oldest art academy in Latin America, it is the second-oldest institution of higher education in Cuba, after the University of Havana.