Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Cuba
Cuba's national art museum, split between a Cuban art palace and a universal art building.
Cuba's national art museum was founded in February 1913 on the initiative of its first director, Emilio Heredia, and today occupies two separate buildings a short walk apart in Old Havana. The Palacio de Bellas Artes on Trocadero, a modernist block completed in 1954 to designs by Rodriguez Pichardo, houses the Cuban collection. The nearby Palacio del Centro Asturiano, a richly detailed 1927 building by Manuel del Busto, holds the international holdings and is known simply as Arte Universal.
The Cuban galleries are arranged chronologically, moving from colonial portraiture and nineteenth-century landscape painting to the vanguardia generation and contemporary practice, with work by Wifredo Lam, Amelia Pelaez, Rene Portocarrero and Victor Manuel. The Arte Universal building presents Spanish, Italian, Flemish, French and British painting alongside Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities assembled by Cuban collectors. Both sites run temporary exhibitions and offer guided tours, which can be arranged in advance by telephone.
Highlights
- Cuban art from colonial portraiture to contemporary work in the Palacio de Bellas Artes
- Paintings by Wifredo Lam, Amelia Pelaez and Rene Portocarrero
- European old masters and antiquities in the 1927 Palacio del Centro Asturiano
- Two buildings a few minutes apart beside the Parque Central
