The art nouveau that inhabits Havana

Colorful mosaics, railings rid of all rigidity to become leaves and flowers that speak of the beauty of turn-of-the-century architecture and Cuban life in general mark Nestor Marti Delgado’s latest photographic exhibition Huellas del Art Nouveau (Traces of Art Nouveau) at Vitrina de Valonia in Havana's Old Section.

The images take us on a journey through the city's art nouveau world and outside, where this typical style of the Republican period gave fresh impetus to the structures that were shaping the colorful city we have today, noticeable in Havana’s inverted lintels, Solomonic columns, highly decorated capitals with floral elements and female figures and many other features equally highlighted by architect Orlando Inclán during the opening of the exhibition, when he also explained that the origins of that style have to do with happiness in the new century, the reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and the return to nature, life and the human essence.

The work of the Catalonian masters who arrived in Cuba to change the landscape, inspired by the creations of their fellow countrymen and by the French-Belgian heritage to make structures that are still standing across the Island, was also praised.

According to Inclán, the Havana portrayed by Martí Delgado is privileged because it is the only non-European city in the Art Nouveau Network where Catalonian modernism and the art of the Brussels and Paris academies magically coexist in works hitherto impervious to time, social use and natural disasters.

Marti Delgado celebrates in images that Cuban art nouveau still lives and is everywhere, mixed with either eclecticism or the most modern buildings, but Huellas… is also a reflection of the trades of the time, produced by the School of Arts and Crafts founded by Aguado y Rico in 1891 and reflective of the meticulous work of blacksmiths, stained glass makers and sculptors, among others, who gave each place the necessary finishing touch.

“Like art nouveau itself, this exhibition hails beauty and optimism, lightness and youth, and the columns, windows and balconies of a city that can still boast an enviable architectural variety to show to the world, made available to all Cubans through the author’s camera as pride-deserving evidence that this Caribbean land is also about Catalonia, modernism and art nouveau.