During the early years of the twentieth century, Cuban art was widely recognized as one of the first modernist movements in Latin America. However, after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, many artists left to live in exile in Paris (Agustín Cárdenas, Jorge Camacho); New York (Agustín Fernández, Emilio Sánchez, Luis Cruz-Azaceta); Miami (José Mijares, Baruj Salinas); and San Juan, Puerto Rico (Zilia Sánchez). The exhibition, Obra puertorriqueña de artistas cubanos [Puerto Rican Works by Cuban Artists], presented in Old San Juan, featured production by Rolando López Dirube, Cundo Bermúdez, Alfredo Lozano, Elvira Coya, Rolando Gutiérrez, José Luis Díaz de Villegas, Hernán García, and Germán Hevis. Plástica magazine, where this review was published, was an art publication that appeared fairly regularly in Puerto Rico. It began modestly enough in 1968, as the newsletter of the Liga de arte de San Juan [San Juan Art League], but changed its name in 1978 to Plástica revista de la Liga de estudiantes de San Juan [San Juan Student League Visual Arts Magazine]. Its very specific title notwithstanding, the twenty-one issues of the magazine explored a wide range of subjects within the broad parameters of Puerto Rican and Latin American art, filling its pages with retrospective coverage of subjects, such as the V Bienal de San Juan del grabado latinoamericano y del Caribe [5th San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Prints] (1981), Puerto Rican architecture, and Latin American visual arts. The first editorial board of the magazine included Hélène Saldaña, Delta Picó, Cordelia Buitrago, and J.M. García Segovia. In addition to the many essays written by top Puerto Rican thinkers, the magazine published contributions from some of the leading Latin American artists and critics, such as Luis Camnitzer, Damián Bayón, Jacqueline Barnitz, Samuel Cherson, Joseph Alsop, Omar Rayo, and Ricardo Pau Llosa, among many others.
