Presencia joven (Youthful Presence, details), 1973 Mural designed for the Vladimir I. Lenin Vocational School
In perfect harmony, faces of placid “Habaneras” and young men, machetes in hand, calmly dance in the mural canvas Presencia joven (Youthful Presence – 1973), developed within an art project95 designed for the Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational School. In a large, 24 sq. m. mural painting Así amanece Cuba (Cuba Awakens – 1976),96 for the Cuban embassy in Ottawa, larger than life “Habaneras” and “Guajiros”, initially in small format, now flood gigantic works. La cordillera (The Mountain Range – 1972) and El Moncada (Moncada – 1974), his best murals, conceived for ICAIC library and today housed in the office of Criterios magazine, are Servando’s Guernica. Unlike the Spanish painter, who made countless studies and sketches for the 1937 monochromatic masterpiece, no sketches were made for Servando’s colossal canvases. In one of his letters, Servando wrote: “La Cordillera… is a scandal,” more than a scandal, it was an encounter, a confrontation. Once again, it did not give a realistic image of the 174
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Details of the mural Así amanece Cuba (Cuba Awakens), 1976 Oil on canvas, 260 x 900 cm Cuban embassy in Canada
extensive mountain range which, according to Fidel Castro, begins in the Sierra Maestra and ends in the Andes.97 A tangle of “bodies” and tendons tightly stretch across the canvas, border-like: strong, nude fragments in effective blue tones. The symbols of this piece “…had already appeared many times in the same manner. Consequently, these were images latent in his subconscious,, together with the various meanings associated with them.”98
95 Besides Servando Cabrera’s pieces, those by Mariano Rodríguez, Luis Martínez Pedro and Carlos Boix were included. The mural René Portocarrero had suggested was never made. 96 In 1976 he was so much devoted to art, that besides this painting, he made other 299. 97 Servando wrote Fidel’s words in brackets on the reverse of the piece. 98 Herschel B. Chipp: “El significado de Guernica” (The Meaning of
Guernica), p. 146.