#  Drapetomania 

 



## **Drapetomania: Grupo Antillano and the Art of Afro-Cuba**

 ![Drapetomania](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/coopergallery/files/drape.jpg)

 

## **Spring 2015**

   ![Drapetomania image](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/coopergallery/files/drc.013_previewcopy.jpg?itok=leO4Kgp7) 

 

Curated by Alejandro de la Fuente, Director of the [Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center](https://alari.fas.harvard.edu/), this provocative installation featured distinctive Afro-Cuban art from the original Grupo Antillano alongside that of intriguing younger artists; their work engaged with centrality of African practices in Cuban national culture.

Grupo Antillano was an Afro-Cuban visual arts and cultural movement that thrived between 1978 and 1983 and has been virtually erased from Cuban cultural and artistic history. Grupo Antillano articulated a vision of Cuban culture that underscored the importance of Africa and of Afro-Caribbean influences in the formation of the Cuban nation.

In contrast to the official characterization of Santeria and other African religious and cultural practices as primitive and outdated during the 1970s, Grupo Antillano valiantly proclaimed the centrality of African practices in national culture.

They viewed Africa and the surrounding Caribbean as a vibrant, ongoing, and vital influence that continued to define what it meant to be Cuban. Some Afro-Cuban intellectuals proclaimed that a “new,” authentic Cuban art (radical, popular, black) had been born.

## **Installation Views:**



 

       ![drape1.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/coopergallery/files/drape1.jpg?itok=UCw3VS8S) 

 

 



 

 



 “They viewed Africa and the surrounding Caribbean as a vibrant, ongoing, and vital influence that continued to define what it meant to be Cuban. ”



 



###    Press  expand\_more  

 

  [### Art on Cuba: 'Grupo Antillano y el Arte de Afro-Cuba llega a Harvard'

 ](https://artoncuba.com/blog-es/grupo-antillano-y-el-arte-de-afro-cuba-llega-a-harvard/) January 27, 2015 

 

   ![Drapetomania](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/mendivel2014_013-755x450.jpg?itok=WIRLgwrU) 

 



 

 

   [### Arts Fuse: 'Visual Arts Review: Asserting Cuban Identity — Through Art'

 ](http://artsfuse.org/126476/fuse-visual-arts-review-asserting-cuban-identity-through-art/) April 22, 2015 

 

   ![Drapetomania](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/image0021.png?itok=i_H8b-HE) 

 



 

 

   [### Artslant: 'LIKE IN REVELATIONS... and other such things'

 ](https://www.artslant.com/ew/articles/show/41909) January 30, 2015 

 

   ![Drapetomania](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/drape.png?itok=XZbg7elP) 

 



 

 

   [### Boston Globe: 'Cuban resilience shines at Harvard, heroes take flight at BU'

 ](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2015/05/05/cuban-resilience-shines-harvard-heroes-take-flight/o80MTRU3gUkw4VkdoX8K2O/story.html) May 06, 2015 

 

   ![Drapetomania](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/ga.jpg?itok=9eVFj7Jk) 

 



 

 

   [### Cubaencuentro: 'Arte Afrocubano en la Universidad de Harvard'

 ](https://www.cubaencuentro.com/cartelera/agenda/arte-afrocubano-en-la-universidad-de-harvard-321615) January 30, 2015 

 

   ![drape1_0.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/drape1_0.jpg?itok=IrLLwut5) 

 



 

 

   [### Cuban Art News: 'In Conversation: Alejandro de la Fuente on Drapetomanía and Grupo Antillano'

 ](https://cubanartnews.org/2013/04/02/in-conversation-alejandro-de-la-fuente-on-drapetomania-and-grupo-antillano/) April 02, 2013 

 

   ![De la Fuente Interview](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/visual_arts_040213a.jpg?itok=rK8Ay0-W) 

 



 

 

   [### Diario de Cuba: ''Drapetomanía: Grupo Antillano y el Arte de Afro-Cuba' llega a Harvard'

 ](http://www.diariodecuba.com/cultura/1422282823_12528.html) January 26, 2015 

 

   ![Drapetomania](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/queneditt008.jpg?itok=CT1l1rDy) 

 



 

 

   [### Harvard Crimson: 'At Crossroads: The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery'

 ](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/4/21/arts-cover-cooper-gallery/) April 21, 2015 

 

   ![Cooper Gallery](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/facade-official-low-res_2_2.jpg?itok=7KKppXJf) 

 



 

 

   [### Harvard Gazette: 'Tangled roots'

 ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/04/tangled-roots/) April 10, 2015 

 

   ![Drapetomania](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/040215_cuba_129_605_1.jpg?itok=YBcIoooN)