Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, is the oldest and most prestigious fine arts school in Cuba. It is also known as Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", Academia San Alejandro, or San Alejandro Academy. The school is located in Marianao, a suburb of Havana, and was founded in 1818 at the ''Convent of San Alejandro''. It is located today in a monumental building built in the early 1940s.

Beginning

The school was founded with the support of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country and the General Intendant of the Treasury and was founded under the direction of the French artist Jean Baptiste Vermay (1784–1833). The school was named after Don Alejandro Ramírez, general superintendent and director of the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country. It is the educational center with the largest number of years building the teaching on the lands of Latin America, preceded only by the University of Havana. It turned-from a number of changes that occurred in Spain in the 19th century and not surprisingly was felt in the colonies, in the climate of the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812 and

enlightened absolutism Enlightened absolutism (also called enlightened despotism) refers to the conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, espousing them to enhance ...

. It was established by the Royal Patriotic Society and the Royal Consulate of Havana, as the Free School of Drawing and Painting. Its first director, Juan Bautista Vermay, who arrived in Cuba when the Bonaparte empire collapsed, when he was 31 years old.

Administration

The internal life at ''San Alejandro'' is governed by the Board of Directors who in turn appoints the Technical Council, who in turn run the different departments that make up the teaching faculty. The Board of Directors consists of the Director and Deputy Director and the Secretaries Speciality Teaching, Education, Health Care-Economic, Business and Education. The Technical Board, in turn, is the body responsible for representing the teaching faculty to the Board of Directors. It consists of all deans of each departments. These are the Deans of

Drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

, Painting, Engraving, Sculpture, Ceramics, Jewelry,

Graphic Arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

and Theoretical-Cultural Teachings. San Alejandro has exchanges with many schools abroad, including in the UK The Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School. Over the past three years, three exchanges have taken place. The exchanges consisted of the students from Wiseman travelling to Cuba in February, and the Cuban students coming to London in June.

Directors

Notable alumni

Antonia Eiriz Antonia Eiriz Vázquez (1929–1995) was an influential Cuban painter whose work was known for its Expressionist qualities and was exhibited throughout Latin America during her life. Life and career She was born in Havana, Cuba in the neighb ...

Nela Arias-Misson Nela Arias-Misson (September 8, 1915 – July 17, 2015) was a Cuban-born abstract expressionist painter and sculptor. Nela Arias-Misson was a contemporary and friend of the 20th-century painters Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert ...

Manuel Carbonell Manuel Carbonell (October 25, 1918 – November 10, 2011) was a Cuban Contemporary and Modern artist, regarded as among the greatest Cuban sculptors of his generation. He was part of the generation of Cuban artists that includes Wifredo Lam and ...

Pablo Borges Delgado Pablo Amancio Borges Delgado (born February 10, 1955) is a Cuban artist. Borges, from 1968 to 1970, studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" and studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana. In 1980 he becam ...

* Agustín Fernández *

Antonio Gattorno Antonio Gattorno (born Havana, March 15, 1904 - died Acushnet, Massachusetts, 1980) was a Cuban painter. He was a distinguished member of the first generation of modern Cuban painters.Alonso ''et al'', p162. Early life He studied at the Academy ...

Juan Esnard Heydrich Juan Esnard Heydrich (Matanzas 1917 – 1998) was a Cuban sculptor. His career took off in the 1970s with the new regime of Fidel Castro, who commissioned several monuments on the revolution and personalities of Cuban history. He studied at the ...

Alicia Leal Alicia Leal Veloz (born 15 November 1957) is a Cuban painter. She was born in Sancti Spíritus. Art Leal's work focuses on women and the relationship between women and men, and they are known for their flat perspective with intricate and narr ...

Víctor Manuel Víctor Manuel San José Sánchez (born July 7, 1947) is a Spanish singer-songwriter. He has been married to the Spanish singer and actress Ana Belén since 1972. He and his wife are considered symbols of the Spanish Transition, and his songs ...

Amelia Peláez Amelia Peláez del Casal (5 January 1896 – 8 April 1968) was an important Cuban painter of the Avant-garde generation. Biography Amelia Peláez was born in 1896 in Yaguajay, in the former Cuban province of Las Villas (now Sancti Spíritus Pro ...

Roberto Juan Diago Querol Roberto Juan Diago y Querol (1920 in Havana, Cuba – February 20, 1955 in Madrid, Spain) was a Cuban artist specializing in photography, engraving, painting and drawing. He studied in the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", Havana, ...

Manuel Rodulfo Tardo Manuel Rodulfo Tardo (February 18, 1913 in Pueblo Nuevo, Mantanzas Province, Cuba – December 22, 1998 in New York City) was a Cuban artist. Biography He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", Havana, Cuba, toge ...

* Fernando Velázquez Vigil *

Manuel Mendive Manuel Mendive Hoyos (born 1944) is one of the leading Afro-Cuban artists to emerge from the revolutionary period, and is considered by many to be the most important Cuban artist living today. Biography Mendive was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1944 ...

* Belkis Ayón *

Sandra Ramos Sandra Ramos (born Oct, 1969) is a Cuban contemporary painter, printmaker, collagist, video and installation artist who explores nationality, gender, and identity in her work. She is known for works featuring her character of the Cuban Pioneer gir ...

Tania Bruguera Tania Bruguera (born 1968 in Havana, Cuba) is an artist and activist who focuses on installation and performance art. She lives and works between New York City and Havana, and has participated in numerous international exhibitions. Her work is in ...

José Toirac José Toirac (born José Angel Toirac y Batista on April 7, 1966, in Guantanamo, Cuba) is a Cuban artist specializing in painting, drawing, and installation. Toirac from 1979 to 1981 he studied in the Escuela Elemental de Artes Plásticas 23 y C, ...

Jose Bedia Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. *Jose ben Abin *Jose ben Akabya * Jose the Galil ...

Fayad Jamís Fayad Jamís (1930–1988) was a Cuban poet, painter, designer, journalist and translator. He was born in Zacatecas, Mexico to a Lebanese-Cuban father and a Mexican mother. Moving to Cuba at the age of six, Jamis trained at the San Alexandro Acade ...

Osvaldo Salas Osvaldo Eustasio Salas Freire (March 29, 1914 – May 5, 1992), was a Cuban-American photographer, remembered for his famous image of Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro in Cuba, circa 1960, and for his prolific documentation of American Major Le ...

"Osvaldo Salas Biography"
''The Annex Gallery''. Retrieved February 25, 2022. *

Eberto Escobedo Lazo Eberto Escobedo Lazo (29 November 1919 – 1995) was a Cuban artist known for painting and his drawings. He was born in Camagüey, Cuba. He studied at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “San Alejandro”, Havana, Cuba. Individual exhibitions I ...

Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy Juan Roberto Diago Durruthy "Diago" (born 1971 in Havana) is a Cuban contemporary artist who graduated at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro," Havana. Grandson of artist Roberto Juan Diago Querol, his grandmother was a First Violi ...

* José Martí * Wifredo Lam *

Flora Fong Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Sometimes ba ...

Rita Longa Rita Longa Aróstegui (June 14, 1912, Havana, Cuba — May 29, 2000, Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban sculptor. She first studied commercial art and later briefly attended the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts but considered herself largely self-taug ...

References

External links

Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “San Alejandro” website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro Buildings and structures in Havana Education in Havana Culture in Havana Educational institutions established in 1818 Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro