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Art on the Left in the 1930s / 47Clay and Voices, Marcelo Pogolotti described the work of the exhibitors asfollows:Gattorno presented . . . typical cubist objects . . . and Victor Manuel a portrait and arainy cityscape of Paris, more or less postimpressionist. Carlos Enriquez exhibited ayoung blonde en plein air, seated on some grass, who would later be his wife, AliceNeel, a painter of talent, whose stay in Havana, although brief, left good and lastingmemories . . . This exhibition of art was endowed with a certain importance becauseit brought out the ƒrst signs of disquiet and longing for renewal. 6This milestone in the history of Cuban art was also Neel’s ƒrst group exhibition,and it is signiƒcant that, as the only North American in the exhibit, shewas singled out by the journal to exemplify the new avant-garde. Both the April15 and the April 30 issues contained photographic insets that juxtaposed theworks of Neel and her husband, Enríquez. Whereas the ƒrst inset also includeda landscape by Ramon Loy, the second contained only the works ofNeel and her husband, labeled “Neel-Enríquez.” Clearly, they were consideredthe cutting edge of the avant-garde, as the text suggests. The May 15 issue,published after the opening, contained other examples of Arte Nuevo: AntonioGattorno, Luis Lopez Mendez, Marcelo Pogolotti, L. Romero Arciaga,and two nudes “De un Realismo Exagerado” by Carlos Enríquez. There wereno examples of Neel’s work, perhaps because the editors wanted to emphasizethe Cuban character of the exhibition, or perhaps because Neel was no longerin Havana. The very month that the Cuban artistic vanguard came into itsown, Neel left the country, „eeing a strained relationship with Enríquez’s conservative,upper-class family. Hers was only the ƒrst of many subsequent departures,however. The writer Carpentier, whose depictions of Spanish imperialismin books such as The Harp and the Shadow so closely paralleled Neel’sown attitudes about American imperialism, left for Paris that same year. Enríquezfollowed his friend there in 1930, and Gattorno, Guillen, and Pogolottiwould all move to New York after 1935. Like Neel, the Cuban expatriotsaligned themselves with left-wing causes after their arrival. Guillen, for instance,would write for Masses & Mainstream during the years Neel was publishingher illustrations in the magazine. In 1969, after Pogolotti had moved toMexico, Neel made a point of seeing him when she traveled there withRichard. On that same visit, she also met David Alfaro Siquieros for the ƒrsttime, who showed her the murals he was then painting. 7The pairing of Neel and Enríquez in Revista de Avance is indicative of theirshared social and artistic concerns. Their studies of Afro-Cubans was a subjectfound in the art of Aristides Fernandez, Antonio Gattorno, and Eduardo Abela,