The Purple Caddy

30" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
SOLD
Owned by Mr. and Mrs. David Moser
Prints are available.

Though dining is not a spectacular experience in Havana, there are many surprising restaurants and cafés, many of which are geared to tourists. While in Havana, we had good meals at a couple of private restaurants, or “paladars”, including La Fontana in the Miramar section of the city.

We also spent a pleasant evening at El Templete, an upscale recommendation of the Hotel Nacional, where we enjoyed a view of the harbor and cool breezes as we dined on seafood with Spanish overtones under an awning out of doors.

Many of the restaurants downtown, like the one in the painting, are located next to rubble, and in some cases like the famous Paladar La Guarida, survive as lonely occupants of tenements.

Cuban Cubism

16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
SOLD
Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Burke
Prints are available.

Havana exhibits much of what the “cubist movement” was trying to achieve between 1907 and 1921.

To create the effect evident in the streets of the Cuban capital today,
European artists broke up, analyzed and reassembled objects, and then instead of depicting them from one viewpoint, they presented the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.

“Cuban Cubism” is a representative painting that depicts a small section of Havana that has been broken up by time and is yet to be reassembled. It’s multitude of viewpoints present a subject that the artist as no need to embellish.

Celebrating Street Art in Havana

24" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
Price: $3400 (plus shipping and handling)
Prints are also available.

Havana street art is a mix of fun and funky unsanctioned art, and official government propaganda that touts the success and ‘heroes’ of the Revolution. The government sanctioned art takes the form not only of murals and symbolism on the side of buildings but also billboards.

Because of the construction, and lack of construction in many area, many facades and work sites are faced with plywood boards that contain such art. The street paintings reflect the style of much of the fine art in the galleries and the passion and troubles of the people. The artwork in the mural shown in this painting down the main drag of Old Havana is the work of three individual artist working together. I included their signatures in the painting, as well as my own. 

Hemingway On Patrol

Click on painting for larger view

Click here to view video on Hemingway and his famous boat, Pilar
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Click here for tickets and/or sponsorship for the Havana '59 event

22" x 28" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
Price: $2200 (plus shipping and handling)
Prints are also available.

Please contact george@rothackeradv.com

Hemingway, who was wounded as an ambulance driver during World War I, greatly embellished his service and injuries in the Great War, and throughout his life created a macho image of him self, augmented by tales of carousing, drink and brawling. To add to this, in 1942 the author armed Pilar with automatic weapons and electronic detection equipment, so that he and his buddies could hunt German submarines in the Caribbean. Fortunately for the author, the crew never encountered a U-boat. And, it is unlikely they would have survived any firefight, since Pilar was made of wood, not steel like the German vessels, and not nearly so well armed as were its adversaries.

Not everything works out the first time when you create a painting. I used my own photos to paint Pilar which was in dry dock in the tennis court of Hemingway's Cuban home. I wanted the paining to have a "stormy" feel, but after painting the water twice, I had not yet brought the clouds together with the Cuban sea.

After a few opinions, I tried once again, and was finally pleased with the results (see details at bottom of original sea and final sea). Also note that Hemingway may be a little large in the painting. I opted for large so that he could be somewhat recognized as the author.

(left) second version of water in Cuban sea (right) final version

 

Havana Miniatures

 6" x 6" paintings of details of Havana
6" x 6" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
"Yellow Truck" SOLD - Owned by Don Demey
"Red Olds" SOLD - Owned by Margo Eremus 
"Grey Cadillac" SOLD - Owned by Ruby Moser
Price: $250 ea. (plus shipping and handling)

Parade Down the Malecón

(Click photo for larger view)

18" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
SOLD
Owned by Mr. and Mrs. Elliott Walker
Prints are  available.

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The Malecón is a broad esplanade, roadway and seawall which stretches for 8 km along the coast in Havana, Cuba, from the mouth of Havana Harbor in Old Havana to Vedado. Under overcast skies, we viewed a steady stream of taxis and other colorful cars from the 1950s "parade" down the avenue. Not all were viewed at one time, as shown in the painting, but classic Chevy's, Fords and Oldsmobiles were often connected, matching their colors to the bright, if not weathered, facades of the buildings along the promenade.

Though I didn't originally intend to paint this view, I was prompted by my sister-in-law, Sandy, who loved the streetlamps and the colorful cars, of which I added some to make the parade.

The Balcony

36" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
SOLD
Collection of Richardson T. Merriman
Prints are also available.

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The peak of Neoclassicism in Havana with the construction of the Vedado district (begun in 1859). The whole neighborhood is littered with a set of well proportioned buildings. Many wealthy Habaneros took their inspiration from the French as can seen in the floret, doors and detailing in this painting.

"The Balcony" is a painting about color and texture. After creating many paintings with strong subject matter, I wanted to concentrate on the beauty behind the ruin... the rubble on the balcony, the rust, and the deteriorating facade. I also wanted to create an Havana painting, that although in keeping with others in the series, had a more modern and abstract feeling to it.....where the subject matter is subordinate to the graphics and the use of paint. I also wanted it to be fairly large.

Painting prior to the addition of the woman

 framed by the doorway.

After completing the painting, my wife Barbara, and friend Leslie both thought the painting needed some additional subject matter to provide a focus. I added the woman which, I have to agree, augments the painting while emphasizing the scale of the building.

Caught Dancing

18" x 24" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
SOLD
Owned by Mr. and Mrs. William Martindale
Prints are available.

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Cuba developed a wide range of creolized musical styles, based on its cultural origins in Europe and Africa. Since the 19th century its music has been influential throughout the world. It has been perhaps the most popular form of world music since the introduction of recording technology.

Much of the music associated with Cuba today originated in, or was influenced by, other Latin America countries, and was performed in the nightclubs and social clubs of Havana between the 1930s and the 1950s.

Shortly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuban President Manuel Urrutia Lleó began closing gambling outlets, nightclubs and other establishment associated with Havana’s hedonistic lifestyle. This shift towards the left and an effort to build a “classless and colorblind” society had an immediate impact on the livelihood of entertainers and created a huge change in the musical environment. Although the Cuban government continued to support traditional music after the revolution, certain favor was given to the politically charged nueva trova, and poetic singer-songwriters of the time.

In the 1990s, an American guitarist Ry Cooder and Cuban musician Juan de Marcos Gonzalez teamed up with traditional Cuban musicians on a recording, “The Bueno Vista Social Club” to reawaken the music of the heyday of Cuba’s past and introduce the world to some of the music written by the local composers of the past. The album became a “word of mouth” success, sold five million copies and won a Grammy in 1998.

Horsepower

16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $1600 (plus shipping and handling)
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Though a panoply of vintage American cars creates a picturesque landscape in Havana, outside the city the scarcity of cars make horses and horse-drawn buggies the way to go.

The roads even inside the city are unlighted, and on many outlying roads uninitiated travelers may pull up behind a wagon with flames leaping from small buckets dangling from wires and functioning as taillights.

Buggies serve as taxis and buses in rural Cuba, The roads are there. It's just cars that aren't.

Cruisin’

16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Owned by Mr. William Haines
Prints are  available.

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 The old American cars of Cuba, known as "cacharros," are not genuine classics but cobbled-together mongrels of different engines, gear boxes, body parts, seats, and windows, held together by frayed rubber bands, old rags, shoelaces and rusty plumbing tubes.

The Cuban government enforces a ban on buying and selling private cars produced after the 1959 Communist revolution. If you’re rich the ban doesn’t apply. Or at least it didn’t until March 2010, when a program allowing wealthier Cubans to import BMWs and Mercedes was abruptly stopped.

No-one knows why. If you’re a tourist it doesn’t apply either. You can hire a an Audi A4 from one of the state-owned rental agencies if you’re brave enough to navigate the unlit, unsigned streets and wobbling bicycle taxis. Or you can even rent a shiny full-working classic American convertible and rev it up on Havana’s coastal avenue, the Malecón.

Inevitably, this Cuban cliché will die with the Castros and the restrictions on buying and selling cars are loosened. But for now, the landscape remains rich with the rolling nostalgia of American past.

By the way, in the painting above, the '57 Ford and the '55 Pontiac existed in the same scene, whereas I replaced a more modern car with the '48 Chevy(?) in the rear and added the '49 Ford. Artistic license!

Eve of Construction

16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $1600 (plus shipping and handling)
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Cuba has slowly but steadily restored some of the oldest – and most gorgeous  buildings in the Americas. The innovative plan has also funded social programs and housing reconstruction, making it a model for historic districts around the world, experts say.

''It's a self-financing, self-sustaining model,'' said Herman Van Hooff, a United Nations cultural official based in Havana. "It's an integrated vision of restoration and providing services to the population. It has matured into a model with valuable concepts for other places.''

The unique part of Cuba's plan has been its strategy of restoring old hotels, restaurants and buildings to attract tourists and then using tourism revenue to fund more restoration, along with social programs and housing renovation, one of Cuba's most pressing issues.

One of the biggest problems facing planners is also a main source of Old Havana's charm: The district's narrow streets are packed with people, with some 66,000 residents crammed into an area of less than 1.5 square miles.

Water and sewer lines are in poor condition, and some buildings have already collapsed. On many streets, visitors see crumbling facades, leaning walls and teetering roofs propped up with wooden scaffolding.

But families continue living in even the most dilapidated buildings. Old men play dominoes on street corners, younger men tinker under the hoods of ancient cars and housewives hang wash from wrought-iron balconies, pausing to peer at the busy street life below.

Passing through Old Havana

24" x 18" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2011©
Price: $1900 (plus shipping and handling)
Prints are also available.











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There is no sight more Havana than the rolling stock of 1950s cars that cruise the city. Cars from the 1950s and earlier are part of Cuban life, though few are in good condition.


"We make an invention," a Cuban will tell you as he cobbles together a carburetor from East European parts. Decades after America stopped shipping parts, the cars keep running because during the 1970s and '80s, entire American cars were shipped to Moscow where the parts were copied an reproduced and shipped back to Cuba. Also, as we were told by one of our guides, "We Cubans are very good mechanics."


The export of Cuban cars is no longer permitted, so these cars of America's past are fated to cruise the streets of Havana forever.

Moko Jumbie

20" x 16" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $1600 (plus shipping and handling)
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The stilt dancer, or moko jumbie, is found throughout the Caribbean, and is part of the African tradition. The dancers, in earlier times, were men on stilts as high as 10 to 15 feet high. They were usually accompanied by dwarfs in similar bright costumes.

We viewed these dancers on O'Reilly Street in Old Havana, near a small park where vendors were selling books, magazines and old LPs. They danced to recorded music and exhibited an open box for collections from tourists.

The Castle

24" x 18" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Owned by Pennsylvania Trust
Prints are available.

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While in Havana, it seemed to us that a police presence was on every corner. In fact, along the the Miramar, one man was accosted by a policeman simply because he wasn't wearing a shirt within the city boundaries.

Crime rates in Cuba seems to remain significantly lower than many other major cities worldwide, with Cuban police acting strongly against any crime, particularly in Havana.

Petty theft, however, is a problem. According to our guide, Ibrahim, many people steal for petty cash. Most needs are taken care of by the government, but people will steal to purchase alcohol or small luxuries they can't afford.

As shown in the painting, "The Castle," stray dogs are abundant in Havana. In fact, more than 20,000 strays can be found on the streets of Cuban cities. In Cuba most canines have a stable home, but "because of their owners' lack of responsibility they spend most of the day out on the streets," says Nora García, president of the non-governmental Cuban Association for the Protection of Animals and Plants (Aniplant).

The dogs do have street smarts. While passing the cigar factory in Havana, we noticed a dog walking by us on three legs, the other tucked up as if injured. As he moved past us, he dropped his paw and resumed his walk on four legs without as much as a limp.

Distant Beaches

20" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $1900 (plus shipping and handling)
Prints are also available.

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Closeup of Havana from Tower

Adjoining Hemingway's house  is a tower that looks out over the suburban landscape to the skyline and shoreline of Havana. Inside the tower stands a telescope, through which, it is told that, Hemingway gazed at the bronzing beauties on the beaches.

Hemingway Slept Here

22" x 28" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Owned by Eastern University
Prints are also available.

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Ernest Hemingway, circa 1953

The Old Man and the Sea is a story by Ernest Hemingway, written in Cuba in 1951 and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.

This novella received the Pulitzer Prize in May of 1952 and was specifically sited when Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

When asked about the symbolism and interpretations of the work, Hemingway emphasized that, "No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in. ... I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things.

While visiting Cuba, my wife, our friends and I visited Hemingway's home. It had recently been restored with the assistance of the Hemingway Preservation Foundation. Since Hemingway was forced to leave the home in 1960, it had been looked after by the Cubans, but was decaying. His boat, the Pilar, which is also at the site, was used between 1944 and 1944, and had been armed by Hemingway with machine guns, automatic rifles and grenades for the mission of chasing German U-boats.

The painting, "Hemingway Slept Here" is of his living room as it is today, with him surrounded by his trophies, paintings and prints, books and his table of libations.

Shoring it Up

24" x 34" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $3400 (plus shipping and handling)
Prints are also available.

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Havana was founded in 1519 by the Spanish and by the 17th century, it had become one of the Caribbean's main centers for ship-building. 

Although it is today a sprawling metropolis of 2 million inhabitants, its old center retains an interesting mix of Baroque and neoclassical monuments, and a homogeneous ensemble of private houses with arcades, balconies, wrought-iron gates and internal courtyards.

Cuba, today, has virtually no free enterprise other than foreign investments in tourism and limited elements of a population that lives in abject poverty. This economic chasm in the development of Cuba actually spared the old historic buildings from the redevelopment wrecking ball. 

The use and reuse of grand private residences, with interior court yards, fountains, stained glass windows, marble floors and staircases fell to the occupation of multi-family tenements. The once grand open court yards are now strung with clothes lines and have a dozen electric meters distributing power to each resident family. Some of the most outstanding examples of early Spanish colonial architecture, and the vernacular elements particular to Cuba are still in daily use after 300 years.

As demonstrated in the painting, "Shoring it Up," temporary solutions patch together the buildings and keep some standing while many collapse at an alarming rate. In 1962 UNESCO designated 444 buildings in Havana as World Heritage sites.

Downtown Old Havana

Click on Image for Larger View

40" x 60" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Owned by Pennsylvania Trust
Prints are available
Please contact george@rothackeradv.com

The Paseo de Marti is the main boulevard of Old Havana, and the most beautiful. It reaches  from the seafront, or the Malecon, to just past the capital building of Havana, and is lined by many  baroque and neoclassic buildings from the mid to late 18^th  and 19^th centuries.

Today, the streets are still bustling with tourists, townspeople and cars and cabs of the 1940s and ‘50s. Despite the collapse of many buildings and disintegration of others, life continues as in a war torn country. In some buildings, stairs lead from an abandoned and crumbling ground floor to a bustling restaurant three stories up. The rhythms of wrought iron railings are broken by plastic patchings, and stained glass is replaced by plywood. Lines of wash and TV antennas alert of life behind the shuddered doors.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike destroyed many structures in Old Havana, overturning years of conservation work directed at the iconic antiquated buildings of the area. Not only did it damage historic buildings, but it forced many of Old Havana's residents to flee for safety. The threats that hurricanes pose adds to an already tenuous state for Old Havanas many historic buildings. Age, decay, and neglect combine with natural factors in a complex set of threats to the long-term preservation of this historic old town*

*Frank Herbst, Cuba - Handbuch für individuelles Reisen, Reise Know-How Verlag 2006

City of Contrasts

16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $1800 (plus shipping and handling)
Prints are also available
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Havana is one of the most beautiful and architecturally diverse cities in the world. Its architecture mirrors its rich social and political history from the graceful colonial and baroque period to modern brutal tower blocks.

The 1940s and '50s were the heyday of "modernism" in Havana. Edifices such as the Riviera Hotel, the Focsa Building and scores of apartment complexes represent the booming economy and foreign influences of the time.

In part, due to economic difficulties created during the Castro regime, a great many of buildings in the modern style remain untouched, ravaged by time, and accompanying in near ruin classic buildings of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Pretty in Pink

16" x 20" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Collection of Mark and Marsha Werther

As with most business in Cuba, taxi transportation has been under the control of the Communist government since the revolution in 1959. However, in September of 2009, Cuba's government began to issue permits to legalize old cars, many of which were used as black-market taxis.

The "private" taxis were meant to help alleviate the chronic transportation problems in Havana, where many people have had to hitchhike to work, and in the countryside where entire families were forced to wait by the highway for hours for transportation from one town to another.

The licenses give drivers the right to ferry fellow Cubans, but not foreigners. The taxi in the painting, waiting at the Hotel Nacional for a fare, is part of the government run fleet.

Neglect

24" a 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Owned by Pennsylvania Trust
Prints are available.




 
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 "Chunks of Havana’s rich and eclectic architectural history tumble to the ground every few days, piece by piece, forever lost in the rubble," wrote Ray Sanchez of the Havana Bureau of the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale Florida.

"Neo-Baroque and Art Deco treasures deteriorate at an alarming rate. Every three days, there are two partial or total building collapses in Central Havana alone."

"Buildings are standing by sheer luck," said architect Jose Antonio Choy, president of a Cuban nonprofit organization devoted to the conservation of Havana's modern architecture.”
In September 2008, after Hurricane Ike's lethal 41-hour odyssey across much of the island, authorities reported 67 buildings collapsed in the densely populated capital — 60 partially, seven destroyed.

Experts say a combination of age, decay, neglect and the elements threatens important 19th century neoclassical villas and Spanish colonial mansions, along with some of the world's finest examples of 20th-century architecture — Art Deco palaces from the 1930s and modernist structures from the 1950s.
“Many buildings will be totally lost in 10 years,” said Orestes del Castillo, a retired architect and restoration expert with the office of the city historian.

According to Nicholas Quintana, a Cuban-born professor of architecture at Florida International University, "Time is the biggest enemy."

"Neither the state nor the people have the money for repairs," said leading Cuban architect Mario Coyula.
"We know the country has economic problems … but something has to be done," Choy said. "Cuba as a nation is losing an important part of its memory.”

The Ghosts of Havana

24" a 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $4500 (plus shipping and handling)
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During World War II, mobster and murderer Lucky Luciana helped secure the ports in New York Harbor, which helped stop the bombing of U.S. ships by the Germans. As a reward, he was released from prison in the U.S., but then was soon extradited to Italy.

Partnering with his childhood chum, Meyer Lansky, Luciana who had lived his whole life in America was instrumental in paving the wave for the mafia to build a stronghold in Cuba, only 90 miles from the Florida.

In 1946, Frank Sinatra was enlisted by Lansky to surreptitiously bring $1 million to Havana to provide a payoff to officials to secure the sanctions necessary to begin building the underworld empire that would include hotels, casinos, restaurants and theatres.

The Payret Theatre, located across from the Presidential Palace in Old Havana, was built in 1878 and restored in 1951. It is the place where Cuban’s experienced the first Cinemascope movie, The Robe, which opened there in 1953.

Many international celebrities, such as French chanteuse Josephine Baker entertained in Havana during the 40s and 50s, and stars such as George Raft, who owned a stake in the Capri Hotel, welcomed guests to parties where cocaine, sex and gambling were offered. Writer Ernest Hemmingway made his home just outside Havana. It was the place where he wrote his final book, “The Old Man and the Sea.”

The person who may have profited the most from government corruption was Cuban President Fulgencio Batista who amassed a personal fortune which he took with him when he was forced to flee by when a Revolutionary army, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, took over Cuba on January 1, 1959.

Since the embargo against Cuba, Havana remains “stuck in time,” and whereas most American movie houses have converted to multiplex use, The Payret remains virtually unchanged, a single screen theatre showing both foreign films and American films.

A Man and a Woman

24" a 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
Price: $3800 (plus shipping and handling)
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“(Cuba) is an island whose turbulant history is run through with the foremost issues of the twentieth century: decolonization, the search for national identity, wars of independence and revolution, new political utopias, the confrontation of East-West and North-South ideologies.....issues that are part of our shared histrory,” writes Nathalie Bondil, Director of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in her introduction to the book Cuba Art and History from 1868 to Today.

In Havana, political art shares the stage with visual creations proclaiming the rich, emotional heritage of it’s people. The scene at a transit stop along the Paseo de Marti, the main boulevard through Old Havana, epitomizes the relationship between art, the city’s crumbling infrastructure, and the normal, everyday lives of the population.

As visitors walking through the Old City, we were always on the lookout for sections of falling facade, rusted-through grates, broken curbs, and divits in the pavement, while everywhere we looked there was the counterpoint between beautiful architecture and patinas and decay.

Keepin' It Running

24" x 35" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2009©
SOLD
Owned by Pennsylvania Trust
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American cars from the late 1940s to the eve of the revolution in 1959 fill Havana’s streets. Many are used as taxis, and others for daily travel by the citizens of Cuba. Private enterprise does exist, and his often overlooked, but entrepreneurs are heavily taxed for the privilege by the Communist regime. The 1957 Chevy in the painting is better preserved than most. It may be due to the owner’s interest in the business shown at the left that refurbishes furniture for government buildings. Much of Old Havana is crumbling, and many of the elegant buildings that line the streets of the city may soon turn to ruin (like the building in the painting at right). Pavements are broken, grates rusted through, and much of the infrastructure fragile, and through it all the people endure, with a hope for the time when their government makes it possible for America to embrace their small island country.

Private Property

24" x 34" - Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©

Price: $3700 (plus shipping & handling)

The system of color coding of license plates in Cuba, was copied from the former Soviet Union, to help authorities keep tabs on people and their vehicles. The government owns most cars which have blue plates and letters that indicate when and where the vehicles can operate and whether the driver can use it for personal use as well as professional reasons.Executives at government-run firms get caramel-colored plates. Military vehicles have mint green, rear only plates; Interior Ministry cars (like that of the Castros) sport olive green plates; and black plates are reserved for diplomats.

Most of the half-century-old American vehicles that help give Cuba its retro atmosphere are owned privately, and are driven as taxis and for private use, have yellow-orange tags. The Oldsmobile in my painting is one of these, and the driver is waiting for a fare across from the home of Raul Castro in the center of Old Havana.

Lafayette Restaurant & Bar

24" x 34" - Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Collection of Richardson T. Merriman
Prints available.

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My father in the 1930s, and my wife's father, in later years, both frequented Cuba. It was an open city, run by the mafia and corrupt political powers, and it attracted everyone from school teachers to movie stars.

The Lafayette Restaurant sign, strung across a small street near the Havana Cathedral is reminiscent of those times when any naughty pleasure could be bought in Havana from sex, to drugs, to gambling.

Gambling is prohibited in Havana today, and illegal drug trafficking is a major offense, but cigars still provide an overriding scent wherever you go, and rum is enjoyed in daiquiris and majito cocktails throughout the country.

Disappointment

24" x 36" - Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Owned by Mr. Chris Hall
Prints also available

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This painting shows school children in Havana at their lunch break. They are wearing the official government insignia on their shirts and blouses.

Following the 1959 revolution, the Castro government nationalized and banned private-owned institutions, and created a system operated entirely by the Communist government. Education expenditures continue to receive high priority. Nevertheless, the economic upheaval after 1991, known as the "Special Period," strained Cuba's long-standing efforts to ensure access to quality educational services. Strong ideological content is present. The constitution states that educational and cultural policy is based on Marxist ideology.

Washday Madonna

44" x 38" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2010©
SOLD
Collection of Richardson T. Merriman
Prints also available are available.
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Up and down the streets of Old Havana, wash can be seen strung across balconies. The weather is conducive for quick drying, and dryers are too expensive for most to purchase.

Cuba has a dual economy, with two distinct systems operating side by side. The socialist peso economy applies to most Cubans, providing them with free education, free health care, universal employment, unemployment compensation, disability and retirement benefits and the basis necessities of life: food, housing, utilities and some entertainment at very low cost. The free-market dollarized economy operates in the tourist, international and export sectors, and substantially sustains the socialist economy.

Cuba: America's Prodigal Son

24" x 36" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2009©
Collection of Leslie Wheeler

Soon after the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1959, an armed revolt led by Fidel Castro, overthrew the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista of Cuba.

The movement that began in 1953, led to a commercial, economic and financial embargo that began in October 1960 and exists to this day, and which limits U.S. travel to the island nation.

In November 2009, Radnor, PA artist George H. Rothacker, traveled to Havana with his wife Barbara and two friends with the purpose of painting the city as it looks 50 years after the revolution.

“It is a beautiful city stuck in time,” commented George. “The people are friendly and the environment safe. But many of the great buildings continue to decay, and much of the city is impoverished.”

Through fall, 2011, George intends to paint the people, buildings and cars of Havana. “After the embargo, no new American cars were imported into the country, and today, cars from the late ‘40s through the 1950s serve as taxis and for personal transportation for many in Cuba. We were told by a guide that the Cubans are good mechanics, and manufacture many of their own parts for their vehicles, so the cars are a testimony to the emotional connection the Cuban people retain with the U.S., their hope that the embargo will soon end, and that relations with our country are restored.”

In April, 2009, despite overwhelming disfavor opinions of Fidel Castro, a CNN Opinion Research corporation poll showed that 64% of Americans surveyed believe that the U.S. should lift its travel ban on Cuba, while 71% think the U.S. should reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba.

The Sea Wall

34" x 34" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2009©
Price: $4200 (plus shipping and handling)
Prints are also available. Please contact george@rothackeradv.com

El Malecon, the boulevard along the ocean in Havana, was conceived soon after Cuba was conquered by the U.S. It was completed in the 1920s and wraps around the city from the historical areas through the newer sections of the city and into Miramar.

We visited Havana while Hurricane Ida was finding its way along the U.S. coastline. The skies were mostly cloudy throughout our stay, and during a walk along the boulevard from Old Havana, waves continued to crash violently against the sea wall and into the street.

Much of the ocean front property along El Malecon, from the Old City to the newer sections, is abandoned and in ruin. The beautiful and decorative facades are crumbling from the salt sea sprays and the general decay of the infrastructure. The boulevard and its sidewalks are broken, and scaffoldings are used mainly to shore up buildings rather than for the purpose of renewal. Between ruins, you may find a small church, museum, or restaurant housed in a tent.

Many Cubans fish at the Malecon to catch their daily dinner for the night, and in quieter moments, young people play games between the rocks and attempt to climb the sea wall.

View from the Hotel Nacional

8" x 10" Acrylic on Canvas
George Rothacker, 2009©
Collection of JoAnne Fredericks

 Please contact george@rothackeradv.com

Since Hurricane Ida was storming the coastline of the U.S. throughout our visit to Havana, most days were gray and windy…and sometimes stormy. The sky cleared on Tuesday afternoon, and I painted this view from the terrace of the hotel that overlooks the seawall. The staff of the hotel was friendly and interested in the painting process, returning often with others to view the plein air progress.

Hotel Nacional

14" x 11" Acrylic on Canvas
George H. Rothacker, 2009©
Collection of Irving Gerber
Prints are also available. Please contact
george@rothackeradv.com

The Hotel Nacional is a national landmark in Cuba, It was opened in 1930 and was restored in 1992, preserving all of the splendor of its eclectic architecture, a mixture of Art Deco and modern influences of its time.
Though it rained, or was cloudy, throughout our Cuban holiday, I ventured out to the lawn in the rear of the hotel to paint one of the iconic towers of the famed hotel. A waiter brought me a chair and a table from which to work. Then it began to rain, and I settled on the stoop of the outdoor restaurant nearby. Though I couldn’t view the hotel from this position, I was able to paint the palm and the trees from that angle. I group of tourists were having lunch while I painted, and their guide said that since my legs were out beyond the stoop, a Japanese tourist named me, “The Painter with the Wet Legs.”