Cuban Cigars, Culture & Lifestyle: Taller Experimental de Grafica (Havana)

Jutting out from the side of the Plaza de La Catedral is a little dead end street called "Callejon del Chorro". Right at the very end of the street is the "Taller Experimental de Grafica". It was founded in 1962 with the support of Che Guevara (minister of industry at the time). It attracts many young artists & has become a meeting place for people in the arts. It's a workshop dedicating itself to the art of printmaking and one of the most important of it's kind. It uses old printmaking techniques and produces some of the most important works of art in Havana. Limited numbers of each print are made and some of the pieces are quite racy taking jabs at the current political situation in Cuba. I was actually surprised at some of the content that was allowed. There are a whole bunch of pictures hanging on walls as soon as you walk in & you can see the presses a little further down. The prices should be marked, they're fairly reasonable, if you wish to buy. I've read that they offer classes in engraving which in a month allows you to produce your own engraving plus copies for about 250cuc...I don't know if this still goes on. There's also a little gallery upstairs that offers pieces for the not so touristy tourist.
Printmaking in Cuba started in the 18th century and expanded in the 19th century with illustrations of sugar mills and cigar paraphernalia. After the last revolution in 1959, printmaking was introduced as a subject in art school and became a specialty in itself. When this shop opened it used the old printing stones and machines that were once utilized for the making of the decorations for cigar boxes. It's solely concentrated on artistic projects with contributions from some of the most important artists of the time.
You don't need to go out of your way to visit this place but if you come to see the Plaza de La Catedral it's worth a moment to poke your head inside and walk around, nobody bothers you and there's no high pressure selling going on here. The day I visited for this Blog Post there was an exhibit featuring a Photographer-Grafic Artist by the name of Xavier Llovet Gonzalez. He must be a local boy because there is no information about him on the internet. Besides showing this artists photographs, renditions of those fotos were also on display featuring well known Cuban artists using their own styles and techniques, most of which, superimposed over top of them.

Callejón del Chorro No 6
Habana Vieja
+53 7 862 0979
Hours: 9:30am-4pm Mon-Fri
Admission: No Charge