American artist paints giant mural at the National Aquarium of Cuba
HAVANA, Nov 7. The American plastic artist Robert Wyland created a giant mural in the National Aquarium of Cuba, as he shared on his Instagram profile.“My 103rd mural is finished and it features ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes art imitates life. I also painted with Shannon Paul Wiley and three young and talented artists from Cuba,” the painter wrote on his account on the social network.
Additionally, Wyland explained that the mural was completed in three days and features a giant blue Marlin and many of Cuba’s fish and corals. “More than 35 people came from all over the world to see me paint this mural and many of them say it is the best,” he added.
The piece was created on one of the walls of the National Aquarium and, as the artist stated, it pays tribute to the figure of the American writer Ernest Hemingway as a symbol of universal literature and for his strong relationship with the island.
Three artists belonging to the National Council of Plastic Arts (CNAP) participated in the creative process: Daniel Quirós, Yanet Frómeta and Luis Alberto Saldaña.
Regarding their participation, the acting president of the CNAP, Daneisy García, indicated that the presence of Cubans “gives way to new relations of unity between brother peoples.”
As Wyland expressed to the state agency Prensa Latina, his mural has no political motivation: “I have Cuban friends from there and here, this is the country where I want to make my mural and with it I wanted to bring something good to the world.”
He further confessed that he has been “an artist since I was four years old and was inspired by one of the great marine biologists and scientists, Jacques Cousteau, who instilled in me the love to bring this message of conservation to everyone.”
Robert Wyland is a painter, sculptor, writer, photographer, philanthropist and filmmaker. According to his website, he “captured the imagination of people around the world by completing more than one hundred monumental marine life murals around the world between 1981 and 2008.”
Born in Detroit, the artist has been hailed as ‘Miguel Ángel Marino’ by the American media USA Today and recognized for his art and conservation efforts by the United Nations and in his country’s Congress.
He holds a Guinness World Record for the largest mural ever painted, thanks to his piece about the ocean at the Long Beach, California, convention center.
However, several years later, in recognition of Earth Day, he doubled the size of that mural by completing the largest portrait of Earth in just 24 hours, according to information published on his website.
