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-taught. She worked in bronze, marble and tile. "Rhythm, movement, grace, refinement and elegance are some of the qualities that define the organic quality of the pieces created by this artist." Influenced by Art Deco, Longa created works that have become symbols of the environment to which they belong. Her "Los Venados" (1947), depicting a family of deer, stands at  the entrance to the Havana Zoo. The marble "Ballerina" (1950) presides over the entrance of the internationally known Tropicana Cabaret Club. A bronze sculpture of the Indian chief Hatuey (1953) became the symbol of Hatuey beer found all over Cuba. Perhaps Longa's best known work is her modernist sculpture "Shape, Space and Light" (1953), positioned at the main entrance of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. Las Tunas “City of Sculpture”. On the initiative of Rita Longa, the city, Las Tunas, in southeast Cuba, which she considered her second home, erected more than 125 public works of  art. Her bronze statue of Jose Marti, the "Apostle of Cuban Independence", situated in the plaza bearing his name, doubles as a solar clock. She also has works all over Havana—at the National Zoo (“Family Group”), the Colón Cemetery, the Museum of Fine Arts (Shape, Space and Light), the Surgical Medical Center, the Payret Theater ("The Muses" and "Illusion"), Havana Libre Hotel (Clepsydra), and the garden of National Theater ("Death of the Swan"). Other countries also hold some of her works like Madrid, Spain (an engraving of Jose Marti) and Belgrade, Serbia ("Gema") Taino Indian village. The sculptor often  visited the Zapata Peninsula home of the Taino, Cuba's indigenous people. Fascinated by their culture, she created 25 life-size sculptures from marble dust and concrete depicting their daily life. The works are now scattered about a reconstructed Taino village in Guama that she designed with architect Mario Girona. One of these sculptures of indigenous leader Hatuey has become iconic and symbolic of a beer brand of the same name