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Alfredo González ROSTGAARD. A Retrospective: Cuban Revolutionary Posters |
| An accompanying catalog has a brief Rostgaard bio, an introduction by Sandra Levinson, an essay by David Kunzle, a leading historian and critic of Cuban posters, black and white reproductions of some of the posters in the show, and an inserted offset reproduction in color (10.75" x 16") of the 'La muerte de un burocrata' poster that is suitable for framing. The catalog is available for $10, including postage. 212.242.0559. |
Please
scroll down and click on poster images for enlarged view.
Alfredo
González ROSTGAARD was born May 10, 1943 in Guantánamo and lives in
Havana. His grandmother was Jamaican, his father Chinese-Dutch. He began
studying art in Santiago de Cuba at the age of 12 and although "Our
art history classes
didn't even deal with Picasso, we never went further than impressionism,"
he learned drawing, painting and sculpture at the school. He was 16 in 1959
when he finished studying, the same year the Cuban Revolution came to
power, and he quickly became involved in
the politics of the moment. He began working in 1963 as a cartoonist and
as artistic director of Mella, the Union of Young communists' magazine.
With graphic design he discovered a way to communicate directly with the
public -- starting with the humor of his caricatures, he then moved into
designing posters that were accepted by the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC),
many, like "El Quid," in the pop
style. The socio-political poster became important to Rostgaard: bored by
seeing so many of these posters done simply -- "a worker raising a left
powerful arm, with a small head -- while commercial products were publicized by high
quality posters, he and other young graphic designers in Cuba introduced
an exciting "indirect" language to Cuban poster art. |
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Starting in 1965, Rostgaard became the art editor of various publications, including Tricontinental, the magazine published by OSPAAAL (the Solidarity Organization of African, Asian and Latin American countries, headquartered in Havana). At OSPAAAL he created and directed the production of hundreds of political posters, many of which were folded inside each copy of the magazine. As a poster designer, Rostgaard benefited from the wide distribution of Cuban cultural work in the 1960s, when he did several important posters about Vietnam. After 1975 Rostgaard worked for UNEAc (the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists) and for the Cuban Book Institute. His work has been shown in more than 200 national and international group shows in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America as well as in the United States and he has had several one-man shows, including a retrospective of his work at casa de las Américas in 1997. |
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| He has received many prizes for his designs, including one at the First International Film Poster contest in cannes (1973) and a Gold Medal in the Third American Graphic Arts Biennial in cali, colombia (1976). In 1980 Poland gave him the Order of Polish culture medal, and in 1981 he received Cuba's most important cultural distinction. ID Magazine named Rostgaard one of the world's best graphic designers in 1998. In addition to his graphic design work, he has found great success making toys, objects and animals worked mostly in papier-mâché. His hands make perfectly constructed trucks and trains and automobiles and planes inspired by Japanese origami, he has also made some elaborate boxes whose interiors are based on Japanese stamps. Since 1988 he has taught graphic design both in Havana and in Mexico and served as the design editor of Revolución y cultura, the Ministry of culture's official publication. This is his first one-man show in the United States. | ||||
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Attention collectors!
click here for ROSTGAARD
posters for sale. The supply for each poster is limited, in some cases
there might be only one copy available. |
