cuban revolutionary posters (1960's-1970's)

 May Day. All with Fidel on the Square of the Revolution, CTC, 1964

Even as revolutions have lost the appeal they used to have in the 1960’s, one can still say that the Cuban Revolution was extremely popular all over the world. In fact, one can compare the Revolution to Pop art. They are both mass-driven movements.  The new communist ideology considered advertising a sort of "Capitalist tool" for commercialization, a perverse form of Capitalist "brainwashing."

In Cuba in the early 1960's propaganda was yet to find a true voice. But let’s go back a little. In 1959 the ICAIC: The Cuban Institute for Cinematographic Art and Industry and La Casa de las Américas (House of the Americas were founded). By 1961 the Government eliminated ads in radio, television and the press. Aesthetic prejudices and strong debates also occurred, but design succeeded in general in imposing its freedom of expression and the creators were respected. The Revolution brought a profound transformation of Cuban society. Social communication was deeply affected by these changes and graphic design becomes the ideal medium for propaganda.

Since the mid '60s, the ICAIC posters had the same format (52 x 76 cm) and technique (serigraphy) plus a group of prolific creators (Bachs, Azcuy, Ñiko and Reboiro being the leading ones), which contributed to make them a consistent group of promotional graphics that remained in existence for several decades.

Umberto Peña, Piiii, 1968.

Umberto Peña is an important artist who maintained links with Casa for more than twenty years, in a creator-entity relationship that may be considered one of the most fruitful in the history of Cuban design, perhaps only to be compared with that of Eduardo Muñoz Bachs and his posters with ICAIC. With the large number of media designed by him, Peña contributed to Casa de las Américas what today we would call a corporative visual identity.

E. Muñoz Bachs, Mobile cinema, 1969

R. Martínez, Lucia, 1968

Oliva, Sao Paulo sociedad anónima, ICAIC, 1966

Bachs? Cerro pelado, ICAIC, 1966

Antonio Reboiro, Julieta de los espíritus, ICAIC, 1967

At its highest point the printing industry reached annual figures of 700 titles and 50 million copies, in a country with a population of around 7 million. The number of newspapers had decreased but the magazines proliferated and the new publishing houses created a varied range of book collections. The poster production shot up tremendously, with the largest part in terms of figures concentrated in three entities: ICAIC, COR and CNC, that is, film, political propaganda and cultural promotion posters (excluding movies).

These political posters presented the idea in novel forms. Either assimilating autoctonous forms as in the anonymous poster below:

International week of solidarity with Africa, 1968, OSPAAL

Felix Beltrán, Freedom for Angela Davis, 1971

 
Or as in this vulture-like Nixon, with an obvious influence of Jan Lenika:
 

René Mederos, Nixon,  OSPAAAL, 1971

By way of example it can be said that when ICAIC celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1979, an exhibition was organized with the impressive title 1000 Cuban Film Posters (oddly, the most represented years were the final ones of the 65-75 decade: 1974 with 171 pieces and 1975 with 125; as to the authors, 284 posters by Eduardo Muñoz Bachs were selected). In lack of advertising, there was an increase of public welfare campaigns in which new media such as city billboards and portfolios remarkably grew in importance.

Raúl Martínez for ICAIC, 1968

Although for many years Cuba was an isolated country and the change that took place in these years had endogenous foundations, external influences should not be ignored. In 1964 Tadeusz Jodlowski, professor at the Higher Academy of Fine Arts of Warsaw traveled to Cuba to give a course to the CNC designers. This first direct meeting with the Polish school of design –so different from the U.S. aesthetic codes in vogue in Cuba since the ‘50s– was useful for the young local creators.

Elena Serrano, Che, 1967

What are the influences of the Cuban poster?

Fangor Wojciech, Bezkresne horyzonty, Horizons sans fin, 1958

 Franciszek Starowieyski, Kochanek, Lekki bol, Harold Pinter, 1970

Thomas Swierzy, Jimi Hendrix, 1973

Wes Wilson, mid 1960's

Umberto Peña, Damas, 1966

Alfredo Rostgaard, Cimarron, ICAIC, 1969

Clary (Clara García), Las secretas intenciones, ICAIC, 1970

Bachs, Dos almas en pugna, ICAIC, 1973

 Raul Martinez, Fidel, ICAIC, 1968

Luis Vega, El dominio del fuego, OSPAAL, 1972

Bachs, Siete novias para un soldado, ICAIC, 1973

Bachs, Cines móviles en la escuela rural, ICAIC, 1973

René Azcuy, Besos robados, ICAIC, 1970

our final exam is december 13!

the 2000s it's not what you look @ that matters, it's what you see

Stephan Sagmeister, 2008 

your turn no. 10

Starowieyski's Czerwona Magia, 1970s

Anything to say about the polish poster? Pick your favorite, go ahead,

Jan Sawka

Mr. Sawka studied art, printmaking and architecture during a period of political ferment throughout Eastern Europe, including the widespread student protests throughout Poland in 1968 that set off a brutal government crackdown on dissidents.

His poster designs for avant-garde theater groups became well known for their wordplay and their deadpan style, in which symbols of protest were often stitched into the graphics.

By the mid-'70s, foreign art critics had begun noticing the black humor in his work and raving about his subtle style of anti-authoritarianism.

what's the Sawka's secret?

1- go against the grain (political, social),
2- use hand held typeface,
3- the image says it all,
4- humor drives the design,

Awards: 1975 Oscar de la Peinture in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France for painting and the Gold Medal at the 1978 Warsaw Poster Biennial. In 1981, when martial law was imposed in Poland, the AFL-CIO sponsored a bipartisan fundraiser that sold Sawka's Solidarity poster in the millions to provide immediate support to the besieged Solidarity movement. In 1989, Sawka designed a 10-story tall set for The Grateful Dead's 25th Anniversary tour. In 1993, he created his first full multi-media spectacle, "The Eyes" in Japan. This was the beginning of his collaboration with Japanese studios and corporations, which includes the creation of high-tech interactive sculptures and monumental installations, as well as designs for full-scale monumental architecture. Sawka designed "The Tower of Light Cultural Complex" for Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., presented to the Royal Family in 1996.

Mieczysław Szczuka

Teresa Żarnower (1895-1950) was Mieczysław Szczuka’s partner in both life and art. She belonged to the interwar period with its constructivist avant-garde environment and is considered a pioneer of this trend in Poland. She was a co-creator of the magazine Blok. 

In her posters and photomontages she combined her political engagement and picks of the avant-garde. Żarnower also designed covers for left-wing publications, including Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Poems (1927), which remains a classical example of modern cover design. She combined the author’s photograph with vertical and horizontal divisions. Żarnower’s most recognised poster is probably the parliamentary election campaign poster designed for Worker-Peasant Unity (1928), which shows the punishing fist of the workers’ society hitting the wall of a prison.

Before the era of globalized entertainment made movie posters look the same in every country, Polish artists were creating their own versions for the internal market

Jan Lenica The Deadly Invention, 1958

your turn no.9

Anton Stankowski, 1967

Hi class.

Plenty to talk about. the International Topographic Swiss School (and its masters), Fortune magazine & pre LOGO, LOGO proper, (and its masters), Giusti, Stankowski, propaganda, advertising, Bass's design for film, Alvin Lustig, Cipe Pineles, Kula Robbins, Rockwell, Vargas...

go ahead,

steve jobs talks about paul rand's design for apple corporation

logo design (40 tips)

new heaven railroad deisgn, herbet mayer, 1954

here.

each logo has a history

the history of xerox. and all the changes merely reflect the development ton the company from the late 1940s analog beginnings to the iconic 1961 chermayeff and geismar logo to the 1994 landor pixelated "X," to xeros's present incarnation. the lesson is that no logo can take care of all the possible instantiations in the development of a company -that is, unless the company purposefully intends to keep that identity.  my favorite? C&G!

if you care for logo design history? check this site. 

Neo-Surrealism: Boris Hoppek's depiction of women: objectification or liberation?

Hoppek's latex-pussy project. Is it an expression of female objectification or liberation? there's objectification no doubt, but he's playing it too obviously, which makes for a calmer critique. what i'm saying is that hoppek is debating a male POV (what else, that's what he is) of what objectification is, but objectification was never defined by men, but by women. "felt" by women not by men.     

 assemblage above, Magritte-like

 a crueler Magrittean version

your turn No. 5

Otto Dix, War Cripples, New Objectivity, 1923

Dear class. After hours of careful work over the weekend preparing interesting legends for each image in your list for the midterm, my blog page froze and I lost the whole lot (I couln't believe I had not saved it). I have to do it again and will have it ready for this afternoon (Monday). In the meantime, this is the post for this week's class.

There is so much to talk about: Futurism, Synthetic Cubism, Suprematism, Constructivism, New Objectivity, New Typography, Dada... wow.

Pick your theme and stick to the idea of graphic design.  

your turn #4

                   The influence of Expressionism in American cinema, Lady from Shanghai, circa 1940s, Orson Wells.

Plenty to talk about last class.

First the personalities: Cheret, Beardsley, Mucha, McDonald,  Pizarro,  Schmidt- Rottluff, Paul Klee, Adolf Loos, etc.

Stylistic influences: the difference between Arts and Crafts and Victorian and the difference between the latter and Nouveau. The Viennese Secession, van de Velde, The Beggarstaffs, Gesamtkunstwerk, Werkbund, etc.

Your comments are getting better, keep it on.

your turn #3

 The Crystal Palace, 1854, (the symbol of Victorian design)

class: take a look at this link for typeface development from 15th to 19th century.

Let me summarize a bit: We had to move fast, so there is plenty to comment about typeface development: from Gutenberg to Jenson to Manutius, Griffo, Caslon, Baskerville, Didot (influenced by Baskerville), Bodoni, and Morris, etc. it's a very interesting story of design influenced by climate, language and culture, and by "culture" I mean religion, politics, ideas, etc. In the end you could see it as a struggle between north and south, Humanism, vs. Conservatism, Protestantism vs. Catholicism, etc.     

There are graphic design highlights: 1. newspapers, 2. magazines, 3. the advent of "community of interests" (gardening, mechanics, children's books, music printing, postcards), 4. 19th century posters: fairs, circus, night life in general, etc.  

In terms of technological development we had: the advent of photography and how it changes how culture sees itself: landscape photography, portraiture, natural science, war reportage, anthropology (Talbot's Pencil of Nature), etc.  

In terms of movement we briefly talked about Romanticism, Victorian design (by the way forgot to talk about this), Arts and Crafts (Ruskin, Morris, Crane), The Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood movement and (I owe you Decadence, Oscar Wilde and Art Nouveau).

I need the class to make comments (they constitute 20% of the final grade). Also, try to make your comments more relevant to what we're discussing.

your turn #1

another kind of mark in the flesh by artist Ilya Brezinski, via koikoikoi

dear class. we've covered thousands of years of history in our first class: pre-alphabet, cave marks, rock marks, alphabet, neolithic marks, cuneiform, hieroglyphics, the mark as physical (column, chair, wheel, etc), colossal marks, political, symbols from nature, from animals, various codexes... the point that anything is a mark.

either you can post your comment using a google account, open ID, or anonymously.

what is important is that after your comment you sign with your actual name as it appears on my roll.

there is really no blueprint for comments. say anything you want -as long as it relates with our first discussion. I'd advice that you write your comment in Word and then copy and paste it here, since sometimes after you click "post a comment" the comment may get lost.  

try to make your comment relevant. think about what you want to say. of course, you can go off an tangent -if you find it relevant. 

remember a minimum of 150 words. i will close this post next wednesday at 2pm.

go ahead!

class, please, don't forget your teacher evaluations!

your turn #8

(above the pitch of Saul Bass to ATT for its logo redesign -watch and learn)

there's plenty to discuss: Lubalin, symbol signage, Stankowski's metadesign, Swiss Topography Style, advertising, propaganda, Bass film title design, Alvin Lustig, pre logo, logo, the logo masters: Rand, Bass, Chermayeff & Geismar. 

go ahead,

your turn #7

alexander liberman, vogue, 1950

we took a sweep at graphic design in between the wars: the liberatyed woman of the roaring 20's, the suffragist backlash. the stars of european graphic design: a.m. cassandre, lester beal, joseph binder, agha, liberman, mcnight kauffer, piet zmart, herbert matter, alex brodovith, the design force of neoplasticism, surrealism in cinema, poster goes to war, normal rockwell, margaret bourke white's photos, public health design, informational analysis design, design reportage... 

a lot to process. pick your favorite. 

betty boop's minnie the moocher (1932)

your turn #6

Magritte, The Threatened Assassin, 1926

we had to go very fast, to cover thirty years of 20th century avant-garde:

deutscher werkbund, blue rider, expressionism (woodcut, film, graphic design, architecture), neue sachlichkeit circa 1926 (grosz, dix), cubism (analytic, synthetic, collage!), dada (political, metaphysic), futurism (music, graphic design, architecture), die neue typographie (tschichold), russian futurism, malevich geometric abstraction, russian constructivism (film, theater, architecture), rodchenko, lissitsky. BAUHAUS (pottery, architecture, textiles, theater, furniture, etc), surrealism (film, graphic design, photo).

keep in mid graphic design,

go ahead.

sorry, forgot about Jan Tschichold

Tschichold's background is in calligraphy, which sets him apart from almost all other noted typographers of the time (since many of them were architects). he became a leading advocate of modernist design: first with an influential 1925 magazine supplement; then a 1927 personal exhibition; then with his most noted work Die neue Typographie. 

1- tschichold condemned all fonts except sans-serif (called 'Grotesk' in Germany). 
2- non-centered design (e.g., on title pages.
3- standardized paper sizes for all printed matter, and
4- effective use of different sizes and weights of type in order to quickly and easily convey information.

"I will reveal to you with words that are simple" -- Mayakovsky

As they say,"the incident is closed."

The love boat wrecked by daily life.
I'm all even with life and nothing would be gained by listing
mutual hurts, troubles, and insults.. . . .
Don't think I'm a coward. Seriously, it could not be helped (Mayakovsky's suicide note).