To our collector, interior designer and eBay friends worldwide:

The Cuban Poster Gallery in Washington D.C. is offering a huge selection of handmade Cuban silk-screen movie posters, many of which work beautifully well together. To view all of the posters, please visit our eBay Store, where new listings are regularly being posted in both the Auction and Buy It Now/Best Offer formats. Visit us at stores.ebay.com/CubanPosterGallery

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Our regular price for this poster is $249   Here we are offering an iconic, hard-to-find Cuban silk-screen movie poster created for SOY CUBA ("I AM CUBA"), a famed 1964 Cuban-Soviet documentary that can easily be found on DVD. See brief description of the film below. 

This poster was designed by the acclaimed Cuban painter Rene Portocarrero (1912-1985), a world-renowned artist whose works have been sold by prestigious auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's. Portocarrero made only a handful of posters in his storied career. This is the most famous of Portocarrero's posters.

This handmade 20 by 30 inch poster (a standard size, so easy and inexpensive to frame) was silk-screened in the Cuban Film Institute's workshop in Havana in the past 20 years, some years after the original poster and documentary first appeared. A word about Cuban silk-screens: Once the 1st Editions are sold, the Cuban Film Institute will sometimes (not always) make a relatively small number of official 2nd Editions in the same silk-screen workshop, using the same handmade, one-color-at-a-time techniques. Beware of cheap, photocopied, mass-produced reproduction "Cuban posters" made in the U.S. that lack the authenticity of the true Cuban silk-screens.

Overall condition of this poster is good with some wrinkles on the white border. The main image of this famous graphic is in very good condition. The file photo we have posted is representative of the condition of the main image with its vibrant colors but does not show the wrinkles in the white border. Buy with 100 percent confidence; posters purchased on eBay from the Cuban Poster Gallery can be returned for any reason within 30 days.

About shipping: Buyers with an address in the United States, your purchase will be shipped FREE by USPS Ground Advantage or UPS with delivery confirmation. For international buyers (outside of the United States), eBay will calculate the cost of shipping and any required Customs duties and taxes.

Brief summary of movie: This study of Cuba--partially written by renowned poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko--captures the island just before it made the transition to a post-revolutionary society. Moving from city to country and back again, I AM CUBA examines the various problems caused by political oppression as well as by great discrepancies in wealth and power. Beginning in Havana in the pre-Castro era, we see how foreigners contributed to the city's prostitution and poverty; this sequence features dreamy, hallucinogenic camera work that creates a feeling of unease and dislocation. Then, in glorious images of palm trees and fertile land, the film looks at the sugar cane fields in the countryside, and the difficulties faced by peasants working the land. Finally, back in the city again, leftist students battle the police and a corrupt government--and pay a high price for their rebellion. Source: Internet Movie Database

TITLE: SOY CUBA (I AM CUBA), designed for a 1964 Cuban-Russian documentary.

DESIGNER: Rene Portocarrero (1912-1985)

MEDIUM: Silk-screen / Serigraph

SIZE: 20 x 30 inches; 51 x 76 cm

ORIGIN: the ICAIC (Cuban Film Institute) silk-screen workshop in Havana, Cuba

A few words about collecting Cuba's silk-screen movie posters:

For more than 60 years, the Cuban Film Institute has been designing silk-screened posters for most every movie shown on the island, whether the films originated in Cuba, the United States, Brazil, Japan or Italy. In the midst of the Cold War 1960s and 1970s, many of the subtitled foreign films shown in Cuba came from the island nation's communist allies in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Vietnam and even North Korea.

Unlike in the United States, where movie posters are often dominated by images of Hollywood stars, the Cubans assign a graphic artist to design an original piece of artwork for each film. These posters are widely recognized in graphic design circles as stylish works of art, handmade one color at a time and often under difficult circumstances (at various times, paint and even paper have been in short supply on the island.)

Cuba's silk-screen movie posters are nothing less than museum pieces. Examples of Cuban poster art can be found in the permanent collections of museums across the globe from the Victoria & Albert in London to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as in prestigious institutions such as the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

Adding to their collectability, Cuba's movie posters are produced in relatively small numbers. Typically, a few hundred copies are made for each film, although the runs have been as low as 50. Responding to demand from collectors, the Cuban Film Institute has re-screened some of its more popular posters. That's why some posters created in the 1960s and 1970s began reappearing on the Caribbean island in the 1990s and 2000s.

Further adding to their collectability, many of Cuba's vintage posters are imperiled. Although a few hundred copies may have been screened originally, relatively few have survived, due to the island's wet and humid climate, insect infestation, inadequate storage facilities in Havana and improper handling in Cuba and elsewhere. To us, these survivors are rare beauties, even those with obvious flaws. We are proud to have rescued hundreds of posters from almost certain extinction by storing them in an air conditioned, acid-free environment.

We at the Cuban Poster Gallery offer both 1st and 2nd Edition posters to our customers on eBay and in our Washington D.C. gallery. We consider both to be collectible, and (in response to a question we often get) all of these posters were legally imported because the U.S. government exempts artwork from its economic embargo against Cuba. While the pricier originals are favored by some collectors, the re-screens are also collectible because they were made in the same Havana workshop as the originals. Note that we never sell unauthorized reproductions that have been cranked out in print shops in the U.S. and Europe.

To our eBay customers, we pledge to accurately describe the posters we list and price them fairly based on condition and scarcity. Have a question? Please don't hesitate to contact us.

To view more distinctive Cuban graphics, we invite you to visit the Cuban Poster Gallery's eBay Store: http://stores.ebay.com/cubanpostergallery