To our collector, interior designer and eBay friends worldwide: In addition to this special graphic, 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 stores.ebay.com/CubanPosterGallery where new listings are regularly being posted in both the Auction and Buy It Now/Best Offer formats. The Cuban Poster Gallery appreciates your business!
OUR PRICE FOR THIS GRAPHIC IS $249
The Cuban Poster Gallery is delighted to offer X ALFONSO, an original, hand-signed, limited-edition graphic that was created to salute vinyl record album art and the music of this Latin Grammy Award-nominated Afro Cuban musician who has played a major role in the promotion of Cuban culture in Havana.
This strikingly beautiful graphic was created in 2016 and hand signed by Cuban graphic artist and clothing designer IDANIA DEL RIO, a pioneer in Cuba for opening perhaps the first private boutique on the island since the 1959 revolutionary. This bold and vivacious artist was chosen by the United States Embassy in Havana to participate in a business forum hosted by then-President Barack Obama during his historic March 2016 visit to the Cuban capital. Idania shared with Obama her experiences as a Cuban entrepreneur.
Only 100 copies of X ALFONSO were screen-printed in Havana as part of a 2016 series of graphics that paid tribute to some of Cuba's most celebrated musicians as well as the rich worldwide tradition of LP album cover art.
The graphic in this listing salutes a 2005 album by X ALFONSO titled Civilización (Civilization).
Each graphic in this hard-to-find Cuban art series was created in the approximate size of a vinyl record album. X ALFONSO measures about 14 by 14 inches (35 x 35 cm). The entire series, including the graphic in this listing, was displayed in a 2016 exhibition at the Fabrica del Arte Cubano (The Cuban Art Factory), a cutting-edge Havana nightspot and cultural center that was founded by X ALFONSO and that has gained worldwide fame. (We have listed other graphics from this series here on eBay.)
More about X ALFONSO: His powerful music fuses elements of rock, hip hop, jazz, Afro Cuban roots...y mucho mas. He has performed in concerts in Europe, North America, South Africa and the Caribbean. The United Nations has awarded him the title of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for his artistic work with children.
Overall condition of this graphic is good. As with most handmade Cuban graphics, small imperfections are possible. Buy with 100 percent confidence; graphics purchased from the Cuban Poster Gallery on eBay can be returned within 30 days.
Your original X ALFONSO graphic by IDANIA DEL RIO will be shipped FREE to U.S. addresses 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.
TITLE: X ALFONSO / CIVILIZACION
DESIGNER: IDANIA DEL RIO (born 1981)
MEDIUM: Screen-print / Serigraph
SIGNED: Yes, by the designer's hand
YEAR: 2016
SIZE: approximately 14 x 14 inches; 35 x 35 cm
ORIGIN: Havana, Cuba
A few words about collecting the Cuban silk-screen movie posters that we also offer in our eBay Store:
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, 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